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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?

#241

Post by KingOfCoders »

jeroenhd wrote: post #107
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…

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.

Bought a cordless screwdriver at Amazon, now get lots of ads on Amazon for cordless screwdrivers. Bought a dishwasher, now get ads for dishwashers. Dumb I know (or I'm dumb because I don't get it)

Other comment explains it though: Many people return the dishwasher or screwdrivers (they might have ordered several) - Amazon wants to make sure you buy with them (though my account history should show that I practically never return things because I hate getting returned things as new).

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

#242

Post by Aransentin »

zubi wrote: post #203

March 2020, heydays of coronavirus paranoia. I came back home from somewhere, put my keys onto the dining table and went to the bathroom to clean up. My girlfriend, upon seeing the key-chain on the table started reproaching me for being careless about hygiene. When I returned from the bathroom I saw her washing the key-chain in the kitchen sink. This time I got angry and asked how come she hadn't thought that the usb…

Couldn't your girlfriend (or any other third party who overheard your conversation) have searched for memory stick water damage before you sat down and opened Facebook? It doesn't seem too strange to me that advertisers send targeted ads for a certain product to an entire household if they think somebody there might need it.

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

#243

Post by azornathogron »

kalamani wrote: post #198
durnygbur wrote: post #125

I say " " (turquoise skirt, hand truck) with iphone laying in radius 3m. Later on while browsing the internet with Safari on the device I see ads selling this product. Other than this, Whatsapp is scanning the conversations for keywords and brand names - there is no doubt even.

A few years back, I saw an online rumor, that I decided to try for myself. I left my (locked) iPhone 6 in front of a TV overnight, that was left on a Spanish channel. The next day, ALL of my Facebook ads, across all devices, were in Spanish — along with about 20% of the ads that I came across during regular web browsing. Took about a month for them to revert back to English. I do not speak Spanish. At the time, I liv…

Was it a smart TV? Is it possible that it's actually the TV that was snitching on you and not your iPhone (of course, it could be both of them!)

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

#244

Post by Spooky23 »

KaseKun wrote: post #210
zubi wrote: post #203

March 2020, heydays of coronavirus paranoia. I came back home from somewhere, put my keys onto the dining table and went to the bathroom to clean up. My girlfriend, upon seeing the key-chain on the table started reproaching me for being careless about hygiene. When I returned from the bathroom I saw her washing the key-chain in the kitchen sink. This time I got angry and asked how come she hadn't thought that the usb…

Unfortunately, though this is an excellent story, this is just an example of a bias known as "frequency illusion". It happens with a lot of things, like seeing the clock at 11:11 more than you do at 11:09. Or seeing lots of your make/model car but being blind to the hundred of other variants on the road. How many times have you opened up your laptop and not seen a Facebook add for something you just did, or something…

Most people don’t see completely irrelevant Facebook ads.

Frankly, Facebook and their proxies always speak in meaningless nonsense about everything. If you asked Zuck if he ate kittens, you’d get some reply about facebooks mission and why cats are important.

For some mysterious reason, all explanations for the “Facebook is listening” phenomenon are uniquely cogent, clear and dismissive.

Personally, I have zero doubt that a downstream “partner”, data provider, or affiliate is processing audio data of questionable origin for ad insights. Call center companies with tight margins do it, why wouldn’t an ad company?

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

#245

Post by chaitanya »

zubi wrote: post #203

March 2020, heydays of coronavirus paranoia. I came back home from somewhere, put my keys onto the dining table and went to the bathroom to clean up. My girlfriend, upon seeing the key-chain on the table started reproaching me for being careless about hygiene. When I returned from the bathroom I saw her washing the key-chain in the kitchen sink. This time I got angry and asked how come she hadn't thought that the usb…

Only plausible explanation I can think of is that perhaps you or your girlfriend looked something up about drying a wet memory stick.

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

#246

Post by pftburger »

AYBABTME wrote: post #182
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.

