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How did the Ad Networks find my search? (lemmy.ml)
submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
34 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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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[-] lefthandeddude@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

It's duckduckgo. Search duckduckgo.com with the term "restaurants near me." You'll often get responses that are close to your IP location.

That couldn't happen unless DDG passes your IP address on to Bing. It's possible they censor part of the IP and only pass part of it to Bing, but probably not.

(Go ahead! Try it!)

Since Bing sells to data brokers, data brokers know your IP is linked to a search for rambutan, even without fingerprinting your browser.

I'm not calling duckduckgo.com a honeypot... I'm also not calling it not a honeypot. But it knows too much for something supposedly private.

Any closed source firefox extension that has access to the browser display could be parsing the texts and selling it and your IP and other identifiers to data brokers. It's part of how these extensions are profitable.

Cloudflare also does highly advanced fingerprinting and has a script called cloudflare insights, so it seems likely that any cloudflare activity is generating marketing data.

[-] Cyberflunk@lemmy.world 18 points 1 day ago

well, it would make no fucking difference if you had a vpn on, ALL IT DOES IS MOVE YOUR EXIT POINT. it cannot touch your browser traffic.

frustrates me to bo end the bullshit fucking ads/lies vpn companies peddle

[-] Skankhunt420@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Wasn't Mullvad famously raided and found to keep no logs?

I'd sure trust that more than any ISP in UK or USA and I think you would be crazy not to as well.

One has a proven track record, the others undoubtedly do it and have been known to do it and tell you they do it.

It frustrates me to no end that people can't understand that truth.

Even with TOR and shit they say don't do that and I think that's wrong. Sure sure, fingerprinting or whatever. I believe there is a much more tangible risk of your ISP knowing that you are connecting to TOR in the first place especially in countries like UK and USA.

Sure if you lived in Belize or something where it doesn't matter it wouldn't be a big deal but living in those two countries and even like Canada and Germany automatically makes you a target for using it.

Out of those options or a VPN I pay anonymously with Monero or mail cash to I would consider that much, much safer than any ISP.

I encourage you to look up what Snowden said about ATT helping the NSA during Prism which is absolutely still ongoing.

In fact, here you go heres a small part of it https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/how-att-helped-the-nsa-spy-on-millions/

But sure keep preaching about how VPNs don't do anything and instead trust the companies that have direct interests to the governments they serve to stay in favor and that have your credit card and address on file. That is much more secure!

[-] Cyberflunk@lemmy.world 1 points 12 hours ago

I didn't say they didn't do anything, bit the lies they peddle about protecting your browsing is shit, browsing is almost universally https now, you're iso can't see shit, except the IP address you're connected to, a VPN just moves your exit point, that's it, you're iso knows you're connected to a VPN also, btw

I didn't say they didn't do anything my rage is against the marketing

[-] Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 day ago

If my exit point is my ISP, and my ISP is selling my data to advertisers (hypothetically), then a VPN would make a difference. That's why I mentioned it.

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

[-] bananabread@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago

A vpn is just another isp, which could also sell your data

[-] Skankhunt420@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I would trust something like Mullvad more than ATT or Verizon to not sell my data, wouldn't you?

**this comment was posted like 6 tomes because all of the Lemmy instances I've been using have been super weird lately not letting me post comments and stuff so I kept trying and kept trying and then all of them pushed through at once.

[-] tjoa@feddit.org 2 points 1 day ago

You make it sound like it’s always the case but ISPs in some countries are less centralized/ not on the stock market and rather oldschool so I bet they don’t do anything with your data (yet). Think of utility companies.

[-] Skankhunt420@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

some countries

Ok, but what if you live in UK or USA? You can pretty much guarantee without the shadow of a doubt that every single one available is selling your data. In fact, I think their terms even say they will do that.

In a case like that I would 100% rather trust a paid VPN service from a country that isn't a privacy nightmare.

[-] tjoa@feddit.org 2 points 18 hours ago

So your answer to „you can’t generalize vpn good, isp bad because not everyone is living in the UK and US“ is „but what if everyone does?!“ ok

[-] Skankhunt420@sh.itjust.works 1 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

Even in other countries using something that is tested and proven for its no logs policy beats taking a stab in the dark and being hopeful that your ISP doesn't.

You said yourself you "bet" that ISPs in other countries don't do it but you don't know. Something like Mullvad has been proven not to keep logs which sounds a lot better than some dudes hunch.

But if you want to gamble with your privacy by all means do it but you shouldn't act like you know what you're talking about when you tell people to trust ISPs because you think if you're in a certain country they don't spy on you or sell your data.

[-] Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago

And it also could not. Either way it wasn't active at the time so it's down to whether my ISP is selling it.

[-] JoeKrogan@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

You say you were not using a vpn. Then the site has your ip and probably has meta/google ads or other shit running on it and links the product with your ip.

This data is added to some data broker/ ad network and you see an ad when you visit a site using this network as you have "signalled" interest in the product by viewing the product page the first time.

[-] Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml 2 points 18 hours ago

Except the only sites I visited where I mentioned rambutan were Duckduckgo, Startpage, and Wikipedia.

