Eli5: Why does tiktok know when I’ve downloaded a new game on my PS5?

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Downloaded Hunt: Showdown, and tiktok immediately started showing me videos of the game. Didn’t speak the name out loud, didn’t text about it to anyone, didn’t google anything about it. Does Sony share info with tiktok, or could it have recognized the soundtrack of the game through my mic or something?

Edit: the phone is never on the wifi where the console is, so it’s not that.

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36 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

There’s always the possibility that it was shared cookies, or tracking data. With that said, humans tend to think certain things they do are entirely random, when in fact they are not. It’s possible the things you were showing interest in signaled to the algorithm that you were going to show interest in the game based on your history. Other people who showed interest in those same things ended up searching for content like that, so that’s what they served you.

That’s not to say our paranoia about being tracked is unfounded. We absolutely are being tracked, and we absolutely should be concerned about it. But the ways in which we are being tracked is what I think begs discussion.

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