Ask HN: Girlfriend is being shown ads depending on what we do together. How? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Girlfriend is being shown ads depending on what we do together. How?

#41

Post by patcheudor » Tue, Apr 17, 2018, 5:57 PM UTC

adtechperson wrote: post #24

I have worked for a number of ad tech companies over the years. If this really is happening (and it seems possible it could be coincidence) the most likely explanation is cross device targeting using IP address. So, most ad tech companies do cross device targeting, using device maps bought from other companies (Drawbridge being one). These companies attempt to assign a variety of devices from the same person to a sin…

This is the correct answer. We noticed this happening in our small lab and decided to run some tests and in fact if one person searched for something odd like 'Swedish fish' then visited sites selling Swedish fish, everyone in the lab would start to get ads for candy and snack food. Similarly, searching for "mountain bike" would result in everyone else seeing ads for bikes and bike accessories. It sort of became a game to figure out what the test search term of the day was.

Re: Ask HN: Girlfriend is being shown ads depending on what we do together. How?

#42

Post by salvar » Tue, Apr 17, 2018, 5:58 PM UTC

goshx wrote: post #31

cdelsolar wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice try? Read this first: https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Frequency_illusion

No. You read this first: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joke

So what you wrote after "Jokes aside," was also a joke?

Re: Ask HN: Girlfriend is being shown ads depending on what we do together. How?

#43

Post by dingaling » Tue, Apr 17, 2018, 5:59 PM UTC

txsh wrote: post #11

This was happening to me until I removed Facebook and Facebook Messenger from my phone. I believe these apps listen to conversations even when you aren’t using them. I am not alone in believing this.

Say that only half of Facebook's users have the apps: one billion

Say that the average within-microphone-range presence of each user is five hours per day. Probably a huge underestimate.

Do you really think that Facebook would devote enough server time to parse five billion hours of mumbling audio each and every day? That's several times longer than the total viewing of YouTube each day.

Re: Ask HN: Girlfriend is being shown ads depending on what we do together. How?

#44

Post by thebouv » Tue, Apr 17, 2018, 6:02 PM UTC

methodover wrote: post #21

txsh wrote: post #11

This was happening to me until I removed Facebook and Facebook Messenger from my phone. I believe these apps listen to conversations even when you aren’t using them. I am not alone in believing this.

That is unreasonable conspiratorial thinking. Please don't believe it.

Except when it is real:

https://www.wired.com/2016/11/block-ultrasonic-signals-didnt...

https://thehackernews.com/2017/05/ultrasonic-tracking-signal...

https://www.wired.com/2017/05/hundreds-apps-can-listen-beaco...

Re: Ask HN: Girlfriend is being shown ads depending on what we do together. How?

#45

Post by firefoxd » Tue, Apr 17, 2018, 6:03 PM UTC

If you have enough data point for enough people in a large enough area, well machine learning will do the trick[1].

[1]: https://idiallo.com/blog/machine-learning-ads

Re: Ask HN: Girlfriend is being shown ads depending on what we do together. How?

#46

Post by gooseus » Tue, Apr 17, 2018, 6:04 PM UTC

CGamesPlay wrote: post #15

A totally plausible explanation for this (as plausible as any Amazon Echo passive speech recognition ad targeting theory) is that she's been seeing these ads for weeks, but they were completely irrelevant and her mind filtered them out until she happened to have house hunting / martial arts movies on her mind after these events.

I agree this is a very probable cause, but since a lot of people seem to be reporting this affect I wonder if it can be quantified... are there any tools that can do ad-tracker-tracking to collect information on the ads you're being shown over time and categorize them in order to show that you really are getting more ads of a particular type after a particular action is taken (which isn't obviously trackable)?

Re: Ask HN: Girlfriend is being shown ads depending on what we do together. How?

#47

Post by Zak » Tue, Apr 17, 2018, 6:05 PM UTC

Rjevski wrote: post #10

Start by switching to iOS, then for each app she installs make sure location permissions are denied. On the laptop, make sure uBlock Origin is installed.

Start by buying an expensive piece of hardware running a different operating system? Why not just use the app permissions built into Android 6.0+?

Re: Ask HN: Girlfriend is being shown ads depending on what we do together. How?

#48

Post by goshx » Tue, Apr 17, 2018, 6:06 PM UTC

kazinator wrote: post #30

goshx wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice try Mark. Jokes aside, these issues are happening way too often for it to just be a coincidence. I've seen multiple friends and strangers, as well as myself, reporting that they were talking about something and then an ad shows up about that. EDIT: typo

This is a well-known psychological phenomenon, not a joke or coincidence.

I understand that. I just don't think it applies to this case. It happened to me and close friends, that's why I am skeptical.

It is very easy to have opinions and explanations on something you didn't experience yourself.

Re: Ask HN: Girlfriend is being shown ads depending on what we do together. How?

#49

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Apr 17, 2018, 6:06 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Girlfriend is being shown ads depending on what we do together. How?

#50

Post by amelius » Tue, Apr 17, 2018, 6:07 PM UTC

Rjevski wrote: post #39

amelius wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IP address is sort of equivalent to location. Cellphone tower is similarly equivalent to location.

The IP can be used to correlate them being together (connected to their home WiFi), but would be unable to track them outside (unless the phones try to connect to “free” public WiFi which is subsidised by ads and will no doubt rat the users out to Facebook). Cell phone towers don’t correlate to IPs at all; the IP layer is added way above all that at the GGSN in the carrier’s network, which doesn’t even know nor care…

> The IP can be used to correlate them being together

There you go.

Speaking of wifi, by correlating IP address and MAC broadcasts, ad networks could figure out your MAC address. This could also be used to track your location.