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Ask HN: Ads triggered by WhatsApp “end to end encrypted” messages?

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Re: Ask HN: Ads triggered by WhatsApp “end to end encrypted” messages?

#171

Post by spmurrayzzz »

snowmizuh-04 wrote: post #144

The scarier thing to me is when ads match _conversations_ I have with my wife. I told her about this story this morning, and she reminded me about a conversation about stem cell research we had yesterday. I said something along the lines of 'I hope there is a breakthrough soon on regenerating the Isle of Langerhans in the pancreas to treat diabetes.' Sure enough, she noticed an article in her Google News feed later t…

This may or may not apply to the anecdote you shared about your wife, but since these apps know your relative proximal location to your weak/strong social connections, they also can know what your friends may search for and is often-used flavor of targeting.

e.g. You and a bunch of friends go to dinner and have a conversation about , at least one of those friends googles something about that topic. You later see an ad related to because you were targeted based on the search your friend did while they were near you.

If your wife potentially did anything digitally, related to the diabetes topic, its likely that you were targeted based on that.

Again, no idea what happened resultant to the story you shared, but whenever this sort of thing happens to me I try to appeal to Occam's Razor based on how much I know about how this tech works under the hood.

Re: Ask HN: Ads triggered by WhatsApp “end to end encrypted” messages?

#172

Post by philliphaydon »

I’m convinced WhatsApp’s e2e is BS. Because multiple times I’ve mentioned something I’ve never even googled and then had Facebook ads for those things show up minutes later.

The most notable one being renting an apartment. I viewed an apartment then sent a message to the agent requesting window grills or latches and then had adverts for that stuff straight away.

When ever I mention this on HN I get downvoted with lame excuses as to why it happened but none of them are plausible.

My friend messaged me saying he needed to go buy kitty litter and I get adverts for cat toys and supplies on Facebook despite not even replying to him?

Anyone who believes WhatsApp is really e2e is a fool IMO.

Re: Ask HN: Ads triggered by WhatsApp “end to end encrypted” messages?

#173

Post by yaddaor »

cookiengineer wrote: post #170

WhatsApp embeds google analytics into your client, which means that it does tag all your messages while you are viewing them (and also tags them with each open/close of the conversation). If you don't know this already, use App Warden to remove spyware handlers on Android and use RethinkDNS to block their ad domains.

What does "tag" imply? What exact data is supposedly taken by Google?

Re: Ask HN: Ads triggered by WhatsApp “end to end encrypted” messages?

#174

Post by reitanqild »

I've told you again and again that if you value privacy you don't use WhatsApp, you use Signal.

Personally I use Telegram which works fine for me and I have taken a fair amount of flak for saying it is a better choice than WhatsApp.

I'll still try again: There is more to security than protocols and algorithms. If you value your privacy, don't use a free messenger from a company with a long record of sleazy behaviour.

Re: Ask HN: Ads triggered by WhatsApp “end to end encrypted” messages?

#175

Post by propogandist »

siilats wrote: post #136
rockbruno wrote: post #124

I keep being told this is a conspiracy and that several people checked on this and found no evidence of them spying on you, but I still have a hard time believing they're not doing something really sketchy. The case that was the final straw for me was when I was chatting with my partner and remembered a funny song from my childhood, so I opened YouTube on Safari and showed it to her. A couple of minutes later, she op…

You are both on same wifi

Just because they’re on the same wifi doesn’t mean FB gets to break the SSL connection between OP’s (separate) client and YT to snoop on details of the video being played, to then suggest actions on their, competing IG platform, on a separate device.

Re: Ask HN: Ads triggered by WhatsApp “end to end encrypted” messages?

#176

Post by quesera »

pc86 wrote: post #74
martin_a wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you took a photo of something you likely already own it. Tell that to Amazon who never fail to recommend me things I just bought.

Hey if you really liked the vacuum cleaner you just bought, you definitely want to buy another one.

You have to believe that Amazon's algorithm is working as intended though, right?

The thesis is that recent vacuum cleaner purchasers are many times more likely (than the average person) to be looking to buy a vacuum cleaner.

Apparently about 20% of Amazon purchases are returned. And most returners are looking for a replacement. Some of the replacement product research is done before the return decision is made, so you get ads even if you have not initiated a return.

As much as Amazon doesn't want you to return your purchase, they really don't want you to buy the replacement somewhere else.

It would be interesting to measure how the ad ratio changes over time. Particularly when you exit the return window, but of course Amazon will know the return-likelihood curve with much greater precision.

Re: Ask HN: Ads triggered by WhatsApp “end to end encrypted” messages?

#177

Post by campital »

paavohtl wrote: post #88
planb wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She probably gave Instagram access to her photo library (not unreasonable for a photo sharing app). That means the Instagram app can scan her latest pictures in the background when it's opened. I think it's more likely that the data was leaked this way.

Is this something that actually happens (= can anyone prove this by disassembling the app or MITMing the network traffic), or is it just unfounded paranoia?

I imagine the reputational and potential legal consequences would be fairly severe if this sort of privacy invasion were discovered (either by employee leak or reverse engineering). Seems unlikely Meta would take a risk like this.

Re: Ask HN: Ads triggered by WhatsApp “end to end encrypted” messages?

#179

Post by snowmizuh-04 »

spmurrayzzz wrote: post #171
snowmizuh-04 wrote: post #144

The scarier thing to me is when ads match _conversations_ I have with my wife. I told her about this story this morning, and she reminded me about a conversation about stem cell research we had yesterday. I said something along the lines of 'I hope there is a breakthrough soon on regenerating the Isle of Langerhans in the pancreas to treat diabetes.' Sure enough, she noticed an article in her Google News feed later t…

This may or may not apply to the anecdote you shared about your wife, but since these apps know your relative proximal location to your weak/strong social connections, they also can know what your friends may search for and is often-used flavor of targeting. e.g. You and a bunch of friends go to dinner and have a conversation about , at least one of those friends googles something about that topic. You later see an a…

I thought of this. Just to be clear, neither she nor I did any searching on diabetes or anything like that. I can understand this being driven by search, chats, emails, etc. (basically any type of keyboard input). But here, the mode of communication was voice-only.

Re: Ask HN: Ads triggered by WhatsApp “end to end encrypted” messages?

#180

Post by aembleton »

rockbruno wrote: post #124

I keep being told this is a conspiracy and that several people checked on this and found no evidence of them spying on you, but I still have a hard time believing they're not doing something really sketchy. The case that was the final straw for me was when I was chatting with my partner and remembered a funny song from my childhood, so I opened YouTube on Safari and showed it to her. A couple of minutes later, she op…

> definitely a GPS-based user relationship table somewhere which reflects what you do to everyone they think has some connection to you

I've seen this when I am sharing IP addresses with someone because we're both connected to the same WiFi. Especially if you block meta from being able to get any data about you but the other person doesn't. Meta then get data from that other person because it can't see anything from yourself.

It helps when I'm looking for a gift for my partner - I can see what she's been looking at recently because its most of my adverts in Facebook.

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