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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?

#281

Post by rightbyte »

geofft wrote: post #152
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…

The first one seems most likely to be the relevant answer to how this was tracked: https://adwords.googleblog.com/2017/05/powering-ads-and-anal... > Google’s third-party partnerships ... capture approximately 70% of credit and debit card transactions in the United States See also https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-30/google-an... and https://www.technologyreview.com/2017/05/25/242717/google-no... - Googl…

And people still think Google et al. eavesdropping peoples homes is tinfoil hat level ...

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

#282

Post by newswasboring »

blueblisters wrote: post #279
alex_g wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

A few potential reasons: - You fit the demographic of Kombucha drinkers in your locality - You visited a Kombucha blog/website recently that used retargeting to deliver an ad to your Instagram - An initial ad that caught your attention and Instagram used “dwell time” to determine that the ad is relevant to you

Honestly speaking, this is more scary than them actually stealing data.

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

#284

Post by Closi »

rightbyte wrote: post #237
grawprog wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then again, could be fun to screw with them a bit. I wonder what would happen if you just kept clicking I already bought this on everything that pops up. Or better yet, just write a script that clicks it every time one of those ads appears. I wonder if it's possible to go through every single item they advertise and what would happen if you did.

If you want to stick it to the man there is: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/adnauseam/ That clicks all adds for you. Maybe it can be modified somehow to click already bought item?

I suspect that when you do this the following thing happens:

* Big businesses are unaffected as they use click fraud prevention services.

* Businesses that don’t use that have to pay more money to Google because people clicked on their ad, and they think their marketing is effective (at least from a click through perspective).

* Google makes even more money because you are clicking on all the ads and it makes them look better. They can demonstrate how well their marketing platform works even better!

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

#285

Post by beervirus »

dehrmann wrote: post #275

> How does google know I bought Voltaren? > Is my bank purchase history shared with google somehow? Google buys Mastercard (if not more) transactions and ties them to your Android location history. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-30/google-an...

Presumably that data would include time, amount, and vendor... but not item-level details. Right?

There's something else going on here.

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

#286

Post by pbhjpbhj »

scruple wrote: post #158
metafunctor wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dunno, I’ve bought several guitars in a row…

Well I've had it happen with toilet seats. In 40 years on this planet I've only ever needed to purchase that one. I'd imagine if I needed to get more than one that I would get them all at the same time.

That's the sort of thing you buy a new one because one broke and now it shows up how tatty (worn, old, messy) the other one(s) in your house are. Or someone asks where you got it ... "oh, I can't remember but Google ads showed me the same one of available at $diy_store", or whatever.

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

#287

Post by rovr138 »

dantyti wrote: post #272
jonahbenton wrote: post #205

Not coincidence. Not "bank purchase history" shared with google- in most cases banks and credit cards don't know item level detail. Lots of ways this data flow could happen, at least in the US. Happy to go through specific details I have seen if you want to share more about this, but two high level points 1. Remember that when you purchase something, the data about the purchase is BOTH yours AND the entity from whom…

please do go into detail about how data about an exact goods purchase that is linked to a specific person (ignoring the bunk about 'anonymization') can be regarded as having a legitimate business reason

Marketing is a legitimate business reason.

Other example, In the US, lots of jurisdictions have restrictions on ingredients. For example, dextromethorphan and pseudoephedrine.

If you are buying over the counter medicines that contain these, in some jurisdictions, you need to provide an ID.

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

#288

Post by nitrogen »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #185
washadjeffmad wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Maybe enough people who buy chainsaws are running tree trimming crews?

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

#289

Post by johnboiles »

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…

For me it's 9:41

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

#290

Post by antpls »

Today I browsed Google from my desktop PC about "Gundam" (the japonese anime) for about 1 hour. Pretty niche topic.

Then when I was done, I closed all browser tabs, I unlocked my smartphone to check Instagram, and the second ads I get is a Gundam ad. I have no idea how my shadow "desktop" ad profile and shadow "mobile" ad profile matched. I share no accounts between my desktop and my smartphone :

  - I use different Google accounts on my phone and desktop (although I occasionally log in one or the other in private tabs)
  - The internet connections are different : 4G for phone, fiber for desktop
  - On desktop, I use Chromium with Ad block Plus
  - I do not use facebook nor instagram on my desktop PC
So how the f. did Instagram know about my Gundam browsing on desktop.

This must stop.

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