So I need to share this. A reddit user asked about a friend into yarn, visiting and then him getting "yarn" advertising. The friend didn't use his WiFi.
Here's the explanation:
They have a "yarn interested phone" (or in technical terms they have a device ad ID that shows they love yarn). Okay so basically their phone was in his house. Now his house IP address is linked to a device that loves yarn. All these ad tech vendors that just do basic IP targeting will, for a short while, tell Google they want yarn targeting and on Google's end it will then be targeting any device that was connected to the IP address, with yarn stuff.
I've worked in ad tech for 15 years. It's a mis understanding that phones listen. There is always a more complicated explanation.
If the friend never used the WiFi, their phone was scanning the WiFi networks in the area still and relaying that to Google. The mesh network of all Android phones in the world by default relay the WiFi SSIDs and strength to Google for the worlds biggest and most accurate location mesh. That's why their GPS is so accurate, it's less GPS and more like WiFi strength triangulation for location (except for rural).
The friend being there for a long duration essentially flagged that the house IP address is into yarn. Even if they didn't even use the internet on that IP address.
I hope that scares everyone, I'm glad Google are current being sued by DOJ.
#privacy #advertising #targeting #google #fingerprinting
Miriam Boosh