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Question regarding IP address and ads

  • 28-04-2021 05:29PM
    #1
    Santan
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 381 ✭✭


    Just a stupid question that I don't know the answer to, I searched to buy sports equipment on my laptop, didn't purchase or anything but did add to the cart, so it is under my user name. I have never used the site before, it's decathlon, so it's not on my phone, at least not registered on my phone as a user anyway. Now today all I see is ads on my phone for decathlon and the product I was going to buy. Is this tracking from my wifi IP address or tracked back to my email on my phone from the laptop.


Comments

  • #2
    frozenfrozen
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,681 ✭✭✭frozenfrozen


    loads of ways. they have a few fingerprints devices for who you are and they are linked to a profile about you so they can take information from wherever they think it's you and add it to your ad profile to serve ads to you


  • #3
    bnt
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,116 ✭✭✭✭bnt


    It's not about IP address: the IP address you get at any time is not permanent, it can change at any time. Your ISP can link it to your account, of course (since they assign it to you), but apart from that, it's not a unique identifier that can point at you or your exact location. Every server you communicate with gets your current IP address, since that's how they respond to you, but that isn't much use for tracking.

    Instead, tracking is usually in the form of cookies and scripts e.g. one site embeds a Facebook script that sets a unique cookie and does a callback to Facebook. If you've used Facebook on that browser, Facebook now knows you accessed that site, and they can use that information to sell targeted ads at you. So if Facebook was involved in your Decathlon example like that, that's the common factor that ties websites together.

    There are a lot of companies that want to to create a marketing profile on you. This includes Distilled SCH, the company behind boards.ie. Hey, someone has to pay for this server, and it's not you (or me).

    You are the type of what the age is searching for, and what it is afraid it has found. I am so glad that you have never done anything, never carved a statue, or painted a picture, or produced anything outside of yourself! Life has been your art. You have set yourself to music. Your days are your sonnets.

    ―Oscar Wilde predicting Social Media, in The Picture of Dorian Gray



  • #4
    Yurt2
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,381 ✭✭✭Yurt2


    This reminds me of that time a backbencher in Westminster went off on a mad one in parliament about smutty pornographic banner ads and the government ought to do something about it, moral decay etc etc -- until a government MP helpfully pointed out that banner ads of that sort are based on the device user's search terms and activity.


  • #5
    Santan
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 381 ✭✭Santan


    bnt wrote: »
    It's not about IP address: the IP address you get at any time is not permanent, it can change at any time. Your ISP can link it to your account, of course (since they assign it to you), but apart from that, it's not a unique identifier that can point at you or your exact location. Every server you communicate with gets your current IP address, since that's how they respond to you, but that isn't much use for tracking.

    Instead, tracking is usually in the form of cookies and scripts e.g. one site embeds a Facebook script that sets a unique cookie and does a callback to Facebook. If you've used Facebook on that browser, Facebook now knows you accessed that site, and they can use that information to sell targeted ads at you. So if Facebook was involved in your Decathlon example like that, that's the common factor that ties websites together.

    There are a lot of companies that want to to create a marketing profile on you. This includes Distilled SCH, the company behind boards.ie. Hey, someone has to pay for this server, and it's not you (or me).

    Excellent explanation thanks


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