[-] mspencer712@programming.dev 9 points 1 day 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 1 day ago

September 2025

[-] florencia 3 points 1 day ago

If the EFF de anonymization tool can de anonymize your browser, then the ad network can too.

Try searching for something with tor browser - no javascript

[-] Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago

This isn't a matter for fingerprinting. I haven't directly visited any sites about rambutan other than Startpage, Duckduckgo, and Wikipedia.

[-] lefthandeddude@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago

It's DDG

[-] umbrella@lemmy.ml 1 points 23 hours ago

how do you know?

[-] lefthandeddude@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

Use duckduckgo.com to search "restaurants near me"

Unless they use a complex system to look up geolocation for all queries and forward an approximate version of that to Bing, then Bing is getting IP addresses and search terms.

[-] PiraHxCx@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Well, without a VPN your ISP sees every site you enter. I wasn't aware they might be selling that data for targeted ads, but it makes sense, why wouldn't them?

[-] Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Looking it up my ISP isn't exactly trustworthy, but there have been no clear allegations. I'd say it's the most likely cause if not my Firefox extensions.

EDIT: I just got another theory, Cloudflare, I'll add it to the list.

[-] nkk@programming.dev 3 points 1 day ago

If you're really crazy about your privacy I'd recommend getting rid of any extensions you don't 100% need (keep ublock origin though) as not only can they stalk you themselves but it can also help websites fingerprint you. Keeping your extensions to a minimum will help you blend in with the crowd, especially if you use a hardened browser like LibreWolf and/or Mullvad Browser

[-] Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 day ago

I use AdGuard rather than uBlock Origin for adblocking, because it allows me to opt-in and only block ads when they are aggressive enough to be annoying. But I've not been trying to minimize fingerprinting. The issue is just that everything I used in this instance came with either a tacit or explicit promise not to track me and I don't know which is lying.

Other extensions I use are:

  1. Remove YouTube Suggestions
  2. 10ten Japanese Reader (just now disabled)
  3. Tampermonkey
  4. Proton Pass (because my government services require 2FA, but only offer an official government app that uses the play integrity API, or a Passkey which is only natively supported on Windows or Mac)
  5. Time Tracker - Web Habit Builder
  6. Improve Crunchyroll (which seems to have stopped Crunchyroll from forcefully dropping my resolution to 144p).
  7. SteamDB (just now disabled)
[-] nkk@programming.dev 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I've never used AdGuard but you can customize uBlock Origin to fit your needs and block specific things for specific websites. uBlock Origin is commonly used as a default in hardened browsers which would help you fit in with the crowd even more (although I realize you said you weren't going for anti-fingerprinting, just something to consider)

  1. I switched to using Grayjay Desktop rather than my browser for YouTube
  1. If you need a userscript manager, Violentmonkey is an open source alternative
  1. Proton Pass has an app, yes less convenient without the autofill but better for privacy not to have the extension
  1. Personally, I would just sail the seven seas
[-] Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago
  1. I have Freetube installed but I found no reason to really use it when I have this browser extension and adblock (though I don't have one enabled for YouTube so I have no idea why I'm not seeing ads). I can probably do what Remove YouTube Suggestions does with Tampermonkey or Violentmonkey anyway so I might switch.
  2. Didn't realize Tampermonkey wasn't open source. I'll look into it when I can eventually be bothered.
  3. I can't use a Passkey on my phone. GrapheneOS doesn't support passkeys.
  4. Piracy isn't worth the hassle to me, though it's not like Crunchyroll has been much better lately.
[-] nkk@programming.dev 1 points 1 day ago
  1. If you want maximum privacy, Grayjay and Freetube don't link to accounts so Google doesn't know what you're doing (especially if you're on a VPN) but again, it's understandable if you don't feel that's worth it.
  1. Ah got it, didn't realize you were using passkeys.
  1. If you're willing to do a bit of setup, Stremio + RealDebrid ($40 a year) + Torrentio/AIOStreams is pretty much perfect to me (although if you watch a lot of super obscure shows maybe not the way to go as RealDebrid doesn't cache everything)
[-] Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml 2 points 17 hours ago

I'm not really interested in maximum privacy, at least right now. I'm slowly moving there though.

[-] lattrommi@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago

Do any extensions have permission to view your browsing data? You can check by opening the extension manager, clicking the extension and clicking the 'permissions and data' tab. I would suspect 5 and 6 the most, 1 might be suspect too. Those extensions by nature would need such permissions to some extent.

[-] Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago

AdGuard, ProtonPass, TamperMonkey, Time Tracker, and 10ten have those permissions. The others don't. I don't think any of these extensions would be able to function without these permissions.

[-] utopiah@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago

I don't see ads but if I were to, and despite all my precautions some would be on topic based on my past behavior I would methodically dissect to find out the leak. Namely I would try to automate the process :

  • identify a place showing ads
  • take an action, e.g. search or browser, on a verifiable unique topic (in order to prevent from generic suggestions, e.g medication during flu season)
  • verify if the ads become relevant
  • enable/disable any of the tools used, repeat
this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2025
38 points (100.0% liked)

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