Algorithms Are Learning More About You Than You Think

Alright, here’s a reality check that’s going to make you feel really uncomfortable.

You're casually browsing for a new pair of shoes, but what if I told you that the price you see might depend on how your day is going, or even the charge percentage on your phone?

Wild, right?

But it's not science fiction—it's happening right now.

I’ve been there too, caught in a situation where my Uber price shot up just because my phone was dying.

Seriously, I was in a German city, didn’t speak the native language, struggling to get a ride, and the app knew I was desperate and stressed.

The price kept going up as my battery percentage dropped.

Although Uber denies that they employ this practice, I’ve experienced it more than once.

It's a ruthless game these algorithms are playing, exploiting our desperation when we’re most vulnerable.

And guess what?

It’s not just Uber—this kind of manipulation is baked into most of the major online shopping experiences we trust.

Amazon, for example, allegedly changes prices millions of times per day, with the average product’s price shifting every 10 minutes.

From a philosophical angle, the idea of adjusting prices based on our moods and battery levels is a blatant attack on our autonomy—a core value in Kantian ethics.

It’s not just an invasion of privacy; it’s a direct challenge to our freedom to make choices without being secretly manipulated by unseen forces trying to nudge us in a certain direction (buying from them).

So, here’s the million-dollar question: If these apps know when to hike prices individually, what else are they doing behind the scenes?

Your Shopping Cart Is a Target

These sneaky algorithms are designed to pull every trick in the book to get you to spend more.

They’re not just tracking what you’re buying—they’re tracking your emotions, your urgency, and even your mood.

Yes, some companies are experimenting with changing prices based on your moods.

Imagine being bombarded with high-priced products every time you're feeling down because the algorithm knows that's when you're likely to splurge.

It's psychological warfare, and we’re the unwitting participants.

And it's not just about money—it’s about your mental health too.

Constantly being manipulated by these systems can lead to stress, anxiety, and a serious loss of trust in humanity.

It’s a nasty cycle that leaves us feeling more like targets than consumers.

The Broader Implications of Algorithmic Manipulation

The Dystopian Future of Shopping

Here’s the thing—these manipulative tactics aren't just a minor annoyance.

They contribute to bigger, systemic issues that are reshaping our economy and society.

When a few mega-corporations control what you see, what you buy, and even how much you pay, it squeezes out smaller businesses and gives us the illusion of choice.

The smaller businesses aren’t using these tactics on us.

What if one day your grocery bill shot up just because the algorithm knows your fridge is empty?

Creepy, right?

And in this case, it goes even deeper—into the most private corners of our emotional and psychological lives—flipping our vulnerabilities into profit-making opportunities.

These practices are also eroding consumer rights in a big way.

Your personal data, which SHOULD be private, is now weaponized against you.

Imagine if your health data was up for sale to the highest bidder—how safe would you feel then?

It's a slippery slope, leading to a future where every aspect of your life is manipulated for profit.

Privacy? What Privacy?

As these practices become the norm, our trust in the digital ecosystem plummets.

With every click, we’re feeding these algorithms more data, allowing them to invade our lives in increasingly invasive ways.

And the worst part?

Most of us don't even realize how deep this goes.

It's more than just targeted ads—it's a full-scale invasion of privacy, with our most personal moments exploited for a quick buck.

So, how do we stop this dystopian train wreck?

Take Control with Shopping Cart Hacktivism

The Secret Power of Wasting a Corporation's Money

Let me take you back to a few months ago when I stumbled across something that enraged me to my core.

I discovered that companies were selling women’s period tracking data to advertisers.

Why?

So they could target these women when they were most vulnerable hormonally, aka when they were more likely to spend.

It’s the same reason they target pregnant families—they know those are the golden geese, ready to drop a lot of money on anything that promises security, comfort, or convenience.

The thought of companies using our biology against us like that?

It made my blood boil.

I knew I had to do something, anything, to hit back.

Then came the celebrity blocking spree, and I saw a way to strike.

How the Celebrity Blocking Spree Gave Birth to a New Kind of Activism

A few months ago, people were blocking celebrities en masse, and I noticed some savvy marketers spilling the beans on how you could actually cost these celebrities—and their brands—real money.

Here's the deal: big brands spend a fortune on ads.

They analyze everything—who clicks, who buys, and who just browses.

When you engage with their content, you become part of their data-driven machine.

But if you block them or fuck with their analytics, you throw a wrench in their wholeeeeee system.

Marketers explained how this worked, using Kim Kardashian’s brand, Skims, as an example.

By blocking her and similar influencers, you starve them of the attention they need to keep the wheels of their ad campaigns turning.

This disrupts their retargeting budgets—the money set aside to show “interested customers” ads repeatedly until you finally cave in and buy something.

If enough people mess with these analytics, it screws up their data, leading to wasted ad spend and skewed marketing strategies.

Draining Celebrity Brand Marketing Budgets: A Simple Hack

If you want to take this a step further and really make an impact, here’s a quick tutorial on how to drain celebrity brands' marketing budgets and data poison their analytics:

Step 1: Visit Their Online Store

• Go to the celebrity’s brand website—think of brands like SKIMS, Good American, or Kylie Cosmetics.

Step 2: Fill Your Cart

• Pick random, expensive items. Add a mix of high-ticket and low ticket products to your cart. The goal is to look like a hot lead—a customer ready to drop serious cash.

Step 3: Proceed to Checkout

• Go through the checkout process as if you’re about to make the purchase. Fill in all the details until you reach the point where you’d normally enter your payment information.

Step 4: Abandon the Cart

• Here’s the key move: stop just before adding your card details. Instead of closing the browser tab, leave it open. This maintains the appearance that you're still considering the purchase, enhancing the illusion of a pending decision. This subtle change can make the system even more eager to win you back, increasing their retargeting efforts (aka spending LOTS of $$$).

