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It's so weird, across all Google's products I occasionally get these weird Arabic and sometimes even Islamic content suggestions. I've never opened any of thes

by krono 5y ago

It's so weird, across all Google's products I occasionally get these weird Arabic and sometimes even Islamic content suggestions. I've never opened any of these links, am not behind a VPN, am very much not Arabic and do not understand the language, and - with all due respect - am completely uninterested in Islamic holy scripture. Why, even after all these years, Google thinks this is content I'd want to see is a complete mystery to me. Something I'm going to have to live with for the rest of my life it seems.

dvfjsdhgfv 5y ago
I can think of several explanations. The least likely is that for some reason your IP (or one of the IPs) is misattributed to another country by their geolocation mapping system. Another is that some of your property have been used by an Arab (you bough a second-hand device, lost a phone etc). More probably ones: one of your devices might have been infected or you might have clicked an ad that was disguised by something else but was linked to products/services offered in Arabic.
- krono 5y ago
  Yes those are the only explanations I came up with as well, but none of that applies. I have kept a log of all IPs I regularly connected from, and only a single one of those originated in another country - another European one. Never lost a device (jinxed now) or bought or even temporarily used a second-hand one. An ad or intrusion do seem to be the most likely culprits, but ads are blocked everywhere, and I believe my security hygiene to be pretty decent. This has been going on for over a decade now. Due to the sporadic nature if these happenings, I'm almost starting to think there's some old (but still wrong) data stuck on some edge node somewhere - or perhaps someone at Google is actively teasing me for being so critical of the company :)
numpad0 5y ago
For me it’s India. “xyz price in India” “restaurant in Delhi” “product - amazon. in” “how to say word in Hindi” and so on. tf?
- mmerlin 5y ago
  Tensorflow? yep the hyperparameters for the search suggester model need a lot more tuning

by krono 5y ago

dvfjsdhgfv 5y ago

I can think of several explanations. The least likely is that for some reason your IP (or one of the IPs) is misattributed to another country by their geolocation mapping system. Another is that some of your property have been used by an Arab (you bough a second-hand device, lost a phone etc). More probably ones: one of your devices might have been infected or you might have clicked an ad that was disguised by something else but was linked to products/services offered in Arabic.

krono 5y ago
Yes those are the only explanations I came up with as well, but none of that applies. I have kept a log of all IPs I regularly connected from, and only a single one of those originated in another country - another European one. Never lost a device (jinxed now) or bought or even temporarily used a second-hand one. An ad or intrusion do seem to be the most likely culprits, but ads are blocked everywhere, and I believe my security hygiene to be pretty decent. This has been going on for over a decade now. Due to the sporadic nature if these happenings, I'm almost starting to think there's some old (but still wrong) data stuck on some edge node somewhere - or perhaps someone at Google is actively teasing me for being so critical of the company :)

numpad0 5y ago

For me it’s India. “xyz price in India” “restaurant in Delhi” “product - amazon. in” “how to say word in Hindi” and so on. tf?

mmerlin 5y ago
Tensorflow? yep the hyperparameters for the search suggester model need a lot more tuning