• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Targeted ads source?

S

stan921

Lurker
So here's the thing. I took a pic of a business card and texted it to a friend. The next day, I was going thru my news feed on FaceBook and an advertisement for that company showed up in my feed and Instagram was shown at the bottom of the ad. It's the only time I've ever seen an ad for that company.
I don't have an Instagram account or have an Instagram app on my phone. I looked thru my FB settings and I don't think I have granted permissions to any apps. I've never "liked" that company.
Can anyone tell me how just sending a pic of a business card generated an ad targeted to me. I'd like to not have that happen. I don't know where to begin looking for the app that was able to do that. If I can find it, I'll uninstall it.
I'd appreciate any information that you can share. Thanks!
 
Were you looking at any websites related to that company or doing internet searches for it at any time? I'm thinking of things like tracking cookies. Maybe your carrier sent data to Facebook? Do you have your phone number linked to your FB or Google account etc.?
 
Last edited:
Facebook are dreadful: they don't only track FB users, but they track people who don't have FB accounts. All "in order to improve our service" (how that applies to people who don't use that service Zuckerberg has never explained).

Do their playing fast and loose would not surprise me at all. But as Mike says, they generally use browsers for these shenanigans, so that's where I'd check first.
 
I do have my phone number linked to Google.
I haven't done any web searches even remotely related to that business or visited their website for at least 6 years. Just texting that pic was the only thing. Makes me wonder if my microphone is listening in. Disgusting and creepy at the same time.
I have a Galaxy S9, is there a way to tell which apps have access to the microphone? I know Google does because I have "ok google" set up. Maybe I should rethink that...
 
stan921 said:
I do have my phone number linked to Google.
I haven't done any web searches even remotely related to that business or visited their website for at least 6 years. Just texting that pic was the only thing. Makes me wonder if my microphone is listening in. Disgusting and creepy at the same time.
I have a Galaxy S9, is there a way to tell which apps have access to the microphone? I know Google does because I have 'ok google' set up. Maybe I should rethink that...
Click to expand...

Maybe it was Samsung Bixby that was listening to you, and leaking to Facebook? What texting and messaging app are you using, the stock S9 or some other third-party one? The business card image could have been OCR'd by some server somewhere, the data aggregated and sold to Facebook?
 
Last edited:
stan921 said:
.... I know Google does because I have "ok google" set up. Maybe I should rethink that...
Click to expand...
Instead of blaming Google, you should seriously give some thought about having the Facebook app on your phone. There's no shortage of media coverage on the Internet lately regarding revelations on Facebook's invasive data mining practices, here's just a couple out of dozens and dozens:
https://arstechnica.com/information...t-message-data-for-years-from-android-phones/

https://www.phonearena.com/news/Facebook-took-call-and-text-data-from-Android-phones_id103523
 
I'm not blaming Google, I was hoping there is a way to figure out exactly which app generated an ad from a picture I texted.
 
Read through one of those links, or just do a search for something like 'Android Facebook app' and you'll find any number of articles relevant to your problem.
 
I did it a few weeks ago, and was surprised mine wasn't worse. I guess tracker blocking on any browser I use, plus being very parsimonious with permissions, never liking any commercial outfit or post, etc, was worth something (at least compared to people who found that FB had full logs of their calls and messages!).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom