Yikes, the creepy online ads that follow your offline real world activities finally caught up to me after successfully evading this for 5 years. It appears to be a Bluetooth information leak exploited by the Twitter app to display an Apple App Store ad.
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It’s an App Store ad for GrubHub, shown while visiting a restaurant where a GrubHub van was picking up food. I’ve never used GrubHub and never seen an ad from them or Apple ever before. I wonder if this is Twitter exploring a Bluetooth info leak or if Apple is in cahoots.
16 replies 5 retweets 88 likesShow this thread -
Replying to @TimSweeneyEpic
I have Twitter app settings allowed to access my location while I'm using the app, so presumably Grubhub could buy ads on Twitter targeted at people at or near restaurants they serve.
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Replying to @wakebrdkid
I have Location Services turned off entirely, and then I block all non-mapping apps from Location Services.
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Replying to @TimSweeneyEpic
My only fall back guess would be if you hit the restaurant WiFi and Twitter looked up that known IP location server side. Otherwise goes beyond my knowledge of these data flows and ad services.
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Replying to @wakebrdkid
WiFi was disabled. Signal continuity implies there wasn’t a cellular base station on premises, and the nearest tower was over 1 mile away in the rain. So though I don’t trust AT&T, I don’t think they could have triangulated me to a small restaurant next to a big grocery store.
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Replying to @TimSweeneyEpic @wakebrdkid
Maybe it was my Chase Visa transaction at the counter 5 minutes prior to the ad. Pretty scary as this implies a Twitter ad tech provider correlated my credit card transaction with a GrubHub driver’s smartphone GPS. I’ve never seen a Visa data leak before, and this was realtime.
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Replying to @TimSweeneyEpic @wakebrdkid
My bank sends everything I Buy to google ads. I know this because as a test I bought something in a grocery aisle at random that i never bought before. I saw ads for the product within hours on my phone.
1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
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Replying to @TimSweeneyEpic @wakebrdkid
and here you go, note how I can "limit" this but can't get them to fully stop: https://www.bankofamerica.com/security-center/consumer-privacy-notice/ …pic.twitter.com/X2wm8bv9Wc
0 replies 0 retweets 0 likesThanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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