It could be worse. You could concievably buy Voltaren again soon.
Usually you make a 5-10 year purchase, like a TV or a large kitchen appliance, and they keep showing you ads for the exact same model.
Ask HN: I bought Voltaren at the chemist, now Google shows me ads for it. Why?
371–380 of 494 posts
Re: Ask HN: I bought Voltaren at the chemist, now Google shows me ads for it. Why?
#372Opt 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.
It's terrible, but post-purchase advertising is an entire field of advertising, trying to get you to keep thinking about the product, trying to encourage you to re-purchase the product after it runs out, and trying to encourage you to recommend it to others (by keeping it top of mind).
https://www.shopify.com/retail/examples-of-great-post-purcha...
Re: Ask HN: I bought Voltaren at the chemist, now Google shows me ads for it. Why?
#373Earlier 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…
I understand you have used Occam's razor to come to this conclusion. And its a perfectly valid point. But, this particular story has been repeated so many times around me that I am genuinely suspicious. But alas, the only way to know would be to look at the code. And even then we might not understand because its a blackbox type system which is ill understood by even its designers.
Well, another approach would be to do some controlled experiments: Pick a selection of somewhat-uncommon products. Get some volunteers to set up Facebook accounts on clean computers and phones with no adblockers. Monitor their incoming advertising messages for 2 weeks.
Then randomly assign the products from the first step to the volunteers, give them information about the product on paper and ask them to hold verbal conversations about such such products.
If they start getting adverts that happen to match the subject of those verbal conversations, something is going on.
Re: Ask HN: I bought Voltaren at the chemist, now Google shows me ads for it. Why?
#374SaaS idea: a tool that monitors your advertising profile (keys, whatever you want to call it) and gives you the same information that your browser+adtech markets are auctioning about you. Also allows you to delete keys you don't want to share.
Re: Ask HN: I bought Voltaren at the chemist, now Google shows me ads for it. Why?
#375Google and Facebook both have in-store conversion tracking:
https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6100636?hl=en-G...
https://en-gb.facebook.com/business/help/1150627594978290
Wouldn’t be surprised if this data is used to refine which ad these platforms should show you.
Re: Ask HN: I bought Voltaren at the chemist, now Google shows me ads for it. Why?
#376Opt 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…
All valid suggestions, but at the same time the burden of this ought not to fall on the consumer. Additionally, even though a small number of individuals may have the motivation and technical ability to opt out of everything, they're still trapped by the network effect of everyone else doing it.
Re: Ask HN: I bought Voltaren at the chemist, now Google shows me ads for it. Why?
#377Why did you buy Voltaren and that's probably your answer.
If you bought Voltaren as a joke though an offline random process ( which is hard to do ) then you might have more evidence it's linked to the sale part.
The other day I watched Mosquito Coast again after 30 years. Afterwards I saw Apple are making a TV series. That's not a coincidence I just have no idea how it happened. It was not simple, a Ad or Article I would have read, it's an interesting premise I always remembered. It was downloaded from the torrents. It was after looking at a movie then director then actor then movies then the decision to watch. But something I don't know what, helped me stop there on the chain of browsing and watch it.
Re: Ask HN: I bought Voltaren at the chemist, now Google shows me ads for it. Why?
#378Not 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…
In the US, you can’t use personal health information for marketing purposes. If you can prove this link, a lot of very large organizations could potentially be in serious trouble for HIPAA violations. https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/privacy/guidance...
Is it personal health information if it's tied to an anonymous ID that contains no other details about you? I doubt the advertiser knows OP's name or address when they choose which ad to show.
Re: Ask HN: I bought Voltaren at the chemist, now Google shows me ads for it. Why?
#379Earlier 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.
Can you prove neither of you Googled anything related? Surely either you or your office mate could have done further research later on, which would involve searching those chemicals online and browsing Web pages related to them?
Alternatively if someone near you overheard your conversation, and Googled it, then Google could link all of your locations together and conclude that you are all interested in the same thing. This is how Facebook has its creepy ability to indirectly predict what items you are interested in - usually someone near you searches for what you're talking about later on in the day, and it guesses that it's important to both of you.
Re: Ask HN: I bought Voltaren at the chemist, now Google shows me ads for it. Why?
#380Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Many words have multiple definitions, as you are surely aware. Legitimate is one of them.