Big Brother is Here, and Watching all we do, even outside our browsers!

The_gh0stm4n wrote:Has been a thing for quite a while I believe.

Wasn't there a story a while back about someone who did research about some form of cancer, and then he subsequently got adverts about a funeral parlor?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2989768/Facebook-slammed-advertising-funeral-directors-CANCER-patient-Promotions-appeared-sufferer-Googled-disease.html

There are alternative browsers out there, I myself use TOR on occasion.

Sim Architect wrote:
Yes, but what I mean is one step further, because I did not browse anywhere for that TV show! 

The_gh0stm4n wrote:

Sim Architect wrote:
Yes, but what I mean is one step further, because I did not browse anywhere for that TV show! 

Oh... not good 

Exactly. I wonder how they tracked me. If the Pop Corn App for Windows were presenting Ads, it would make sense, since Google could match the IP with some data that Pop Corn might be sharing with them. But, since it's not working that way, I don't know where the leak is. If it's a "browser front end" thing using Chrome's engine that might me it. Otherwise they would have to be buying that information from my Internet Service Provider or running their audio recognition software.

That TV show is very much out of the scope I usually watch and I only saw it because of the lack of alternatives (I usually like drama, not adventure), the fact that the ad was completely out of scope on a TV show that I found on PopCorn amongst the shows with latest uploads and played it on my computer just yesterday made me wonder.

Funny enough, they keep serving me ads in Dutch, even though their "intelligence" should be good enough to know that I don't speak the language at all, since I always use their translator whenever a page isn't in English or Portuguese. They are so "intelligent" to hunt you for which products you might want, but can't filter out basic stuff like the languages you speak. I remember once being in Sweden and getting all those crazy ads that would not make any sense to me (before the "automatic translation" days), how would they expect for a person to be interested in buying a product when they see a video or ad they can't understand at all?

Now, they love to snoop but they still need to work on making their results a bit more intelligent.

 

Sim Architect wrote:Otherwise they would have to be buying that information from my Internet Service Provider (...).

The_gh0stm4n wrote:

Sim Architect wrote:Otherwise they would have to be buying that information from my Internet Service Provider (...).

^this option, would be my guess. 

If you're still using Windscribe or similar VPN, consider doing some casual browsing while being connected. See if you still get these "fitting ad recommendations". Should you at that point indeed get these ads, the leak is probably someplace else.