4 ms·

Sometimes I wonder how certain deals show up as website advertisements and recommendations. Certain blog posts or forum posts appear magically in my search resu

by 1-6 6y ago

Sometimes I wonder how certain deals show up as website advertisements and recommendations. Certain blog posts or forum posts appear magically in my search result knowing what I was planning for. Deals and YouTube recommendations also seemed coincidental. Now I know that my debit card has been also leaking my purchase patterns and location. I better add more hosts to my Raspberry Pi-Hole.

3gg 6y ago
Are you suggesting to just block the ads? What I find more annoying is the fact that the data is collected in the first place, as well as the opt-out vs opt-in by default. Your pi-hole won't protect you from that, since the moment you swipe that baby, Visa knows.
- 1-6 6y ago
  I try to opt-out whenever I can but I’m pretty sure there are several other blind-spots I haven’t blocked. Pi-hole does that for both the US and worldwide. I just need to figure out how to proxy my phone web requests home through VPN or WireGuard.
  - Marsymars 6y ago
    I've found it easier to use NextDNS rather than maintaining a Pi-hole and routing everything through my home connection.
    - lucasverra 6y ago
      I can vouch for this also, they are a partner of Firefox DOH feature so good enough for me
soared 6y ago
Your credit card mostly on gets merchant name and total purchase value, so the uses are fairly niche. It’s more likely merchants themselves indirectly selling your purchase data. You can sometimes click the small blue triangle in the corner of an ad (called adchoices) to see how it was targeted.
- chronomex 6y ago
  One hundred percent of the time when I've clicked that button, it says "XYZCorp is advertising to people located in the United States", even when the ad is clearly more targeted than that.
  - soared 6y ago
    Ah, I wish it was better than that.
  - disgruntledphd2 6y ago
    So, assuming that this is FB or Goog, then that makes sense. FB certainly encourage advertisers to use broad targeting with conversion optimisation. This means that the audience is 18+ living in USA, but the combination of the targeting plus the optimisation (click and conversion prediction, mostly) means that it seems much more targeted than it is.
- bolasanibk 6y ago
  Level 3 cc processing is becoming more common though.
- nitrogen 6y ago
  If I recall correctly, when I worked on ecommerce payment processing several years ago, the payment processor got a full itemized list for each transaction. Another comment here mentioned airport codes for airfares (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25577366 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25577366).
  - soared 6y ago
    That was my comment actually. You could be right, as I’ve only used visa data for advertising which was merchant names only. Lots of merchants do sell itemized data though. Stripe/etc definitely get itemized, but credits cards get less as far as I know.
    - 6y ago

by 1-6 6y ago

3gg 6y ago

Are you suggesting to just block the ads? What I find more annoying is the fact that the data is collected in the first place, as well as the opt-out vs opt-in by default. Your pi-hole won't protect you from that, since the moment you swipe that baby, Visa knows.

1-6 6y ago
I try to opt-out whenever I can but I’m pretty sure there are several other blind-spots I haven’t blocked. Pi-hole does that for both the US and worldwide. I just need to figure out how to proxy my phone web requests home through VPN or WireGuard.
- Marsymars 6y ago
  I've found it easier to use NextDNS rather than maintaining a Pi-hole and routing everything through my home connection.
  - lucasverra 6y ago
    I can vouch for this also, they are a partner of Firefox DOH feature so good enough for me

soared 6y ago

Your credit card mostly on gets merchant name and total purchase value, so the uses are fairly niche. It’s more likely merchants themselves indirectly selling your purchase data. You can sometimes click the small blue triangle in the corner of an ad (called adchoices) to see how it was targeted.

chronomex 6y ago
One hundred percent of the time when I've clicked that button, it says "XYZCorp is advertising to people located in the United States", even when the ad is clearly more targeted than that.
- soared 6y ago
  Ah, I wish it was better than that.
- disgruntledphd2 6y ago
  So, assuming that this is FB or Goog, then that makes sense. FB certainly encourage advertisers to use broad targeting with conversion optimisation. This means that the audience is 18+ living in USA, but the combination of the targeting plus the optimisation (click and conversion prediction, mostly) means that it seems much more targeted than it is.
bolasanibk 6y ago
Level 3 cc processing is becoming more common though.
nitrogen 6y ago
If I recall correctly, when I worked on ecommerce payment processing several years ago, the payment processor got a full itemized list for each transaction. Another comment here mentioned airport codes for airfares (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25577366 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25577366).
- soared 6y ago
  That was my comment actually. You could be right, as I’ve only used visa data for advertising which was merchant names only. Lots of merchants do sell itemized data though. Stripe/etc definitely get itemized, but credits cards get less as far as I know.
  - 6y ago