I’ve seen people do tests with brand new phones and/or computers where they show the ads on dozens of websites are not showing a particular item or genre of product. Then all they do is talk about a thing near the phone and within an hour nearly all of the same websites are showing ads for the thing they just talked about. One I recall was specifically talking about getting a new puppy, and then all of the ads were for puppy and pet supplies.
The point is that you are connected and your data is observed. In most cases the data is not directly linked to you by name, but instead to the electronic ID that your phone uses to connect with the networks. That ID can be tagged in advertising algorithms.
hi. digital marketer here.
You have a behavioral profile based around your demographic, geographic, and psychographic characteristics. You took your phone into a store yesterday, likely with location services enabled. Your presence in that store is cross-referenced with those profiles and typical purchasing behaviors of individuals matching your profile characteristics to select from a group of X number of products that would match that behavior, and then you got served an ad for that product.
AKA, we know that 30 year old men who drive an hour to someones house, connect to their wifi, and then drive to a convenience store are probably shopping for toothpaste or deodorant they forgot, because we’ve observed that behavior several hundred thousand times across the world.
Your phone is listening to every conversation you have. If you said anything at all about the product around your electronics that’s why it knows what product. The where is simply a matter of your phone tracking everywhere you go. You consented to both of these surveillance methods when you agreed to the terms and conditions you probably didn’t read.
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