Coincidence?

[IBMJunkman]

A couple of days ago I sent an Amazon link for a product to a friend. I looked up the item on Amazon and copy/pasted the URL into the email.

Today in my X feed I was served an ad from Amazon for the same item.

There is no commonality with my X info and my Amazon info.

Coincidence?

 

[nakedfrog]

Probably not a coincidence, if you don't take active countermeasures there's a lot that can be gleaned about you by various websites.

 

[IronWing]

Tracking cookies 🍪

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Of course that's not a coincidence. We're tracked six ways from Sunday, including externally just via IP.

 

[lxskllr]

I don't get ads anywhere, unless they're analog ads I see while driving or something. I have no idea if I'm tracked or not :^D

Really, I'm probably not tracked in any meaningful sense. Third party cookies are blocked, all cookies not whitelisted get purged on tab close, and all scripts are blocked by default. My phone has no google account, and the advertising ID's been deleted. I'm about as invisible as you can get while still being connected.

 

[IBMJunkman]

I am just trying to figure out how the connection, if any, was made. This is all on my iPad. In Safari I don't logout of my Amazon account. So it knew I did the search. But I was using the X app when the ad appeared. I was logged into X. User info for X does not include the email address I use with Amazon.

 

[lxskllr]

There's about infinite ways it /could/ be done, but without insider info, it's just a blackbox and speculation. I find the behavior highly suspicious, and while it could simply be coincidence, I don't think it is.

I don't know if apple has an advertising ID on their devices like android does, but that would be an easy way to identify you.

 

[nakedfrog]

I am just trying to figure out how the connection, if any, was made. This is all on my iPad. In Safari I don't logout of my Amazon account. So it knew I did the search. But I was using the X app when the ad appeared. I was logged into X. User info for X does not include the email address I use with Amazon.

Data brokers and your digital footprint.

 

[Red Squirrel]

It's freaky the amount of tracking they do both online and IRL. Seems security extensions only go so far too.

I block all ads but I'm sure there's still lot of tracking going on in the background regardless. I try to block as much tracking as I can, in areas of life where it's convenient such as avoiding things like cloud services or phone apps, but it's hard to block all tracking 100% especially browser level tracking. Seems to me more effort should be made by browser makers, an easy fix would be to default each domain being it's own container so that one site can't access your browsing info from other sites such as cookies and history.

 

[dullard]

I'm confused. You specifically went to an item on Amazon and now you are confused that Amazon is advertising that specific item to you?

Heck, the fact that your friend looked at an item is enough information to feed you that ad.

 

[nakedfrog]

I'm confused. You specifically went to an item on Amazon and now you are confused that Amazon is advertising that specific item to you?

Heck, the fact that your friend looked at an item is enough information to feed you that ad.

He's confused that he saw an Amazon ad on Twitter for the item when his email address on Twitter is different than his Amazon account.

 

[lxskllr]

I don't know if apple has an advertising ID on their devices like android does

How to Disable Ad ID Tracking on iOS and Android, and Why You Should Do It Now

The ad identifier - aka “IDFA” on iOS, or “AAID” on Android - is the key that enables most third-party tracking on mobile devices. Disabling it will make it substantially harder for advertisers and data brokers to track and profile you, and will limit the amount of your personal information up...

www.eff.org

 

[dullard]

He's confused that he saw an Amazon ad on Twitter for the item when his email address on Twitter is different than his Amazon account.

But why? Has nothing to do with email addresses.

 

[nakedfrog]

But why? Has nothing to do with email addresses.

I know that, and you know that, but he apparently is in the process of learning that.

i suppose to be clearer, he says there's no information connecting the two, not specifically email address, but I don't think you give Twitter much more detail than that.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

I am just trying to figure out how the connection, if any, was made. This is all on my iPad. In Safari I don't logout of my Amazon account. So it knew I did the search. But I was using the X app when the ad appeared. I was logged into X. User info for X does not include the email address I use with Amazon.

There's a few ways it's done.

example a) you search for an item on amazon, logged in as you. It creates a cookie on your machine that is available to ad trackers on sites. You go to twitter (or any other site) with an ad platform, it checks for your cookies, finds the relevant info, and advertises to you based on that cookie.

example b) a connection is made from your IP to amazon associated with searches with xyz product. Henceforth when you go to a site with amazon's hooks into it, the advertising platform reads your IP connecting to that site, and advertises to you. This is how you end up with ads on your (digital) tv for shit you googled, on a separate platform, even through incognito.

