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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?

#291

Post by JustFinishedBSG »

beervirus wrote: post #285
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.

Drugs often cost a very specific amount of money (When I buy drugs it's always something like 4.86e or whatever, not neat 4.99) so I assume it's easy to de-anonymize

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

#292

Post by inetknght »

rovr138 wrote: post #287
dantyti wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> Marketing is a legitimate business reason.

Pervasive targeted marketing is not a legitimate business reason.

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

#293

Post by sroussey »

antpls wrote: post #290

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 Go…

LiveRamp connects all the “anonymous” identifiers together for a household.

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

#294

Post by tolbish »

gumby wrote: post #218
gambiting wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Credit cards are such an American thing though. Here in UK pretty much everyone uses debit cards with no rewards. I actually have a credit card just for emergencies but it offers no rewards either.

In order to bootstrap adoption of CCs, the banks pushed for a law in the 60s that put all the fraud liability on the banks, not the card users (and, to a lesser extent, not on the merchants). Your CC purchases are quite protected and it's easy to dispute a charge (apparently a very big deal in the phone and online sex businesses). As debit cards became popular here (well after Europe) the banks push them hard on peop…

Don't you have to pay interest on your average balance even if you pay off your balance every month?

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

#295

Post by aleister_777 »

fraud wrote: post #260
CoolGuySteve wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

My issue with the whole idea of background recording for advertising is that it would be incredibly costly to store this data, transcribe the audio and turn it into anything even remotely meaningful for advertisers. I also don’t know a lot on this subject so if anyone has better info that’d be great.

All is needs to be is a list of keywords associated with your advertising profile.

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

#296

Post by otterley »

Spooky23 wrote: post #231

Prescription data, at least in the US, is not very private. Many entities know that you met a doctor and they know when the doctor prescribes. Between PBMs, subrogation, wholesalers, and other factors, marketers are easily able to de-anonymize your identity for targeting purposes. In my family’s case, my wife’s hospital admission and prescription was sufficient to correctly identify her as likely 10-12 weeks pregnant…

If you can prove this, at least in the USA, this would be a serious violation of HIPAA and severe penalties would apply to entities who disclosed, knowingly received, or paid for personal health information without the patient’s consent and used it for an improper purpose.

https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/privacy/guidance...

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

#297

Post by continuations »

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…

How does Google link the real life person who bought Voltaren at a store to the online account or fingerprint that browses the Internet?

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

#298

Post by danbolt »

antpls wrote: post #290

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 Go…

I think Instagram can usually figure it out from the Minovsky Particles given off by your PC for that short bit of time.

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

#299

Post by edoceo »

inetknght wrote: post #292
rovr138 wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> Marketing is a legitimate business reason. Pervasive targeted marketing is not a legitimate business reason.

its legitimate. distasteful but legitimate.

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

#300

Post by [deleted] »

tyoma wrote: post #234
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.

The strategy is extremely effective, especially for high-priced but rarely purchased items like dishwashers, cars, flooring, etc. Consider: one of the hardest parts about advertising is figuring out when someone is ready to buy the product. That is why car companies bombard ads everywhere, just to catch you in the rare moment when you may be buying a car. Lets guess that maybe the odds of a random person wanting to b…

[deleted]
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