Comment by idunnoman1222

1 month ago

The ad knows nothing more than my ip, not exactly accurate location data. Not sure what android gives out wrt gps

The web ad knows at least your IP, what site you're currently looking at, and likely an extensive history of these things linked through tracking cookies.

Your ID + other people's IDs seen from the same non-CGNAT IP establish a link, i.e. they also have part of your social graph.

And if one of the web site requests location permissions to e.g. show you where that shop's nearest branch is, I wouldn't put it beyond the ad networks to detect and abuse that to add your location to the above data pile.

Of course, all that becomes entirely moot once you have a single application with ads installed on your phone that has location permissions...

  • Social graph? I live in a big city hitting the same cell phone tower does not friends make. Only app that needs location permissions is Google maps which doesn’t serve ads. of course, both Google and Apple could easily assassinate me, but I’ve accepted that

    Actually thinking about it a bit more with 5G being so short range I can see how a social graph could be made. I do have 5G turned off on my phone though because I don’t know what benefit it gives me because if the 4g tower is already not overloaded bc other people are on the local 5g