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Ask HN: How was this ad targeted to me?

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Re: Ask HN: How was this ad targeted to me?

#81

Post by noir_lord »

passivepinetree wrote: post #79
kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ghostery can't be trusted. Noscript + self destructing cookies.

Why do you say that Ghostery can't be trusted? I'm a big fan of Noscript, but could you explain more about self-destructing cookies?

Self destructing cookies are ones that are destroyed at session end or when the browser is closed.

It stops the Visit Foo, Foo sets a cookie, You go visit Bar, then Fizz, Fizz has a tracker from Foo which gets the cookie problem (at least partially).

Where it gets interesting is when Foo, Bar, Fizz and Buzz all have trackers in some form or another and co-operate.

Privacy is pretty much dead at this point without extreme effort.

Re: Ask HN: How was this ad targeted to me?

#82

Post by d2p »

throwgoogle123 wrote: post #45
masukomi wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

as someone who used to work for a targeted advertising co i can confirm that, overall, this is pretty accurate. And, nearly a decade ago we were doing work to connect fingerprint x and fingerprint y when they were actually the same person (usually on different computers or maybe in incognito). Conceptually it wasn't hard. People tend behave the same way regardless of what computer they're on. I'd be VERY surprised to…

I work on ads at Google. As far as I know we don't connect users who are not logged in out of piracy concern.

I've seen ads on my work machine for things I'd searched for at home. My work machine is signed into my work Google Apps account (and never my home account; though I have used that in another Chrome profile) and home my home account.

So, even if you're not connecting logged-out users, it seems to me that you might be connecting different logged-in users accounts.

I don't mind; I'd rather have targeted ads than not; though it does seem a bit creepy and often it's useless - I'm sick of seeing ads for stuff I already bought; you're losing cash there!

Re: Ask HN: How was this ad targeted to me?

#86

Post by throwgoogle123 »

hedora wrote: post #57
throwgoogle123 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work on ads at Google. As far as I know we don't connect users who are not logged in out of piracy concern.

I don't think this is true, or maybe it means something different when you take the colloquial meaning of what you said. (Maybe "connect" has a precise technical meaning at google.) I get targeted ads from google all the time when logged out, even on machines where I have never logged in. There seems to be correlation between targeting on multiple devices until I nuke all the cookies, etc. Maybe you mean you only tie…

I wasn't playing any word games.

There seems to be correlation between targeting on multiple devices until I nuke all the cookies, etc.

Do you have a specific example? Was this on a Google property (search, youtube, gmail) or on a third party site? Are you sure that those ads came from Google?

Is it possible that we just identified both of your cookies as a user who is interested in topic X without linking them?

Re: Ask HN: How was this ad targeted to me?

#87

Post by Scottn1 »

georgeecollins wrote: post #73
ramshanker wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2 people sharing same computer has amazing effects on those trackers. My YouTube recommendations used to be awesome to my interests till I was single, Now it's all polluted and mostly useless after I married. ;)

The strange thing is sometimes I learn things about my wife from the ads that are served. Creepy.

I know of a guy who found out his wife was seeking divorce weeks in advance because he started noticing divorce lawyer ads in his browsing! He eventually asked her if everything was ok and she came out with it. Crazy.

Re: Ask HN: How was this ad targeted to me?

#90

Post by mercer »

mambodog wrote: post #59

Rather than speculating, you can find out why you're seeing a particular ad on fb. There's a drop down on each ad which includes a menu item which explains the targeting method used: https://www.google.com/amp/www.business2community.com/facebo...

Yes, because when speculating about how much Facebook knows about me, the most likely source of truth is Facebook itself!

That said, thanks for pointing out this functionality. While I might be suspicious of the degree of truth it offers, it's at least something (honestly).

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