There's nuance behind all this, but suffice to say that you have a digital persona that is known to The Internet (tm) and is tracked far and wide, between sites, platforms, countries. Every time you touch the internet in a way it can cross-associate back to your digital persona, it will do so.

 

[dullard]

There's a few ways it's done.

Most likely it was a 1x1 impression pixel (which Amazon uses) retargeting to any site that is willing to accept an ad:

What Are Advertising Pixels? Retargeting, Cookies & the Future | Viant

Learn how retargeting pixels work, their role in advertising and marketing, and what their future looks like in a world without third-party cookies.

www.viantinc.com

Cookies are no longer necessary, so deleting cookies doesn't stop the tracking.

 

[nakedfrog]

Yeah, we were using 1x1 pixels for tracking way back in the early 2000s when I was working for a company that made decent money doing email blasts for customers.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Most likely it was a 1x1 impression pixel (which Amazon uses) retargeting to any site that is willing to accept an ad:

What Are Advertising Pixels? Retargeting, Cookies & the Future | Viant

Learn how retargeting pixels work, their role in advertising and marketing, and what their future looks like in a world without third-party cookies.

www.viantinc.com

Cookies are no longer necessary, so deleting cookies doesn't stop the tracking.

Yeah that's why I caveated it lol, there's many very effective ways of tracking humans, designed by humans to get around blocks that humans come up with.

 

[balloonshark]

To even see X content on anandtech I have to allow tracking content in firefox's settings. I also run my browser sandboxed so everything is wiped but my history and downloads. All cookies, etc. get wiped.

With firefox they have a container add-on and facebook container add-ons that can help isolate one site from another. They also have other non-official container add-ons.

Firefox Multi-Account Containers â Get this Extension for ð¦ Firefox (en-US)

Download Firefox Multi-Account Containers for Firefox. Firefox Multi-Account Containers lets you keep parts of your online life separated into color-coded tabs. Cookies are separated by container, allowing you to use the web with multiple accounts and integrate Mozilla VPN for an extra layer of...

addons.mozilla.org

Facebook Container â Get this Extension for ð¦ Firefox (en-US)

Download Facebook Container for Firefox. Prevent Facebook from tracking you around the web. The Facebook Container extension for Firefox helps you take control and isolate your web activity from Facebook.

addons.mozilla.org

They can also track you by your unique browser profile or fingerprint.

What is a digital fingerprint?

A digital fingerprint is essentially a list of characteristics that are unique to a single user, their browser, and their particular hardware setup. This includes information the browser needs to send to access websites, like the location of the website the user is requesting. But it also includes a host of seemingly insignificant data (like screen resolution and installed fonts) gathered by tracking scripts. Tracking sites can stitch all the small pieces together to form a unique picture, or "fingerprint," of your device.

More about tracking: https://www.eff.org/pages/cover-your-tracks

 

[Chaotic42]

When my gf comes over and looks at dresses and such on her phone, I will get ads for makeup and dresses on my unrelated Amazon and Facebook accounts soon after. The future is so great!

 

[RossMAN]

5g tracking nano-satellites covertly injected into "the vaccine".

 

[lxskllr]

5g tracking nano-satellites covertly injected into "the vaccine".

 

[IBMJunkman]

I'm confused. You specifically went to an item on Amazon and now you are confused that Amazon is advertising that specific item to you?

Heck, the fact that your friend looked at an item is enough information to feed you that ad.

On different platforms. I search on their web page. The ad was served on X. Trying to figure how the connection was made.

 

[IBMJunkman]

There's a few ways it's done.

example a) you search for an item on amazon, logged in as you. It creates a cookie on your machine that is available to ad trackers on sites. You go to twitter (or any other site) with an ad platform, it checks for your cookies, finds the relevant info, and advertises to you based on that cookie.

example b) a connection is made from your IP to amazon associated with searches with xyz product. Henceforth when you go to a site with amazon's hooks into it, the advertising platform reads your IP connecting to that site, and advertises to you. This is how you end up with ads on your (digital) tv for shit you googled, on a separate platform, even through incognito.

There's nuance behind all this, but suffice to say that you have a digital persona that is known to The Internet (tm) and is tracked far and wide, between sites, platforms, countries. Every time you touch the internet in a way it can cross-associate back to your digital persona, it will do so.

I was not on the X website. I was in the X app which I assume cannot see web cookies.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

I was not on the X website. I was in the X app which I assume cannot see web cookies.

You assume wrong. There's also plenty of methods that do not rely on actual web cookies alone.