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

submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day 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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[-] Cyberflunk@lemmy.world 3 points 19 hours ago

search data would be difficult to obtain for a service provider. it would require a retargeting campaign or something to extract your search values.

search data is already tls encapsulated at the browser. isp can see your tcp metdata, but not the data.

also.. not the point. sorry

[-] Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml 1 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

I should've known that but forgot. You're right, my ISP shouldn't be able to see anything but that I visited Wikipedia. They wouldn't know that I searched for rambutan.

this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2025

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