What is this advertising sorcery?!

[Mumsymumphy]

I was reading a thread on here about cats and someone had mentioned in a reply about cats liking drinking from a water fountain. I didn't know this so thought I'd check cat fountains out on ebay/Amazon with the possibility of getting one for my cats- but I never got round to even searching/looking.

Just been on my Facebook and lo and behold there's an advert for a cat fountain! Never even seen one before.

What sorcery is going on here?! Can Google (or whoever) read our minds now? AIBU to think the robots are taking over!?

Google knows what you want before you do ! it is a all seeing omnipresent being

Either that or you searched for cat fountain in your sleep

I checked my ebay and Amazon accounts as thought I must have searched for it and had forgotten, but no not searched for it 😱

Did you say the words or something relevant out loud at all?

If you have the microphone enabled it can listen in and serve up adverts. I couldn't believe it until it happened to me a couple of years ago. I'd been discussing something quite obscure. 100% certain I had not searched online, but the next day I was served up a load of adverts on obscure thing.

No didn't say it out loud, was on my own. Have just been googling and found some research done. It mentions 3rd party 'libraries' that take screenshots of your phone without your consent!

This was supposed to be a light-hearted thread (I know that if I click on something it can generate a whole host of data links etc but I didn't click on anything, merely read all the thread) but I'm now getting a bit concerned!

I've found a webpage detailing the research in more detail. It's a lengthy read but very interesting.

threatpost.com/android-app-are-sharing-screenshots-video-recordings-to-third-parties-report-finds/133686/

Advertising cookies track which Mumsnet threads you've been reading. So your interest in cat water fountains is logged.

When you visit Facebook this data is used to populate advertisements there.

The "meant to go to Amazon but didn't" is a red herring.

(Or it's a coincidence and you're experiencing conformation bias. And, presumably, you own cats? Advertising cookies probably already know this about you. So there's a relatively small number of cat products which might be advertised, but only fountains seems "spooky")

I’d recommend watching The Great Hack on Netflix - but prepare to feel very unsettled when you learn how ads work.

Happens with virtually everything I ever search for. Yesterday I googled Legoland tickets, went on Facebook afterwards, lol and behold - Legoland advert.

The thread wasn't about water fountains (can't remember what it was about though) but I'm thinking it was in 'the litter tray' topic so granted, somewhere there's a bot that knows I like and have cats.

If phone bots are capturing every single word written in a thread then surely my adverts should be more diverse? Gosh when I think of the weird and wonderful threads and replies on here that I've read, then FB should be showing me all sorts of paraphernalia on there! 🤣 I should be grateful it's just water fountains I suppose 😁

Do you have cats? Have you ever searched about cats, bought cat products online etc?

If so it's not terribly difficult for an algorithm to be able to pick out which keywords might be relevant to you and which not.

My point is this is rather user tracking stuff which has been the backbone of internet advertising for about 20 years, not some brand new spooky AI cyber dystopia. And definitely not your phone reading your mind, taking secret screenshots, or whatever.

Get a pihole if you're that worried, they're great.

You read a thread about it so it was saved in your cookies. Then, you logged onto Amazon/eBay and because your cookies showed you'd been reading about cat fountains, they tailored your adverts towards what you'd been reading about.

It's honestly nothing more sinister than that!

Online advertising works because it connects all your internet history together - remember, you're just a way for them to make money.

What's a pihole? No not really worried, it's only advertising.

I was discussing a mates holiday in Mexico and he commented that there was a ‘Day of the Dead’ type festival. Since that conversation, last week, I keep getting notifications of special deals booking holidays to see this event. My phone was in my bag under the table.
And I am really not sure what sort of school the bots think my children attend!

It is called the Facebook pixel. MN has installed one.in fact most websites have them 🙂they are fun to play with. There was a guy who did it to his flatmate that was hilarious.

ghostinfluence.com/the-ultimate-retaliation-pranking-my-roommate-with-targeted-facebook-ads/

Here is the story. I showed my ds how to do it too 🤣

(Disclaimer: been running fb ads for years!)

Happens with virtually everything I ever search for. Yesterday I googled Legoland tickets, went on Facebook afterwards, lol and behold - Legoland advert

But that's not something to be surprised about, that's how the internet works, did you not know that?

What is more concerning is the Day of the Dead example above

@coconuttelegraph yes, yes I did know that. Hence my reply to OP, who was shocked at the exact same thing. I'm surprised there's anyone out there who had not yet encountered it, but there you go.

I still find it disconcerting when I look up something on my work PC and it then brings an advert up on my phone - even though I delete cookies every day.

I know the phone "listens" but DH and I were talking about an equity release scheme when we were walking the dog and sure enough an ad came up later for the company we'd been discussing. But the thing is neither of us had had our phones on us! I'm beginning to think the fuckers are actual reading my mind.

Checks skin for chip entry point...

Ads can be optimised to voice search.
See this article from search engine journal. www.google.com/amp/s/www.searchenginejournal.com/ppc-campaigns-voice-search/246437/amp/

But bwekfusth the ops hasnt searched for it, that's the issue here isn't it?

@coconuttelegraph I must have hugely misread the OP, I thought she searched for it in amazon and then saw an ad on Facebook. Oops.

Phones listen. Otherwise how do they know you are saying ok google, Alexa etc?

Voice search is on the rise. So therefore marketers have risen to that challenge.

So if the phone is listening and active and you say a keyword phrase you will get ads.

I run ads and I don't have voice search/microphone enabled on my phone for that reason! (And we will never get an Alexa, dot, etc)

Yes it was the fact that I'd not searched for it that had me spooked. I'd not clicked on anything, not spoken about it etc.

Of course I already knew about things you search for coming up elsewhere and had heard about microphones being used in the same way - although the research I linked to below didn't find any evidence of this, at least not whilst conducting their research, they still went in to say this doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

It's interesting to learn about all the different ways these companies lift your data, it's the world we live in.