I get advert tracking, I don’t get this…
Discussion
You look at an advert for something, you get more adverts. We know that.
Someone using you home IP looks for something, you start to get adverts for it was, etc etc.
Can someone tell me how the hell this works…
Can home last night and at the bottom of our road is a mobile tyre fitting van from a local company I had never heard of them and never seen an advert for them, I didn’t google them or anything like that, they were just literally parked down the road from my house.
Now I have just seen an advert for them on instagram…
How the f
k does that work?!?!
Someone using you home IP looks for something, you start to get adverts for it was, etc etc.
Can someone tell me how the hell this works…
Can home last night and at the bottom of our road is a mobile tyre fitting van from a local company I had never heard of them and never seen an advert for them, I didn’t google them or anything like that, they were just literally parked down the road from my house.
Now I have just seen an advert for them on instagram…
How the f
k does that work?!?!
Earlier today an advert appeared on Facebook for sweat shirts, hoodies and other clothing emblazoned with my slightly unusual surname. Some of the designs were quite well executed too. The only problem is I've never worn a hoodie and haven't pulled on a sweat shirt in 50 years - pity they weren't cosy cardigans...
dundarach said:
Inside that van are investigators, only you know why they're following you...
It's too late now to delete your history, I suggest setting fire to the house and faking your own death OP, it's the only way to be sure!
Good disguise, he had a trolley jack, van kitted out with tyre changing equipment, even a customer with a flat tyre.It's too late now to delete your history, I suggest setting fire to the house and faking your own death OP, it's the only way to be sure!
I'd take a guess that it's something to do with geolocation tracking.
Tyre fitter or their customer "checks in" to their social app and tags them "Got a flat tyre this morning, thankfully @superdupertyres were able to replace it on the driveway".
Meanwhile, there's a device (probably a phone) within your household which keeps tracking your geolocation and updates the social media mothership on a regular basis with your location.
Hey presto, the social media companies know that you were physically close to each other and can line up the advert as being probably more relevant to you than a tyre fitter based in Brisbane.
Tyre fitter or their customer "checks in" to their social app and tags them "Got a flat tyre this morning, thankfully @superdupertyres were able to replace it on the driveway".
Meanwhile, there's a device (probably a phone) within your household which keeps tracking your geolocation and updates the social media mothership on a regular basis with your location.
Hey presto, the social media companies know that you were physically close to each other and can line up the advert as being probably more relevant to you than a tyre fitter based in Brisbane.
Regarding medical costs with my elderly dogs (lab 8 and staffy 10 when I got them) I had free insurance for 3 months from the rehoming centre. Then I took out an insurance policy, but it had a 50% excess and cover only started at £2k of treatment. I took it for a while, but ended up self insuring as they said they would take 8 weeks to decide if they would cover a claim. We just take a pragmatic attitude to medical costs, a broken leg can be £5k and out of the question. To be honest if you are rehoming an elderly dog you are basically opening your wallet to your vet, who has no doubt been taken over by a conglomerate. Also think carefully about boarding costs if you go away, and end of life costs can be significant too. Having said this good on you for taking an older dog, very rewarding. #adoptnotshop
On a similar note, do our phones and devices listen in?
We were discussing something very specific a few weeks ago and I started getting adverts for it in the next few days.
Unless it read my mind then I can't see how it happened, although reading the above I supposed my wife could have searched.
And no it wasn't porn, but it was in that direction hence why the adverts stood out
We were discussing something very specific a few weeks ago and I started getting adverts for it in the next few days.
Unless it read my mind then I can't see how it happened, although reading the above I supposed my wife could have searched.
And no it wasn't porn, but it was in that direction hence why the adverts stood out
Targetted ads are very much a thing now, even your TV ads are treated in the same way. It wouldn't be difficult if you are already paying for google ads to have location based advertising, you effectively have a giant haroding (in the shape of your van) in a local area, you then get google to target that postcode/postcode area with your ads.
so subconsciously you see the van, then you see a google ad, next time you need a tyre changing you are (potentially) much more likely to think about using a mobile service.
so subconsciously you see the van, then you see a google ad, next time you need a tyre changing you are (potentially) much more likely to think about using a mobile service.
surveyor said:
Adds can be targeted by location. I doubt if the location of a van would drive the targeting, but perhaps that's how your neighbours found them? They are targeting your area.
They weren’t my neighbours, and judging by where they had parked I suspect they were driving by and got aPuncture and called these people to help.
