Targeted Ads - How do they know?

.......

Earlier this week I went to a shop that I rarely go to. Its got an unusual name and not many branches.

I paid with a card. I told some people in work I had gone there and bought something and showed them.

The next day i got a targeted ad on Facebook for this shop. I noticed because of its unusual name. I dont ever recall getting a targeted ad for them before.

How do they know? Was it the card payment? Or is someone listening through my phone when I tell people I was there?

Captain Red Beard

Sorcery.

SEPT 23 1989

Something not someone is listening through your phone

IRE60

Geo-Location! If you have the F/B app it is possibly seeing/reading where you are geographically. It then sends this back to F/B HQ and bingo - targeted ads.


I think you can either turn that off in your maps or the FB app - or leave your phone in a locked metal box!


C

Sonics2k

Probably Location turned on your phone. Facebook/Google will detect you were there, time you spent there and determine if you were there long enough to purchase something.

Never ever underestimate just how well these algorithms can predict what items you'll want to buy based on your browsing habits.

TheIrishGrover

Cookies on your PC/phone/whatever based on your browsing history. Clear your browser history (including cookies) if you want to get rid of them.

wakka12

Geo locations, listening to you through microphone sounds very illegal

endacl

wakka12 wrote: »

Geo locations, listening to you through microphone sounds very illegal

Not if you read and agreed to the terms of use, and granted permission.

pxdf9i5cmoavkz

Have you ever noticed the times the targeted ad got it wrong?

Perhaps the people you told about the shop later searched for details about the shop. And since facebook knows you're friends with them thought you may be interested in that shop too.

This however may cause you to put on your tinfoil hat. Browser fingerprints

Alun

Geolocation, browser history etc. etc. which results in a few odd, and rather pointless, outcomes.

Firstly when I get targeted ads to get me to buy something I've actually just bought anyway, often in the same online shop I bought it from.

Secondly when I've been abroad and get bombarded with ads in foreign languages for products and services I can't avail of anyway. Even happens when I've been on Irish Ferries as their onboard WiFi seems to be provided by a Norwegian company so I get loads of Norwegian ads for weeks afterwards.

r439z5ifwt8soq

Things like using your phones GPS to target location-based ads

Also, a really interesting one is a thing called Facebook Pixel. It essentially allows Facebook to see what you do on the internet while you're not on Facebook

If you're browsing on any website that is using Facebook Pixel, Facebook will get all that data and be able to target their ads at you based on your browsing habits.

Mrs OBumble

Zain Greasy Misfortune wrote: »

Have you ever noticed the times the targeted ad got it wrong?

Perhaps the people you told about the shop later searched for details about the shop. And since facebook knows you're friends with them thought you may be interested in that shop too.

This however may cause you to put on your tinfoil hat. Browser fingerprints

The best is when you've just come back from an amazing holiday and get ads about booking a holday ...

brevity

Google and Facebook collect browsing history. This is done even when incognito mode is switched on.

.......

But its a tiny shop - how would they know I was in there and not the one next door if its geolocation?

I doubt the shop is even 4 metres wide.

.......

I checked my google maps timeline.

It knows I was in the shopping centre but not this tiny shop.

.......

brevity wrote: »

Google and Facebook collect browsing history. This is done even when incognito mode is switched on.

I didnt browse to anything online for the shop. I dont even know if they have a website.

It was a walking visit to a small bricks and mortar shop in a shopping centre.

tricky D

You can be tracked across devices too if logged in to Google or FB and the likes. Also possible is slurping of wifi access points history on your phone apps.

Why they added you post sale is a retargetting snafu.

Some targetting fails:
Ad for Dead Like Me on an Obituary page.
Best Hotel rates in Cairo on page reporting Arab Spring riots.
Marijuana ad on article on kid sprinkling grass on lasagne mistaking it for herbs.

Cordell

AI and data mining (browsing and search history, location, personal habits). They know you better than you know yourself. They know when you go to bed and when you wake up. They know when you go to the jacks, and what for.

No one is listening, that will be a huge risk and also a crude and ineffective method. And by they I mean the machines, no human can deal with this amount of data.

brevity

https://twitter.com/DuckDuckGo/status/1069952162548146176?s=20

Have a read of some of the articles in the Twitter thread above.

