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Ask HN: I bought Voltaren at the chemist, now Google shows me ads for it. Why?

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Re: Ask HN: I bought Voltaren at the chemist, now Google shows me ads for it. Why?

#181

Post by throwaway823882 »

baybal2 wrote: post #29

Opt out of VISA marketing https://marketingreportoptout.visa.com/OPTOUT/request.do Second, disable GPS, and cellphone tower ID reporting (root needed.) So Google can't correlate you with sales records. At the moment, there is no way to disable Google AGPS spying on the stock Android. Third, block Google apps from reading your IMEI/IMSI/serial number, so they can't get AGPS data from your cellphone provider if it sell…

Holy shit, what a great phishing tool. Send people an e-mail to opt out of Visa Marketing at a vaguely long/confusing URL and ask for their CC# and PIN. The fact that this site is real makes it more convincing.

Re: Ask HN: I bought Voltaren at the chemist, now Google shows me ads for it. Why?

#182

Post by AYBABTME »

pen2l wrote: post #159

Tangentially related, for the first time ever I saw Gmail losing its anti-spam game. We were doing some home-modeling and we went to Home Depot sometime early this month. And... some entity somehow discovered this. And then all of a sudden I started getting spam emails related to Home Depot's/home rebuilding. The spam emails successfully pass through gmail's filter because they seem to emanate from aol,gmail,hotmail,…

Google Maps is a huge vector most people don't think about.

Re: Ask HN: I bought Voltaren at the chemist, now Google shows me ads for it. Why?

#183

Post by hulitu »

55555 wrote: post #113
jeroenhd wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the dumbest ad strategy ever. Why on earth would ads about a product you just bought be effective marketing material. This is like how you get a million ads about dishwashers the day after you Google around and buy one. At least wait for a short duration of time to let the target run out of medicine before adversiting new stuff.

I used to think this, but people who just bought a dishwasher are probably somewhat likely to buy another dishwasher, even the same dishwasher, and there only needs to be a tiny fraction of a single percentage chance for it to be worth showing an ad impression.

And people who just bought a coffin are probably somewhat likely to buy another coffin.

Re: Ask HN: I bought Voltaren at the chemist, now Google shows me ads for it. Why?

#184

Post by sokoloff »

dr_dshiv wrote: post #179
sokoloff wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would I want to give the ad networks additional information and make their advertising more efficient? Given they exist, I’m perfectly okay with advertisers wasting money on badly targeted ads.

Because some things in life are win win. I actually prefer relevant ads vs irrelevant ads.

Me too, but I also prefer fewer ads over more ads. The more efficient we make ads, the more of them there will (virtually guaranteed) be.

Re: Ask HN: I bought Voltaren at the chemist, now Google shows me ads for it. Why?

#185

Post by ClumsyPilot »

washadjeffmad wrote: post #121
jeroenhd wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the dumbest ad strategy ever. Why on earth would ads about a product you just bought be effective marketing material. This is like how you get a million ads about dishwashers the day after you Google around and buy one. At least wait for a short duration of time to let the target run out of medicine before adversiting new stuff.

Many purchases are recurring consumables. Food, clothing, medicine, office supplies, car parts- none of it lasts forever. What does it cost to be reminded that you can buy more? Also, completely unrelatedly, if you saw some armchair internet rando claim they'd debunked a major and long-standing business strategy of market sector leader, how seriously would you take them?

I had a 2-4-1 offer on chainsaws sent to me.

Business is subject to fads and stupidies, we have proof that open officez are a net negative, yet businesses continue. We have proof that getting people to change passwords every month is bad for security, but its still policy in many places. We have proof that using basalt or stainless rebar in RCC is more cost effective in the long run, but bs still continues.

Re: Ask HN: I bought Voltaren at the chemist, now Google shows me ads for it. Why?

#186

Post by dkdk8283 »

The surveillance economy is too profitable for this to change any time soon.

Walmart is rolling out facial recognition across all their stores. Doesn’t matter if you pay cash. Pay with a card once and you’re identified.

I consulted for Axciom and the best way to avoid their reach is to move to a country with good privacy laws or to a country that’s too poor for these big companies to care about.

Re: Ask HN: I bought Voltaren at the chemist, now Google shows me ads for it. Why?

#187

Post by zaptrem »

duckfang wrote: post #174
sct202 wrote: post #67

In America, some stores seem to share rewards member information to product companies so they can target their ads on other platforms. For example, I paid for a very specific candy from CVS using my credit card, but used my partner's CVS rewards member number and they got ads on facebook for that candy while I haven't seen a thing.

Whenever places wantba phone number for ad and/or discount stuff, use: (Local area code) 867-5309 There's always an account, and it's a 100% gamble if this purchase you get something.

What’s the significance of this number?

Re: Ask HN: I bought Voltaren at the chemist, now Google shows me ads for it. Why?

#188

Post by murukesh_s »

alisonkisk wrote: post #106
ConceptJunkie wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they'll scan it for other reasons... I don't trust Google. They are evil.

What other reasons?

may be to build your profile (still not showing ads), but for potential future product like social network or video platform that will show you recommendations based on your profile.

Re: Ask HN: I bought Voltaren at the chemist, now Google shows me ads for it. Why?

#189

Post by klyrs »

dkdk8283 wrote: post #176
YeGoblynQueenne wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even better: flush your smartphone down the toilet. I mean, if you have to try and double-guess your phone to make sure it's not spying on you the game is lost. I don't even know what game that is. But it's lost.

Get a landline and answering machine. Receive only pager while on the go.

Pagers are rather famously unencrypted, and a hospital near you is almost certainly broadcasting personal and identifying information about patients right now, in the plain, and you can easily pick it up with an SDR.

Re: Ask HN: I bought Voltaren at the chemist, now Google shows me ads for it. Why?

#190

Post by pedrogpimenta »

dkdk8283 wrote: post #186

The surveillance economy is too profitable for this to change any time soon. Walmart is rolling out facial recognition across all their stores. Doesn’t matter if you pay cash. Pay with a card once and you’re identified. I consulted for Axciom and the best way to avoid their reach is to move to a country with good privacy laws or to a country that’s too poor for these big companies to care about.

Even if you don't pay by card... if they have facial recognition and someone has upload your photo on facebook, or you uploaded your photo on facebook 10 years ago when you were 14, then they already know who you are, probably better than yourself, even if you deleted that photo when you were 18.
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