It must be location driven, but it is nuts just how much they have on us, or more specifically, what we have given them.
Megaflow said:
They weren’t my neighbours, and judging by where they had parked I suspect they were driving by and got a
Puncture and called these people to help.
It must be location driven, but it is nuts just how much they have on us, or more specifically, what we have given them.
if you really want to understand what they have on you ask Google to send you their data, you will be astounded. People generally have no concept of just home much data and cross platform correlation data companies hold on you, and what is more how good they are at understanding and utilising that data.Puncture and called these people to help.
It must be location driven, but it is nuts just how much they have on us, or more specifically, what we have given them.
simon_harris said:
Targetted ads are very much a thing now, even your TV ads are treated in the same way. It wouldn't be difficult if you are already paying for google ads to have location based advertising, you effectively have a giant haroding (in the shape of your van) in a local area, you then get google to target that postcode/postcode area with your ads.
so subconsciously you see the van, then you see a google ad, next time you need a tyre changing you are (potentially) much more likely to think about using a mobile service.
But it's stupid targeting, as sso subconsciously you see the van, then you see a google ad, next time you need a tyre changing you are (potentially) much more likely to think about using a mobile service.
t as the targeting where they bombard you with adverts for whatever you've googled or the last thing you bought online.simon_harris said:
I'm not defending it 
Bar in mind that google often doesn't know if you've actually bought the item you have been browsing for which is why you still get ads even after you've completed your purchase.
If you used gmail as your contact address with the online retailer, then your 'receipt' mail will have been scraped by Google. There was a big debate over it when gmail was first released (Google were open about it) and people cared more about their privacy. Bar in mind that google often doesn't know if you've actually bought the item you have been browsing for which is why you still get ads even after you've completed your purchase.I was initially puzzled whenever my Youtube feed would start recommending me videos on how to use x,y,z that I'd just bought, before I made the obvious connection. Now I use an alternative email provider for all purchases.
I'm pretty sure they scrape things like Android notifications too as, for example, I regularly get YT recommendations related to podcasts I've listened to on my Andoid phone on 'Pocket Casts'.
I would imagine that web ads are also tailored to whatever Google has managed to scrape from your browsing but I've used an ad-blocker for years and also use Firefox containers for logins like Google, Facebook, X.
My big source of data leaks to Google are Youtube and the Android TV OS. It has completely replaced watching regular TV for me so they will be picking up all sorts of info from what I watch on YT and how I use my Android TV boxes. I can't see an easy way around that.
Also, worth turning on the location tracking report that they will send you every month. They really know everywhere you have been down to individual shops, pubs and restaurants.
Lucas Ayde said:
Loads of intersting stuff, then:
Also, worth turning on the location tracking report that they will send you every month. They really know everywhere you have been down to individual shops, pubs and restaurants.
How do you turn that on please. I use duckduckgo for most of my browsing, but use Google maps a lot and google on my iphone.Also, worth turning on the location tracking report that they will send you every month. They really know everywhere you have been down to individual shops, pubs and restaurants.
There are things you can do if you're worried....
If you have an Android phone (may also work for iPhone?) DuckDuckGo app/browser comes with the ability to block apps communicating with their host servers in the background and it's amazing how many trackers are embedded in apps and what data they collect. It can easily build up a very accurate fingerprint of your phone which is near as dammit unique in the world.
On your laptop if you use Chrome then you can run a selection of extensions to help manage privacy - Ghostery, Adblock, Cookie AutoDelete, UBlock Origin can all be run at the same time.
It's actually quite easy to turn off a lot of Google tracking, and delete any data they do hold. I forget exactly how, but search for how to do it (Google it, lol) and it's a few clicks in Settings or Account Privacy to stop email scraping, map tracking, advert personalisation etc.
If you have an Android phone (may also work for iPhone?) DuckDuckGo app/browser comes with the ability to block apps communicating with their host servers in the background and it's amazing how many trackers are embedded in apps and what data they collect. It can easily build up a very accurate fingerprint of your phone which is near as dammit unique in the world.
On your laptop if you use Chrome then you can run a selection of extensions to help manage privacy - Ghostery, Adblock, Cookie AutoDelete, UBlock Origin can all be run at the same time.
It's actually quite easy to turn off a lot of Google tracking, and delete any data they do hold. I forget exactly how, but search for how to do it (Google it, lol) and it's a few clicks in Settings or Account Privacy to stop email scraping, map tracking, advert personalisation etc.
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