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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?

#361

Post by anigbrowl »

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…

re 2., this is a Bad Thing. I fully agree that neither Google nor anyone at the drugstore 'knows' about the purchase, but the basic problem is that we've built a commercial marketplace that spies on people, but the information about people is treated as privileged commercial data in an automated and unaccountable marketplace.

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

#362

Post by beowulfey »

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.

On the contrary, pervasive targeted marketing is exactly a legitimate business reason in the context of increasing revenue efficiently, as most corporations want to do.

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

#363

Post by anigbrowl »

edoceo wrote: post #299
inetknght wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

its legitimate. distasteful but legitimate.

It's legal, but not necessarily legitimate. Informally, people use the latter terms to articulate their view of what the law should be, rather than what it is.

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

#364

Post by lozaning »

AnonHP wrote: post #342
tolbish wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Not GP, but the answer is no if you pay the balance in full every month. The issuer anyway makes money from the MDR (merchant discount rate) charged to the seller. But they would love customers who pay a partial balance regularly (at or above the minimum due) and charge them hefty interests like 20% per annum or 36% per annum or even higher, depending on a few different factors. Once you carry over balances from mont…

And then on charge cards (NOT credit cards) like American Express, you don't even have the option to carry a balence. Full balence must be paid every month in it's entirety.

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

#365

Post by xbar »

nextos wrote: post #346
vbsteven wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think Google linked the account directly to the purchase. My guess would be that Google linked the account to the medication based on patterns from one of its many ways it gathers data. * visits to websites about that medication * visits to websites talking about symptoms for which the medication helps * searches for the above * I would not be surprised if Google picks up interests from other accounts using t…

I think it's the last option. His phone probably heard him ordering Voltaren. It's also the simplest possibility (Ockham's razor). I know because after discussing extremely rare chemicals at an officemate's desk, he began seeing ads for them. Neither of us had ever Googled or emailed anything related. It was a brand new idea for a brand new project which we had started working on that morning.

Agreed.

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

#366

Post by anigbrowl »

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…

While this is indeed a possibility, your certitude is unwarranted.

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

#367

Post by joering2 »

alex_g wrote: post #335
blueblisters wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Good points. I do fit the demographic, I have looked up pages related to Kombucha in the past (thought not in the last 6 months), and I did dwell on the first ad in amazement. Still, I got home from the store and started seeing the ads immediately.

Have you spoke with someone about it? IOS and Android can easily analyze what you say and send relevant keywords home. This is very evil genius in a way that they do not send your voice feed neither your full sentences but only keywords that the law describe as "metatags" that courts found no to be an abuse of your 4A in the past.

In fact, you didn't even have to be on the phone. You could just come home and told you wife what you bough. That would be enough to send keywords and know what you maybe interested in. I know for fact my cable box (Spectrum) is listening and analyzing to my conversations. We used to talk with my wife about the most crazies stuff and less than 48 hours, Spectrum TV, Sling and YouTube would inject relevant ads. Some were extremely home made and amateurish but always spot on.

Do an experiment in home. Talk about something you dont have or is irrelevant to you. For example if you have no kids start talking about them. Use keywords like "our first child", "baby sitting", "hospital", "giving birth", "baby shower", I bet you less than 48 hours later your TV will be interrupting you with ads related to baby products; ads you have never seen before.

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

#368

Post by qyi »

ancarda wrote: post #47
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…

>VISA marketing Why is this even a thing? Maybe I should just go back to buying everything with cash, it's impossible to keep up with all the crap we need to disable or hack around

>Maybe I should just go back to buying everything with cash

You should.

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

#369

Post by CyberRabbi »

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…

This is an amazing story but I believe it is a coincidence that you just happened to notice more than non-coincidences.

I say this not because I am especially skeptic or rational, I say this because a similar thing happened to me yet I know for a fact that it was a coincidence. It feels unbelievable yet 1/1000 events happen every now and then. All in all, if Facebook knew you were a technical person it’s not unlikely that an ad for a water proof usb stick would be relevant to you.

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

#370

Post by edoceo »

anigbrowl wrote: post #363
edoceo wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

its legitimate. distasteful but legitimate.

It's legal, but not necessarily legitimate. Informally, people use the latter terms to articulate their view of what the law should be, rather than what it is.

why use a word with a known definition to try to mean the near opposite? its confusing.

if you think the thing sucks, just say it sucks.

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