The amount of data the companies have is mind boggling.

brevity

....... wrote: »

I didnt browse to anything online for the shop. I dont even know if they have a website.

It was a walking visit to a small bricks and mortar shop in a shopping centre.

Then Facebook used the location data from your phone and found the shop from other people searching for this particular shop.

.......

brevity wrote: »

Then Facebook used the location data from your phone and found the shop from other people searching for this particular shop.

Yes but how accurate is location data?

I thought it was only to within 6 metres or so?

This is a tiny shop in a big shopping centre, surrounded by other shops.

I was in there about 5 minutes. I was in another shop too that I didnt buy anything in. I was also in a large penneys a couple of hundred of metres away and I did buy something.

I can see on googles timeline that it knows I was in the shopping centre, but not the specific shop.

I didnt think location services would be accurate enough to track you into a small shop?

.......

sugarman wrote: »

Accuracy is down to about 1m at present, so very possible.

Really?

Do you have any links for that, Ive had a google but Im not seeing anything that states that level of accuracy.

Thats a hell of a lot more accurate than I thought it would be.

D3V!L

How does your google home assistant know you've said "Hey Google", well its because its always listening to you. So is your phone.

Try having a conversation about something in detail you wouldnt normally talk about, like going on holidays to a certain place while your phone is in ear shot. Then watch the targeted ad's over the next 24 - 48 hours about that place.

seamie78

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

The best is when you've just come back from an amazing holiday and get ads about booking a holday ...

A lot of people feel a bit down after a holiday because its over and cant wait to book their next one to have something to look forward to, imho it is an example of targeted advertising at its best

MetzgerMeister

It has happened to me, my girlfriend and my boss. For me I was talking to my girlfriend about painting my house and picking out colours. I hadn't gone near any hardware stores or anything of the sort beforehand. About 3 hours later I'm scrolling through Facebook and appearing in front of me are ads for paint, rollers, brushes etc.

My girlfriend was talking to her sister about getting a new car. She mentioned several different cars but focused on the Mazda6. Later that night she had ads on Facebook for Mazda dealers in our area.

My boss was talking to his partner in the office about having to go to Lidl to get food after work. Lo and behold a few minutes later he started getting ads for Lidl on Facebook.

It's not just your browser history but when you install the Facebook app (and many other apps) on your phone it asks for permission to use the microphone. This isn't just for making calls through Messenger. I have since turned off the microphone permissions for all apps and haven't had this issue since. It's bloody creepy!

Kimbot

Well OP, how do I tell you this.... I am stalking you for the last 6 months and I tagged you on my Facebook account as checked into the said shop. I have you blocked just in case you think I am a little weird but at least the ad is targetted to you now :P

Deebles McBeebles

You buy one quadcopter and 3 years later, still quadcopter ads.

Oh sh*t, I've typed quadcopter 3 times now. It may never end for me.

Kimbot

Deebles McBeebles wrote: »

You buy one quadcopter and 3 years later, still quadcopter ads.

Oh sh*t, I've typed quadcopter 3 times now. It may never end for me.

Your doomed.......

zapitastas

The person in work is a rat

Chancer3001

Google literally pops up questions to me every day looking for reviews.

How was supervalu.

How was supermacs ...tell others what to expect

It knows exactly where you were

Deebles McBeebles

Kimbot wrote: »

Your doomed.......

Hot naked ladies, hot naked ladies, hot naked ladies.

There. Balance redressed!

sbs2010

D3V!L wrote: »

How does your google home assistant know you've said "Hey Google", well its because its always listening to you. So is your phone.

Try having a conversation about something in detail you wouldnt normally talk about, like going on holidays to a certain place while your phone is in ear shot. Then watch the targeted ad's over the next 24 - 48 hours about that place.

I've seen that happen to me. Through chrome.
The ads here on boards have matched obscure stuff I've been discussing aloud.

biko

I saw you go into the shop, and I rang Google to let them know.

SEPT 23 1989

biko wrote: »

I saw you go into the shop, and I rang Google to let them know.

