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Go over to friend's place and watch the ads they get, you'll get a good idea of what kind of health concerns or illnesses they may have. So far, in situations
by heavyset_go 11mo ago
Go over to friend's place and watch the ads they get, you'll get a good idea of what kind of health concerns or illnesses they may have.
So far, in situations where it wouldn't be rude to ask, I've been able to determine with pretty good accuracy that at least someone in the household has the advertised health concerns.
You can also get an idea of their financial situation, given what buckets advertisers put them in and what they're advertised, as well.
Similarly, advertisers know when you're at friend's location, or elsewhere, and may show ads tailored to your profile.
- WalterBright 11mo agoYou could have some fun by looking up symptoms of all kinds of diseases, so the profile of you will be filled with errors.
- brewtide 11mo agoIt's more fun to do this wild stuff when using someone else's wifi so it's also associated with their network for later savoring.
- heavyset_go 11mo agoIf you've been to a doctor's office, clinic or hospital lately, you've likely signed away the right for them to share your information with their partners during your initial intake.
- WalterBright 11mo agoMy point was you cannot stop people from collecting data about you. But you can fill it with nonsense.
- ahartman00 11mo agoI wouldnt jump to conclusions too fast. I'm a very thin person, but I get a lot of ads for GLP-1. My doctors have always said I need to gain weight, so I can assure you I'm not searching for weight loss solutions. Nor am I diabetic.
- gruez 11mo agoTo be fair, for GLP-1 drugs I see enough of them in untargeted ads (eg. billboards) that I just assume they're carpetbombing everyone rather than doing precise targeting.
- heavyset_go 11mo agoGLP-1 drugs are such money makers that it's worth advertising them so that you 1) know they exist 2) might recommend them 3) might take them yourself at some point. A month's supply of Wegovy/etc costs nearly $2k. Same thing with the monoclonal antibody drugs, you can be looking at tens of thousands of dollars per month for a single patient. You also see this with luxury brands, that advertise to segments that cannot afford their products, in order to build image of luxury and prestige. That said, I asked my friends/family if they had <not embarrassing or too intrusive> condition, and more often than not, someone in the household had it.
- Morromist 11mo agoHow do advertisers know when you're at your friend's location? Through your phone?
- xvector 11mo agoTwo users sharing the same residential IP address
- heavyset_go 10mo agoConnect to their WiFi, or your WiFi is off and still scanning for (E/B)SSIDs and thus can triangulate your location (this is what Google location services does), same thing with Bluetooth, apps/OS will grab your GPS location, and your phone carrier is selling your live and historic location data to anyone who wants it, including your government.
- Yoric 10mo agoA few months ago, during a boardgaming session, I used a friend's computer to play some music. I made fun of the AI porn ads he had playing whenever I visited a YouTube page. I only later realized that he's not using an adblocker, so this might actually be tailored to his profile.
- AbstractH24 10mo ago> I only later realized that he's not using an adblocker, so this might actually be tailored to his profile. I often forget how different my online experience is because I use Brave