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Ask HN: How was this ad targeted to me?
31–40 of 93 posts
Re: Ask HN: How was this ad targeted to me?
#32Facebook doesn't need to be open in a tab for it to know it was you on that site, and you don't even need to be signed in. You and your computers are connected, even if you think you are careful. If you have ever signed into FB from home, they know that machine / ip / whatever fingerprint is you. Even after you sign out, its still out. Even if you are in ingocnito mode, its still probably you. Then you sign in to FB…
IP Tracking is not enough to get an individual. They can get a household or business that way. They can track you by your specific browser signature: combo of user agent, plugins, etc. Which is why I like to use a browser dedicated to social media. I also have a computer provided by my employer as well as my own personal device. This helps a lot.
Cross browser fingerprinting is also a thing (system fonts, exotic screen resolutions, AudioContext & canvas/webgl quirks, number of cpus, ...). At this point you either need to disable javascript or take your browsing to a VM if you worry about fingerprinting.
Re: Ask HN: How was this ad targeted to me?
#33Here's the company behind that: http://www.criteo.com/ Its a 3 billion French company whose sole job is to show ads for products abandoned in the cart or something you bought 6 months ago or something that their personalization algorithm suggests
Ironically, that's the only good tech employer in France :D
I wonder if the only action against them is sending them so much traffic their servers can't keep up.
I feel with the advent of internet of shit, this will start becoming more of commonplace
Re: Ask HN: How was this ad targeted to me?
#34The other answers here seem to cover most of everything, but one more possibility to add to the mix - prefetching. Just because you don't click on a link doesn't mean that you aren't already going there. Chrome (and other browsers) prefetch pages so that they will load faster when you click on them.
I haven't delved into this in a while, so I can't say I've tested anytime in the last 5 years. I did a quick search and found this page that talks about how to disable the functionality in chrome:
https://www.technipages.com/google-chrome-prefetch
I'm always surprised that more people don't seem to know about this.
Re: Ask HN: How was this ad targeted to me?
#35I used to work in this exact industry and wrote my employer's tracking code. You didn't clarify whether you clicked on a google shopping product and landed on a product page. That's all that is needed.
Many ecommerce sites use both google and facebook for their campaigns. So by you landing on the product page, a standard facebook event would be fired. The website or the advertiser doesn't really need to know who you are but facebook does know who you are once that event is fired. Facebook can then tie you to a campaign around that product for that same website (if they have an active campaign going).
Re: Ask HN: How was this ad targeted to me?
#36It's called re-targeting. You can use javascript to put users into a segment and re-target that segement; it's really easy. If you use the biggest ad-exchange (AppNexus) you can be sure to reach just about anyone anywhere.
How is it OK to do this if the browser is sending DNT? Is it really voluntary on the part of the ad network and they can just choose to ignore it?
Yes, DNT is an effort by the industry to self-regulate. If too many companies ignore it, it's much more likely that they will be regulated "externally" (by Congress, FTC, FCC etc).
Re: Ask HN: How was this ad targeted to me?
#37Here's the company behind that: http://www.criteo.com/ Its a 3 billion French company whose sole job is to show ads for products abandoned in the cart or something you bought 6 months ago or something that their personalization algorithm suggests
Ironically, that's the only good tech employer in France :D
In your opinion which others come close?
Which employers would you recommend avoiding?
Re: Ask HN: How was this ad targeted to me?
#38You can (or at least could) absolutely target individuals with Facebook ads. Check out this prank: https://ghostinfluence.com/the-ultimate-retaliation-pranking...
Fantastic read. Reminds me of: https://www.facebook.com/notes/robin-sloan/julie-rubicon/985...
Re: Ask HN: How was this ad targeted to me?
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
IP Tracking is not enough to get an individual. They can get a household or business that way. They can track you by your specific browser signature: combo of user agent, plugins, etc. Which is why I like to use a browser dedicated to social media. I also have a computer provided by my employer as well as my own personal device. This helps a lot.
Cross browser fingerprinting is also a thing (system fonts, exotic screen resolutions, AudioContext & canvas/webgl quirks, number of cpus, ...). At this point you either need to disable javascript or take your browsing to a VM if you worry about fingerprinting.
And a VM is probably not enough if the plugins you install or even just your behaviors are similar.
Re: Ask HN: How was this ad targeted to me?
#40Facebook doesn't need to be open in a tab for it to know it was you on that site, and you don't even need to be signed in. You and your computers are connected, even if you think you are careful. If you have ever signed into FB from home, they know that machine / ip / whatever fingerprint is you. Even after you sign out, its still out. Even if you are in ingocnito mode, its still probably you. Then you sign in to FB…
Would using an extension such as Ghostery prevent this?