Isn't it annoying how targeted ads haunt you wherever you go and whatever you do? As for me, I usually filter them in my mind, not paying attention to what they say, but some time ago they really started giving me the creeps. So I decided to investigate the issue and I actually found some disturbing stuff. I hope the results of my inquiry will help you too. You see, like everyone else, I'm used to getting targeted ads in my browser after each and every search session. That's not really surprising: after all, I'm spilling all the beans myself if I need a new ironing board, for instance, the first thing I do is go search where I can find one. Ads go crazy after that, suggesting companies I've never heard of and offering best deals ever. And that's okay, that's how they work. But not so long ago, I accidentally left an empty pan on the hot stove and went to work. It was a miracle that my apartment didn't burn up, but the pan was beyond saving, of course. I told my girlfriend about this accident when she came over that night, and made a mental note to buy a new pan. The next morning, when I opened the browser on my phone, the first thing I saw was an ad of some kitchen utensil store brandishing a thumbnail¦ with a pan in it. To say I was dumbfounded would be a huge understatement. I hadn't searched the web for a new pan yet; I didn't mention anything about my mishap on Facebook or Twitter or any other social media; heck, I didn't even call anyone! All I did was tell my girlfriend, and that was it. How in the world could my phone know I needed a new pan?! I admit, at first I thought it was just a crazy coincidence. But then I started noticing this happening more often. I would talk about a coming business trip with my friends, and then my browser would pop travel agency and airline ads on my phone screen. That was downright creepy. Something had to be done, so I started my investigation. First things first: I learned that advertisers follow you everywhere. Literally. For example, if you pass by, say, a bank, you'll most likely soon get a targeted ad of this same bank and probably even with this same address. This happens because companies install special Wi-Fi routers in their offices that have a wider range of operation. When you go about your business, your phone is busy too: it's constantly scanning the networks around it, sending signals to every possible connection point. So you pass by a bank with a special router in it, your phone sends its signal, and voila! The bank has your phone's digital ID! It's not a huge piece of info, nothing personal can be stolen from you, but that's still enough to send you targeted ads. The good thing here is that only larger companies can afford such a method of targeting the cost of equipment along with the price tag on the ad itself is too high for smaller businesses. But still, it's unsettling to know that your own phone gives away your location to anyone who asks. Traitor. On a broader scale, advertisers may use geo tags to target you. These tags are basically points on the map, and when you happen to be within a certain distance from one of these points, you start getting specific ads. And it's even easier to get to you personally if you use public Wi-Fi networks. When you connect to Wi-Fi on the public transport, you voluntarily give away information about yourself and where you're heading, so ads on your phone will adjust themselves and give you places along your route. Another thing you should be wary of is the so-called "matching". Like everyone else, I'm using different apps on my phone, and I admit, I never really read the end user agreement. Who does? But perhaps I should start paying more attention to it. The thing is, apps often collect your offline data and send it to advertisers. The best example I can think of is a fitness tracker. You allow this device or app access to your phone, and it begins doing its job immediately. Things like your heart rate, the distance you covered on this or that day pretty sensitive stuff, if you ask me, all this goes to some third party, and you gave your express permission for that. So, I mentioned matching here's where it comes into play. When an app you've given permissions to sends your info to advertisers, it's matched with the offers they can throw at you and you in particular. Let's say you like to run in a certain park, and there’s a new apartment building somewhere nearby. Most likely you'll start receiving ads urging you to buy an apartment by that exact address. Your tracker has just betrayed you it's sent your GPS data to advertisers, and their system matched your favorite location with an offer from a company in their database. In a way, it's even better than geo tagging because it's more personalized. But if you're like me, it'll just annoy you all the more for that. Okay, I've covered almost everything, and now the big one's coming. Remember my story about the pan and then the business trip? Well, I was shocked to find out that my phone really is listening to me. And yours too! If you have a smartphone and use any social media at all, you're already trapped. You see, social media apps require access to many of your phone's functions, including your microphone. That makes sense: if you want to make stories or videos with sound, you'll need the app to hear you. But by giving this permission, you automatically let it listen to you even when you don't intend to record anything. This is not some speculation, mind you. During my investigation, I've stumbled upon an article by Sam Nichols, a freelance journalist, who was concerned about the same thing I was. And he managed to get to the bottom of it. In short, he learned that social media apps have verbal triggers, or voice commands, that activate them to record you and then send the things you say to advertisers. The simplest parallel here is Google or iOS: they start listening to you when you say OK Google or Hey Siri out loud. With social media, though, no one really knows what their triggers are and how many there are of them out there. To prove this theory, Nichols conducted an experiment and started saying random things to his phone that could potentially be triggers. He did that for 5 days, and then looked closely whether his feed had changed namely, the sponsored posts. I can't imagine how taken aback he was when he saw that all the ads switched to something related to what he had been saying to the phone. I mean, he'd said things like “I need a new T-shirt†or I'm thinking of going back to uni, and literally the next day his feed presented him with clothing store ads and posts about courses at different universities. I don't know about you, but for me this discovery was really disturbing. Now it all made sense, the pan and the airplane tickets. my social media apps simply recorded me saying those things and sold them to some advertiser. I know there are methods to protect myself from such occurrences, but unfortunately there's no foolproof way to fully exclude targeted ads from my life. But on the bright side, this collection of data is more or less innocent (well, unless you focus your attention on apps secretly spying on your conversations). The only third parties receiving your info are advertisers, and there's nothing too personal in there. The things you say are anonymized, which means they can't be traced back to you. Your words become a code that is sent to the servers. So no one really knows it was you who said this or that thing. The system just finds the tracks your phone has left and uses them for its own benefit. I can totally relate to you, though, if you still think its creepy. Okay, in conclusion to my story here, like I said, there are ways to protect yourself if you don't want ads to go barging into your personal space. Most important of them all is a VPN, or virtual private network. It's a perfectly legal means to hide your presence in the web and prevent others from snooping around in your private business online. Getting a VPN is basically like purchasing your own parking spot on the Internet: whatever the trouble, you always have a safe place to return to. Advertisers won't be able to track your actions, so highly targeted ads will be out of the question. Also, if you want to turn ads off completely, there's legal ad blocking software and browser extensions as well. They're no magic bullets, of course, and some information will still get through, but you'll certainly see much less ads than you used to. Well, I hope my investigation has been of some use to you! Do you have any more practical advice on how to get rid of annoying ads? Let me know down in the comments! If you learned something new today, share it with a friend. But “ hey! “ don't go anywhere just yet! We have many cool posts for you check out.
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