Do you cut eyeholes in your newspaper?

Franz Von Peppercorn

....... wrote: »

Really?

Do you have any links for that, Ive had a google but Im not seeing anything that states that level of accuracy.

Thats a hell of a lot more accurate than I thought it would be.

Not inside the shop. Did you connect to their WiFi?

Hazys

Talking about "Target"ed ads:

https://www.businessinsider.com/the-incredible-story-of-how-target-exposed-a-teen-girls-pregnancy-2012-2

[A] man walked into a Target outside Minneapolis and demanded to see the manager. He was clutching coupons that had been sent to his daughter, and he was angry, according to an employee who participated in the conversation.

"My daughter got this in the mail!" he said. "She's still in high school, and you're sending her coupons for baby clothes and cribs? Are you trying to encourage her to get pregnant?"

The manager didn't have any idea what the man was talking about. He looked at the mailer. Sure enough, it was addressed to the man's daughter and contained advertisements for maternity clothing, nursery furniture and pictures of smiling infants. The manager apologized and then called a few days later to apologize again.

On the phone, though, the father was somewhat abashed. "I had a talk with my daughter," he said. "It turns out there's been some activities in my house I haven't been completely aware of. She's due in August. I owe you an apology."

prunudo

By any chance did you send a WhatsApp message about what you bought and where you bought it?

Alun

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

Not inside the shop. Did you connect to their WiFi?

You don't need to connect to it. Google uses a huge database of WiFi access point names it has to locate you as well as GPS and cell tower triangulation.

On the question of whether your phone listens to you and pushes ads or Google search suggestions to the top based on what it hears ... AFAIK they vehemently deny it, but it's happened to me on more occasions than can be attributed to chance. I often look up names of more obscure "celebs" when I'm watching quiz shows, and often I've only typed in the first two letters and there it is right at the top, above any number of better known and more famous people.

Hammer89

MetzgerMeister wrote: »

It has happened to me, my girlfriend and my boss. For me I was talking to my girlfriend about painting my house and picking out colours. I hadn't gone near any hardware stores or anything of the sort beforehand. About 3 hours later I'm scrolling through Facebook and appearing in front of me are ads for paint, rollers, brushes etc.

My girlfriend was talking to her sister about getting a new car. She mentioned several different cars but focused on the Mazda6. Later that night she had ads on Facebook for Mazda dealers in our area.

My boss was talking to his partner in the office about having to go to Lidl to get food after work. Lo and behold a few minutes later he started getting ads for Lidl on Facebook.

It's not just your browser history but when you install the Facebook app (and many other apps) on your phone it asks for permission to use the microphone. This isn't just for making calls through Messenger. I have since turned off the microphone permissions for all apps and haven't had this issue since. It's bloody creepy!

I'll need at least three more examples before I believe in your theory.

.......

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

Not inside the shop. Did you connect to their WiFi?

No I didnt use my phone at all in there but it was in my pocket.

jvan wrote: »

By any chance did you send a WhatsApp message about what you bought and where you bought it?

No I definitely only spoke about it afterwards.

tricky D

....... wrote: »

No I didnt use my phone at all in there but it was in my pocket.



No I definitely only spoke about it afterwards.

Beacons can turn on your apps when in range.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth_low_energy_beacon

jmayo

....... wrote: »

Earlier this week I went to a shop that I rarely go to. Its got an unusual name and not many branches.

I paid with a card. I told some people in work I had gone there and bought something and showed them.

The next day i got a targeted ad on Facebook for this shop. I noticed because of its unusual name. I dont ever recall getting a targeted ad for them before.

How do they know? Was it the card payment? Or is someone listening through my phone when I tell people I was there?

Disable data on your phone.
Disable all location tracking.

Better still don't have a modern phone with you at all times because you can now be monitored for good and for bad.

Also stay off facebook it is shyte using you as the product.

People seem to be willingly sleepwalking into a society where they are continously being watched, monitored, tracked because
a) they are told it is for their safety,
b) they are told it is for their convenience and
c) what harm is it if you have nothing to hide.

And just because I am cynical and paranoid doesn't make me wrong.