The idea of smartphones and smart speakers listening to everything you say and then sending you targeted advertisements has been around for years, and has largely been debunked by privacy experts. But the marketing unit of Cox Media Group, which owns newspapers and local radio and TV stations around the country, says it can do […]
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So, you and your friend were talking about a subject you obviously are interested in, likely spend heaps of time online searching about, commenting and following on social media and you’re surprised you got an ad for it? Bonkers.
It’s been published by multiple sources at this point that this happens because of detected proximity. Basically, they know who you hang out with based on where your phones are, and they know the entire search history of everyone you interact with. Based on this, they can build models to detect how likely you are to be interested in something your friend has looked at before.
Yup. For companies it’s much safer to connect the dots with the giant amount of available metadata in the background than risk facing a huge backlash when people analyze what data you’re actively collecting.
Which is why people need to call out the tracking that’s actually happening in the real world a lot more, because I don’t really want my search-history leaked by proxy to people in my proximity either.