5 ms·

I don't understand how targeted ads on Grindr can be used to get peoples locations. Does the ad auction tell the users current location? Does grindr let you ru

by mucle6 3y ago

I don't understand how targeted ads on Grindr can be used to get peoples locations. Does the ad auction tell the users current location? Does grindr let you run your own auction bidder on your own machine?

prepend 3y ago
Ad serves up an image hosted by the advertiser. Phone makes an http get for the image and gives out its IP. You can also target ads by geography and do a lat/long box over your target area and show a specific ad so you know how many unique users are in that area.
- 082349872349872 3y ago
  > so you know how many unique users are in that area would you like to know more? see also: https://www.jstor.org/stable/27862533 https://www.jstor.org/stable/27862533 Baryshnikov & Ghrist, Target Enumeration Via Euler Characteristic Integrals (2009) > We solve the problem of counting the total number of observable targets (e.g., persons, vehicles, landmarks) in a region using local counts performed by a network of sensors, each of which measures the number of targets nearby but neither their identities nor any positional information. We formulate and solve several such problems based on the types of sensors and mobility of the targets.
- eastbound 3y ago
  Giving up the IP is against the GDPR.
  - victorbjorklund 3y ago
    this about US not EU
  - iamacyborg 3y ago
    That hasn’t stopped RTB (real time bidding) mechanisms from leaking personal data to hundred/thousands of third parties yet.
    - fsociety 3y ago
      Sad but true. And many of those third parties, even security-oriented ones, care more about profits than privacy.
  - KTibow 3y ago
    All network requests give out your IP.
  - karaterobot 3y ago
    FYI, the Pentagon is a metonym for the Department of Defense of the United States, and GDPR is EU legislation.
  - weberer 3y ago
    GDPR just politely requests that companies don't use this data. Do you think the alphabet agencies are actually going to comply?
  - prepend 3y ago
    How would the server return the data to the client without an IP address?
partiallypro 3y ago
SnapChat does the same thing, we (not me technically, I am just a developer that worked with our ad team) set up Geofences around events to serve ads and we could continue to target those users for continuous remarketing as soon as they stepped foot into and out of a location of our choosing. In our case it was mostly a concert and car race. We knew -a lot- more than we probably should have. You could push filters, and all kinds of stuff within those custom geofences. Facebook & Google have similar, but it's not near as granular as what I saw with Snap. They might have changed it by now, this is when they first were getting into advertising. It honestly wasn't very effective, probably because of the demographic that uses SnapChat. Tiktok was used to find and track/monitor Chinese dissident whereabouts a few years ago by the CCP in Hong Kong.
- crtasm 3y ago
  It feels so creepy, thanks for the insight.
- asdffdasasdf 3y ago
  every ad network does this. right before the pandemic the new feature released on all big five was digital-out-of-home, which is the literal plot of dystopian movies... outdoors targeted to people passing by. after that they all added targeting by weather (latest fine grained targeting under gdpr) and BT beacon tracking. fun fact, google uses BT on your phone to mark of you entered a store after seeing an ad for it to get paid for the "conversion".

by mucle6 3y ago

prepend 3y ago

Ad serves up an image hosted by the advertiser. Phone makes an http get for the image and gives out its IP. You can also target ads by geography and do a lat/long box over your target area and show a specific ad so you know how many unique users are in that area.

082349872349872 3y ago
> so you know how many unique users are in that area would you like to know more? see also: https://www.jstor.org/stable/27862533 https://www.jstor.org/stable/27862533 Baryshnikov & Ghrist, Target Enumeration Via Euler Characteristic Integrals (2009) > We solve the problem of counting the total number of observable targets (e.g., persons, vehicles, landmarks) in a region using local counts performed by a network of sensors, each of which measures the number of targets nearby but neither their identities nor any positional information. We formulate and solve several such problems based on the types of sensors and mobility of the targets.
eastbound 3y ago
Giving up the IP is against the GDPR.
- victorbjorklund 3y ago
  this about US not EU
- iamacyborg 3y ago
  That hasn’t stopped RTB (real time bidding) mechanisms from leaking personal data to hundred/thousands of third parties yet.
  - fsociety 3y ago
    Sad but true. And many of those third parties, even security-oriented ones, care more about profits than privacy.
- KTibow 3y ago
  All network requests give out your IP.
- karaterobot 3y ago
  FYI, the Pentagon is a metonym for the Department of Defense of the United States, and GDPR is EU legislation.
- weberer 3y ago
  GDPR just politely requests that companies don't use this data. Do you think the alphabet agencies are actually going to comply?
- prepend 3y ago
  How would the server return the data to the client without an IP address?

partiallypro 3y ago

SnapChat does the same thing, we (not me technically, I am just a developer that worked with our ad team) set up Geofences around events to serve ads and we could continue to target those users for continuous remarketing as soon as they stepped foot into and out of a location of our choosing. In our case it was mostly a concert and car race. We knew -a lot- more than we probably should have. You could push filters, and all kinds of stuff within those custom geofences. Facebook & Google have similar, but it's not near as granular as what I saw with Snap. They might have changed it by now, this is when they first were getting into advertising. It honestly wasn't very effective, probably because of the demographic that uses SnapChat. Tiktok was used to find and track/monitor Chinese dissident whereabouts a few years ago by the CCP in Hong Kong.

crtasm 3y ago
It feels so creepy, thanks for the insight.
asdffdasasdf 3y ago
every ad network does this. right before the pandemic the new feature released on all big five was digital-out-of-home, which is the literal plot of dystopian movies... outdoors targeted to people passing by. after that they all added targeting by weather (latest fine grained targeting under gdpr) and BT beacon tracking. fun fact, google uses BT on your phone to mark of you entered a store after seeing an ad for it to get paid for the "conversion".