You might have “googled” the term or a related term subconsciously some time before you’ve made the purchase. I do this all the time even when I’m purchasing things offline.
Ask HN: I bought Voltaren at the chemist, now Google shows me ads for it. Why?
21–30 of 494 posts
Re: Ask HN: I bought Voltaren at the chemist, now Google shows me ads for it. Why?
#22I think that Android phones can record stuff you say about marketings/ads purposes. Check if this happens for you here https://myactivity.google.com/myactivity?pli=1&product=29
Re: Ask HN: I bought Voltaren at the chemist, now Google shows me ads for it. Why?
#23Tangential: a while back I bought a very specific cheese from Lidl. And the very same evening I got a Lidl ad for that very cheese on Facebook. I have never signed up as a member, the only things that connect me to that place would be my credit card.
I did bring my Android phone that has got Messenger lite installed, but that's stretching it tbh.
Re: Ask HN: I bought Voltaren at the chemist, now Google shows me ads for it. Why?
#24Don't you use an adblocker? I could be being targeted with all sorts of stuff but I'd never know.
Adblocker stops you from seeing the ad but not from google deanonymizing and linking your transactions to your search. Also lots of websites these days require you to disable adblockers to function.
Re: Ask HN: I bought Voltaren at the chemist, now Google shows me ads for it. Why?
#25I think that usually these things are actually just a symptom of the fact we see hundreds of ads every day. Most of the time you don't consciously notice them but then, when they trigger some recognition, you do and it feels like a big coincidence - which I find almost as disturbing as the idea that they were somehow watching. The eerie feeling compounded by the fact that we are sometimes correctly targeted and there…
Also known as the frequency illusion. Like when you learn about a word for first time and then suddenly it seems like it's popping up everywhere.
Re: Ask HN: I bought Voltaren at the chemist, now Google shows me ads for it. Why?
#26I was seeing this happen in our household as well. For now, the only answer I have is using UBlock everywhere + having PiHole up and running. These two really go a long way for at least blocking the creepy ads, but I think we have passed the point of no return when it comes to preventing tracking itself. Everything is being tracked all the time by insanely advanced ad-tech.
Re: Ask HN: I bought Voltaren at the chemist, now Google shows me ads for it. Why?
#27It might be that you are just noticing the ads now that you bought the product. I read about similar observations recently. Might be a cousin of frequency illusion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_illusion?wprov=sfti1
I doubt Voltaren is advertised commonly enough that he got ads before.
I no longer have a Android phone, but too frequently I would buy something offline and have the item follow me - including impulse buys and things that I definitely didn't look for online.
It happened with things I would talk about as well on occasion. I joked in front of my phone about visiting Greece, and a few minutes later auto-suggest in Google offered me "How much.. [is plane tickets to Greece]"
Re: Ask HN: I bought Voltaren at the chemist, now Google shows me ads for it. Why?
#28It might be that you are just noticing the ads now that you bought the product. I read about similar observations recently. Might be a cousin of frequency illusion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_illusion?wprov=sfti1
It's been a few times now where I've talked with my wife about some new product (physically, in the room) and she starts seeing ads about it. I thought that was the explanation too, but it's happened too many times for comfort. I know my devices are (probably) not listening, but I can't explain it either. Neither of us searched for the product or saw it online or anything, we just discussed something and got ads abou…
> I know my devices are (probably) not listening, but I can't explain it either.
How do you know?
Re: Ask HN: I bought Voltaren at the chemist, now Google shows me ads for it. Why?
#29Opt 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 sells it.
Better, get a de-Googled ROM
Re: Ask HN: I bought Voltaren at the chemist, now Google shows me ads for it. Why?
#30It’s probably a coincidence or just the worst advertisers on the planet. Why would I show an ad to someone who literally just bought my thing?