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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?

#451

Post by thisiswater »

angrais wrote: post #443
thisiswater wrote: post #440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"One of the three deviated and searched for nappies online prior to the trip." This is a hypothetical which was deliberately excluded when they decided to run the experiment. These are intelligent young people acting in good faith to test if they're being spied on. Why would they have googled nappies? I'm sorry but I don't find that explanation convincing at all.

I agree. While they may have made an effort to control for not searching about nappies, they could have implicitly biased themselves in other ways. For example, one may have googled something similar without realising the similarity, e.g., "Baby Shark" (a popular song a few years ago) or such. In other words, nappies may be related to many other terms that they may have (implicitly) searched for. That's why running a…

It's true, there could definitely have been confounding factors and I wish there was a better record than their memories. I remain personally convinced due to knowing and trusting the involved parties, but agree that the anecdote doesn't (and shouldn't) carry much weight as objective evidence.

This seems like something which privacy researchers might be interested in, and wouldn't be too difficult to run - I wonder if anyone here can point us towards any more formal experiments that have been run on this?

Edit: The more I reflect, the more difficult the experiment seems to be. How does one recruit for an experiment, contact and instruct participants, etc., probably via surveilled email or messaging platforms, without creating data linking participants to one another?

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

#452

Post by ttt0 »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #66
murukesh_s wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also google may read your email (if you are using gmail) - which contains your bank receipt (so seller), time and amount.

https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6603?hl=en > We will not scan or read your Gmail messages to show you ads.

Horseshit, they were 100% doing that.

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

#454

Post by syngrog66 »

I read this HN post. I did not buy Voltaren or search for it anywhere, or chat about it anywhere. I use Twitter a few minutes ago. I see an ad for Voltaren.

Initial Bayesian Conclusion Histogram:

- 33% Voltaren ad push just happens to be underway, and no spying was used

- 33% Google's Android Chrome knew I visited a HN link to today's post about Voltaren, somehow added this fact into my advertising profile, Android Twitter app used it to pick me an ad

- 33% like above, except that since in Android Chrome I'm logged into Twitter, somehow Twitter itself was the upstream source of the interest hint

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

#456

Post by spoonjim »

CamelCaseName wrote: post #324
inetknght wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The word you're looking for is "legal". It's legal. It's illegitimate but legal.

The first three results on Google show the definition of legitimate as "allowed by law". If you want to make a moral argument for why it shouldn't be allowed, then do that.

The etymology of “legitimate” and “legal” are shared but they have very different meanings. If you are not a native speaker of English then these connotations can be hard to discern since word meanings are fluid and regional, but at least in the US the meanings are quite different.

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

#457

Post by 6510 »

planb wrote: post #356
nextos wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is not the simplest possibility. Based on how often Google Home misunderstands the simplest queries, the tech is nowhere close to getting purchase intents out of random conversations. Besides that - do folks on hn really believe the „our phones are listening 24/7“ conspiracy theories?

We don't want to believe but here we are. [ha, ha] Our robotic overlords don't even need to be sure, sounds-like is good enough, apply some exotic filters and odds to sell things go though the roof.

My funniest was talking with someone at work (who works for a different company) then when I got home facebook suggested adding them. That I didn't have a phone at the time made it extra comical. Plenty of other people work there, it never suggested those and there are no common contacts. How the CONSPIRACY works exactly I have no idea, the candidate theories are all to hard to imagine. (Like, I'm easy to track because I have no phone?)

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

#458

Post by 6510 »

worik wrote: post #397
reaperducer wrote: post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does Google link the real life person who bought Voltaren at a store to the online account or fingerprint that browses the Internet? Often, through the payment. People use the same payment methods in the same stores over and over. This data is accumulated by the stores, and sold. if you signed up for a "points card" or some other gimmick to get 2¢ off something, the personal information you used when you signed u…

Hmmm.... Use cash!

And don't bring a phone! Ofc the 2 of those combined makes pinpointing you even easier. Like taking candy from a baby.

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

#460

Post by Tokelin »

sushid wrote: post #438
thisiswater wrote: post #427

I would like to contribute an anecdote which turned me from a "google is listening" skeptic to someone who turns their phone off as often as possible, especially during any kind of sensitive conversation. I'm one degree removed from this anecdote, but I have no reason to doubt its truth. A group of friends were on a road trip, driving for several days cross-country. These are university-aged young males, 20-23. None…

Do you ever get irrelevant ads? I certainly do. Multiply that by billions. You're going to find someone getting ads irrelevant to them. They could also have looked up something relevant to nappies, stayed in a house (and used internet there) where the owners have a baby, etc.

Recently I started ordering groceries online. I found the site "organically" but searching for products in the space. I found one which satisfied me and stuck with it. Some time later I start getting Ads in Facebook Messenger for the website. Yes, not totally irrelevant, but it's like seeing a billboard for the supermarket you're on your way to.
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