How did the Ad Networks find my search? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) by Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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So a bit ago I got an add for "canned rambutan". I had looked up Rambutan a few days prior after hearing it mentioned 10 hours into the video game Baby Steps. I wasn't using a VPN at the time and I didn't have fingerprinting protections active but I only mentioned it to a few sources (according to my browser history) all of which generally are implied to be private.

Which of these do you think is the reason the ad networks know?

Wikipedia
Startpage Search
Duckduckgo Search
My ISP
Firefox
My Firefox Extensions
Kubuntu
CachyOS
The omnipotent algorithm connecting my mentions of Baby Steps with my progress through the game.
Does this only make sense if my browser history is incomplete?
Maybe I was using DNS over HTTPS via Cloudflare at the time of my search.

Any guesses as to where the weak link is?

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[-] mspencer712@programming.dev 9 points 4 days ago

How old is that game? Are there other people in your demographic who also play the game, and then searched for the same thing?

[-] Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml 4 points 4 days ago

September 2025

this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2025

40 points (100.0% liked)

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