• Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    What I want to know is why when I’m talking to my wife in the car about buying new shoes do I get a YouTube ad that evening about new shoes, when I never got that kind of ad before.

    Are our phones listening to us while we talk in the car, and then ads are generated from that?

    I’d really like to know the answer to that question.

    Edit: fixed typo, shoes, not shows.

    Anti Commercial-AI license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

    • ccunning@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      What are the odds than anyone in the household searched for the shows? Targeting ads to all devices on the same IP or even devices that have previously been on the same network happens.

      I was able to predict that my mom had been researching “bunion shoes” after I started seeing ads, seemingly randomly, for them not long after she came to my house to visit.

        • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          It’s not even just that, humans a incredibly predictable and that predictability is able to be microtargeted based on trends and past activity of an individual.

          I literally let years go by between buying shoes, no kidding. So I don’t think that what you described would cover my specific case.

          Especially out of the blue, and not shown ads for that at all before, and exactly around the same time when that discussion comes up in a moving vehicle.

          (As an aside, and in case you’re curious, when it comes time to buy new shoes, I usually buy two or three pairs of the same shoe, and then stick the other ones in the closet (usually buy at a really good sales price). Then when the first ones wear out I throw them away, and grab the next pair out of the closet.)

          Anti Commercial-AI license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)