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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?

#71

Post by lotsofpulp »

metafunctor wrote: post #64

As others have explained, this is most likely your credit card purchasing data being sold, by your credit card issuer, to any interested party willing to pay for it. Yes, the data sold includes detailed product information linked to your identity. What I'd like to know is if the same happens when I pay with Apple Card, or when I use Apple Play with, say, a VISA card?

>Yes, the data sold includes detailed product information linked to your identity.

Not necessarily. I’ve only seen a few huge merchants sending level 3 data:

https://paymentdepot.com/blog/level-3-data-processing/

Staples.com and airlines are the only ones where I can see the items bought on my credit card statement. Although it’s possible that some banks are not reporting that information on the statement, but I couldn’t find any more data on the subject, other than the fact that smaller businesses are not sending this information.

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

#72

Post by hetspookjee »

StavrosK wrote: post #61
mysterydip wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They could always either compress the audio or do a speech to text (looking for keywords rather than caring about getting the whole context correct), and batch upload the results on an interval (like when checking for email or app/system updates).

That would still absolutely kill the battery.

Id reckon you can boil the model down to a very small one to extract some keywords and thatll be pretty good already. Just having the ability to hear if someone is talking would take very little battery, to consequently turn on the top-10000 word model would still be barely noticeable on these powerhouses of phones we got, I think. Haven't tested it, though.

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

#73

Post by lotsofpulp »

jedwhite wrote: post #48
0898 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would the card merchant know what specific product you bought though? Is that data transmitted too somehow?

Yes, the product details are included.

For some merchants.

https://paymentdepot.com/blog/level-3-data-processing/

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

#74

Post by lotsofpulp »

haffi112 wrote: post #13
wideareanetwork wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No I’m almost certain I haven’t. Because I’ve used it before and I don’t really have any questions about it so I ran out and I just go buy more. At this stage I’m just assuming it’s a coincidence. It has made me realize the holy grail for google and advertisers is to access your bank transactions and advertise to you based on that.

A bank transaction would not reveal what product you bought whereas a receipt would. If prices were unique you could deduce something from a few items bought together though. In the business of advertisements the user pays for clicks. However, it would be much more reliable for the user to pay for ads that led to actual transactions instead of just clicks. Is there some reason for why this hasn't happened so far? (Or…

Some merchants do transmit information about the purchased items:

https://paymentdepot.com/blog/level-3-data-processing/

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

#75

Post by jchook »

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.

Not like Google has been fined unprecedentedly large sums numerous times for deceiving users and abusing their info.

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

#76

Post by [deleted] »

fileeditview wrote: post #69
ancarda wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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

> > Visa marketing I guess this is one of the things that just has to be forbidden by law.

[deleted]

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

#77

Post by ecopoesis »

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

Because credit card rewards aren’t free? Banks compete for credit card consumers by offering rewards. Those rewards cost them money. Selling consumer information is another revenue stream to make up for the cost of rewards. Most consumers are okay with this trade off: they get their airline miles / low interest / cash back in exchange for their purchase history.

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

#78

Post by vcavallo »

goatinaboat wrote: post #43
StavrosK wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's been a few times now where I've talked with my wife about some new product (physically, in the room) and she starts seeing ads about it. I thought that was the explanation too, but it's happened too many times for comfort. I know my devices are (probably) not listening, but I can't explain it either. Neither of us searched for the product or saw it online or anything, we just discussed something and got ads abou…

I know my devices are (probably) not listening, but I can't explain it either. Neither of us searched for the product or saw it online or anything, we just discussed something and got ads about it a few minutes to hours later. It's probably statistical to a certain extent: people of your specific demographic are interested in a certain thing, and you are talking about it the same as all of your peers are, and a stati…

> Google knows enough about you [to not even have to bother listening]

Right. This was is actually much more alarming to me.

Whenever this topic comes up in conversation I point out that the fact that the most attractive-seeming explanation is “they’re listening”, but they actually _aren’t_, should have one even more concerned.

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

#79

Post by MereInterest »

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.

They've also been asking for birthdays lately, obstensibly to verify age, but with the small print that it will also be used for ad targeting. But don't worry, they say, you can control how your information is used after you add it. On that page, the only option is whether to show the birthday publicly or not. There is no option to disable use for targeted advertising.

Oh yeah, and Google frames asking for a birthdate as being "in order to comply with the law". They are deliberately ambiguous in order to imply that it is me who could be breaking the law, rather than Google. Also, the law only requires verifying age, and doesn't require storing the birthdate afterwards. That one is entirely on Google.

So overall, my trust in anything that Google claims is rather low.

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