You visit a website and it stores a cookie in your web browser. You return later on, the cookie identifies you and the site shows you products you were looking at earlier. Old hat (unless you live in the 1990s), but important to understand for what's coming next
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You visit a website and it stores a cookie from a third-party ad network. Later on you visit a different site that carries ads from the same network. They see the cookie and display ads based on what you were looking at earlier. This is called "retargeting" or "remarketing"
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You open Google and search for a product or website, which helps Google build up a profile of you and your interests. Later on you use your Google account to sign in somewhere else, and you see ads based on this profile (N.B. you can turn ads personalisation off if you want to)
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You're logged in to Facebook. You visit a website and it has Facebook's tracking pixel (or Like button) installed, which lets Facebook know you're there. Later on you visit Facebook, and your newsfeed contains adverts based on what you were looking at earlier
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N.B. Facebook doesn't let website owners single you out for these adverts (nor does it sell your data to them). Ads are targeted at groups e.g. people who visited a site in the last 30 days. These groups are called "audiences"
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You visit a website and create an account with them. They upload a list of customer email addresses to Google / Facebook / Twitter etc. to target a campaign. Later on you visit one of these sites, and you see adverts based on what you were looking at earlier
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You turn on incognito mode (aka "private browsing"), which limits things like cookies. The ad network records other information about your system instead, e.g. web browser, IP address, operating system, screen size, time zone etc. This is called "fingerprinting"...
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...Later on you visit a site where this network displays ads. They recognise your browser fingerprint (albeit with varying degrees of accuracy) and you see adverts based on what you were looking at earlier, even though you were using incognito mode
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You log into the same online account on more than one browser or device. The provider of the account associates the different fingerprints with your account. Adverts targeted at your account can now follow you from one browser / device to another
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You carry more than one device and you never log into the same account on both, but you do connect them to the same WiFi networks at the same times, and you use both devices to visit sites that contain trackers from the same ad network. Boom, your devices are associated
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You install an app on your phone. Apps don't use cookies, but your phone sends a unique device ID to the app creator instead. Later on you open a different app and see ads based on the app you were using earlier
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You install an app on your phone, and then sign in to it using one of your online accounts. You guessed it: your device ID is now associated with that account. Later on you see ads based on your apps when you're using the account on your computer
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N.B. Apple, Android and Windows mobile devices all let you disable or reset your device ID. This won't stop you seeing ads, but it will reduce the amount of personalisation that can follow you from one app to another
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You never actually visited a particular site, but other people did. You go on Facebook and see ads for it, because your profile is similar to those other people, and the whole group is being targeted. The group you belong to is called a "lookalike audience"
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You have a voice assistant (aka "smart speaker") and ask it about something. Later on you visit a website that uses an ad network provided by the company that makes your assistant, and you see ads for the thing you asked about
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N.B. In some cases your voice assistant can be triggered without you using its wake word (because its speech recognition system sometimes makes mistakes, and in unpredictable ways). Extremely rare, but will also add to you voice history if it happens
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You never actually visited a particular site, but you share an IP address with people who did, e.g. you and your flatmates are all using the same broadband router. Later on you see ads from that site, because you are all being targeted at your (shared) IP address
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You never actually visited a particular site, but you were in close proximity to other people who did, and you were all signed in to a service with access to your location data. Later on you see ads from that site, because the whole group is being targeted
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After all this, it may surprise you to hear that I don't think personalised ads are anything like the problem they are sometimes made out to be.
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This doesn't mean I think the status quo is OK - we could do with a lot more transparency about how ads are being targeted, and there is still room for improvement on making sure people know and have a choice about when their behaviour is being captured, stored and shared.
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But the fact of the matter is, there are real products and services where zero is the best price point for everyone because it enables the greatest number of people to participate. And in these cases, carrying ads is often the best way to monetise.
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And it turns out targeted advertising is also the best way for lots of new and niche businesses to find their customers. Ideas that would never have been viable before the internet can now get in front of a critical mass of potential customers online.
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Nor is targeted advertising a new phenomenon. Buy a particular newspaper or magazine? Congratulations, you're in a rudimentary lookalike audience. Those coupons they print for you at the supermarket? Retargeting based on past purchases (linked by your store or credit card).
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So even though ads sometimes feel creepy, there are bigger things to worry about - like political campaigns based on voter suppression, or apps that are wrecking our attention spans, or big decisions about the online world moving from elected assemblies to unelected boardrooms.
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Postscript: Thanks for sharing this thread, and for all your feedback and comments! I've written up a longer version with more detailed thoughts here:https://yiu.co.uk/blog/how-did-adverts-get-so-good-at-following-us-around/ …
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