Step 5: Watch the Retargeting Efforts

• Now, they’ll spend waste money trying to win you back. Expect to see ads following you around the internet, offering you discounts or nudges to complete your purchase. But since you’re uninterested, it’s all wasted money on their part.

Step 6: Rinse and Repeat

• Do this regularly, especially with other big brands tied to these influencers. The more you do it, the more money they waste chasing a sale that’s never going to happen.

This tactic not only drains their marketing budgets but also poisons their analytics.

They end up with skewed data, which leads to poor decision-making and wasted resources.

It’s a small act of rebellion, but if enough people do it, it can create a significant impact.

By disrupting their data and forcing them to spend money trying to retarget uninterested “customers” like you, you’re taking control of the narrative and showing these companies that their manipulative tactics won’t go unchallenged.

Then it hit me—if I could do this to celebrities, why not take it a step further?

Reverse Engineering the System

I started digging.

I wanted to figure out who gets the most ad money thrown at them and how I could make it work against the corporations.

And guess what?

Pregnant women and young families are prime targets—they’re seen as easy, profitable marks.

Companies spend more per capita on this group than any other.

So, I asked myself, how can I trick the algorithms into thinking I’m pregnant?

If they think I’m expecting, they’ll start bombarding me with really expensive ads.

By interacting with those ads—clicking on them, even abandoning carts filled with pricey baby gear—I could drain their budgets and mess with their data with a bigger impact.

It’s surprisingly easy to do.

Here’s how:

Step 1: Pretend to Be Pregnant Online (to the algorithm!)

• Search for Baby-Related Content: Start searching for baby names, browsing maternity websites, and clicking on ads for cribs, strollers, or any baby gear.

• Explore Parenting Blogs: Spend some time on parenting blogs or baby product reviews. The goal is to get the algorithm to think you’re in the market for these items.

• Watch Related Videos: Head over to YouTube or other platforms and watch videos related to pregnancy, childbirth, or baby product reviews. These actions feed the algorithm even more data.

Step 2: Fill Your Cart with Expensive Baby Gear and Abandon It

• Visit Major Retailers: Go to big online retailers that sell baby products—think Amazon, Target, Walmart.

• Add High-Ticket Items to Your Cart: Load up your cart with big-ticket items like cribs, car seats, and baby monitors.

• Get to the Checkout Stage: Move through the checkout process but stop just before entering your payment details. Leave the cart hanging.

What’s the result?

The company’s analytics system now thinks it has a hot lead—a potential customer ready to make a big purchase.

They’ll spend money trying to retarget you with ads, sending you emails, and even offering you discounts to complete your purchase.

But here’s the kicker: you won’t bite, and they’ll have wasted their money.

A Simple Act of Defiance with Big Impacts

When I started doing this, I noticed the targeted ads getting increasingly frantic, almost desperate.

It was clear my data poisoning was working.

And the more I saw those irrelevant ads, the more satisfied I felt knowing that I was costing these companies money—money they’d spend on more ads, more retargeting, and more failed attempts to get me to buy.

This isn’t just about messing with the system for fun.

It’s about taking the power back, about hitting these corporations where it hurts—right in their wallets.

You don’t have to spend money to vote with your wallet.

Sometimes, not spending is the most powerful move you can make.

So, are you ready to take the plunge?

It starts with just a few clicks, a few abandoned carts.

But if enough of us join in, we can create a movement—a movement that shows these companies we’re not just passive consumers.

We’re informed, and we’re ready to fight back.

Addressing Concerns and Misconceptions

“Does This Really Work?”

You might be thinking, “Can abandoning a shopping cart really make a difference?”

It’s a fair question.

The idea of disrupting a billion-dollar corporation with a few clicks seems too simple.

But here’s the truth: while one abandoned cart might not seem like much, when thousands of people do it, it sends a powerful message.

These companies rely on precise data to fine-tune their marketing strategies and predict consumer behavior.

When you and others start throwing off that data, it forces them to rethink their tactics and waste money in the process.

Remember, one of the underlying principles of cybersecurity is that we don’t get mad about a situation, we get ANNOYING af for the adversaries to deal with.

“Isn’t This Too Complicated?”

Another concern might be, “This sounds too complicated to bother with.”

But it’s actually easier than you think.

You don’t need to be a tech expert to make this work.

Start small—try abandoning just one cart.

Load it up with expensive items, go through the checkout process until you’re about to pay, and then leave it.

That’s it.

If thousands of us did this regularly, it would create a noticeable impact.

“What About Small Businesses?”

It’s important to be mindful of who we’re targeting.

This isn’t about hurting small businesses that are just trying to survive.

It’s about holding the big corporations accountable—the ones using invasive tactics to exploit us.

So, focus your hacktivism on the giants like Amazon, Walmart, and other large companies with massive marketing budgets.

Think of it as a moral code.

We’re going after the real bad guys here.

“How Can Businesses Defend Their Tactics?”

Some might argue that these companies are just playing by the rules, that it’s all part of doing business.

But let’s be honest: just because something is legal doesn’t make it ethical.

Exploiting our biology, manipulating our emotions, and invading our privacy to boost profits?

That’s crossing a line.

And it’s up to us to push back.

The Long-Term Vision

This isn’t just about causing short-term frustration for these corporations—it’s about taking a stand against a system that’s been rigged against us for too long.

Imagine a future where consumers regain control and our data is no longer exploited for profit.

Together, we can make a difference, one abandoned cart at a time.

So, are you ready to turn the tables?

Let’s show these corporations that we’re not just passive consumers.

At the end of the day, it’s not just about what they take from us—it’s about what we refuse to give.

Stay Curious,

Addie LaMarr