Seconded. Visited the dentist recently.

On my way I looked up directions in google maps, then for a week had dental insurance adds.

This one is obvious though.

That was on iOS with it’s pretty strict location tracking rules etc.

I’d be interested to see if you can get it to show you adds just by visiting the dentist (and not searching) on a vanilla android phone (IE google’s location history on by default)

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

#247

Post by lifeformed »

alex_g wrote: post #229
KaseKun wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, though this is an excellent story, this is just an example of a bias known as "frequency illusion". It happens with a lot of things, like seeing the clock at 11:11 more than you do at 11:09. Or seeing lots of your make/model car but being blind to the hundred of other variants on the road. How many times have you opened up your laptop and not seen a Facebook add for something you just did, or something…

Purchased a hard kombucha at Whole Foods last week, Ever since, about 1/3 of my instagram ads are for it. Never had an instagram ad for it before.

Maybe the subtle influences that led you to buying such a drink in the first place are directly related to increased advertising for them. Also Amazon has your Whole Foods purchasing data, so that probably trickled down somewhere.

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

#248

Post by tpxl »

barbazoo wrote: post #220
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…

I might be naive but I don't see how the CC company would have the list of items you purchased.

Technically the system is designed such that the CC company knows nothing of the receipt and the merchant knows nothing of the buyer.

If you're using a store card, the merchant == the CC company and so knows everything about you anyways.

If you're not using the store card, the merchant probably has an agreement with the CC company to share the information, so the technical implementation is irrelevant.

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

#249

Post by II2II »

lorentztt wrote: post #180
II2II wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Better, get a de-Googled ROM If you have the patience and knowledge, I can't recommend this enough. If you don't have the patience and the knowledge, this is a good way to end up with a non-functioning phone. (It will probably be recoverable, provided that you have the patience to acquire that knowledge and don't mind being without a phone in the meantime.) When I say I can't recommend it enough, I mean it. I have…

Which one do you use/recommend?

It depends upon what is available for your device and what you want out of the firmware.

What I will suggest is looking at the device specific forums at XDA. You will get an idea of what is available and what is reliable. Personally, I shy away from distributions that don't include a "what works" and "what doesn't work" section in the first post. I also prefer "official" distributions. At the very least, it is easier to track updates. The next filter I use is feature based. In this context, look for distributions that don't include Gapps and offer additional privacy enhancing features. Once you have something that you think you want, read the thread for the distribution. It often reveals pitfalls, variations within the model, and variations between carriers. These pitfalls exist even with the popular distributions, which is another reason to check out the forums.

I went with OmniROM this time around, but I have been happy with Resurrection Remix on other devices. Some devices have nice alternatives that are specific to them. As an example, I use KatKiss on the Asus TF300T. For a while, it was running a more recent version of Android than my much newer phone!

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

#250

Post by CoolGuySteve »

KaseKun wrote: post #210
zubi wrote: post #203

March 2020, heydays of coronavirus paranoia. I came back home from somewhere, put my keys onto the dining table and went to the bathroom to clean up. My girlfriend, upon seeing the key-chain on the table started reproaching me for being careless about hygiene. When I returned from the bathroom I saw her washing the key-chain in the kitchen sink. This time I got angry and asked how come she hadn't thought that the usb…

Unfortunately, though this is an excellent story, this is just an example of a bias known as "frequency illusion". It happens with a lot of things, like seeing the clock at 11:11 more than you do at 11:09. Or seeing lots of your make/model car but being blind to the hundred of other variants on the road. How many times have you opened up your laptop and not seen a Facebook add for something you just did, or something…

Bullshit, Facebook was found around 2015-2016 to be draining iPhone batteries with background audio sessions. While they may have gotten more efficient with their methods it wouldn't be surprising if they were still recording audio.

There's a moral hazard that incentivizes any company that can do so to bug user's homes for advertising purposes. IMO it should be illegal.

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