Tech Worker Explains How Ads Know Things They Shouldn t
Tech Worker Explains How Ads Know Things They Shouldn't Bored Panda Bored Panda works better on our iPhone app Continue in app Continue in browser Like what you're reading? Subscribe to our top stories Please enter email address By submitting email you agree to get Bored Panda newsletter. We respect your privacy. We will not publish or share your email address in any way. Almost finished... To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you. Almost finished... To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you. Are you leaving already? Are you sure you want to post this? We're asking people to rethink comments that seem similar to others that have been reported or downvoted this warning is a mistake x x Let's fight boredom together! Continue with Facebook Continue with Google or Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Forgot your password? Creating an account means you agree with Bored Panda's Terms of Service 0, text: error()"> Become a member Sign Up Have an account? Login Forgot your password? Creating an account means you agree with Bored Panda's Terms of Service 0, text: error(), css: errorCssClass"> Password reminder Please provide your email address and we will send your password shortly. Send Have an account? Login Don't have an account? Sign Up Get our top 10 stories in your inbox: Finish 0, text: error(), css: errorCssClass"> Please enter your email to complete registration Finish 0, text: error(), css: errorCssClass"> Activate to continue Your account is not active. We have sent an email to the address you provided with an activation link. Check your inbox, and click on the link to activate your account. I have already activated my account Resend activation link We and our trusted partners use technology such as cookies on our site to personalize content and ads, provide social media features, and analyze our traffic. You can read more about it and change your preferences here. Agree Bored Panda iOS App Available on App Store Continue in App Bored Panda Android App Available on Google Play Continue in App By using our services you agree to our use of cookies to improve your visit. You can change your preferences here. Agree BoredPanda Login Add Post Search ArtPhotographyAnimalsFunnyTravelIllustrationComicsDIYGood NewsParentingChallengeAsk Pandas More Featured Trending Latest Newsletter The Bored Panda iOS app is live! Fight boredom with iPhones and iPads here. Bored Panda Privacy Tech Worker Explains How Ads Know Things They Seemingly Shouldn t Home Partnership Advertise Success stories Jobs About us Contact 161points User submission 252.9K Advertising, People1 year ago
Liucija Adomaite
Thousands of people around the world have noticed one odd phenomenon-online ads popping up about the things you talked about with friends, family, or co-workers but haven't searched up. These micro targeted advertisements can include your mom's favorite brand of coffee beans, a travel destination your colleague just got back from, or food for cats since your friend told you over the phone they're getting one from the shelter next week. So how on earth does this happen? Well, privacy tech advocate Robert G. Reeve may have an answer. He recently penned an illuminating thread to strip the mystery behind such ads, claiming that "Tons of people report on this. It's just, nobody cares." "We've already given away too much of ourselves," he said on how data aggregators pull up all sorts of information about us from everywhere. So let's read the full investigation right below.
Also, Denis really enjoys sports and loves everything related to board sports and water. Read more » Liucija Adomaite Liucija Adomaite Author, BoredPanda staff Liucija Adomaite is a creative mind with years of experience in copywriting. She has a dynamic set of experiences from advertising, academia, and journalism. This time, she has set out on a journey to investigate the ways in which we communicate ideas on a large scale. Her current mission is to find a magic formula for how to make ideas, news, and other such things spread like a virus. Read more » Show All Contributors Get the latest inspiring stories via our awesome iOS app! Download Bored Panda app! You May Like Amazon Driver Says Manager Asked Him To Finish His Route Before Heading To The ER, Goes Viral With 177K Views Saulė Tolstych 40 Times People Left Such Ridiculous Reviews, They Had To Be Posted In These Online Groups Kotryna Brašiškytė Management Tells Off This Employee For Using Their Days Off Not For Work, They Quit On The Spot Kotryna Brašiškytė Popular on Bored Panda Woman Shows How "Harry Potter" Characters Were Supposed To Look According To Book Descriptions (35 Pics) 50 ‘Weird Facts’ About The World That Might Give You A Fresh Perspective Overworked Employee Quits Because He Wasn't Getting A Fair Wage, Costs The Company $40 Million 40 Embarrassing Moments People Didn't Know Who They Were Talking To And Made A Fool Of Themselves 30 Of The Most Hectic Homes As Shared On 'The Broke Agent' Instagram Account Bride Doesn't Include Wedding Dinner Price In Her Wedding Invites, Is Surprised To See Many Guests Canceling On Her After They Find Out Woman Shows How "Harry Potter" Characters Were Supposed To Look According To Book Descriptions (35 Pics) 50 ‘Weird Facts’ About The World That Might Give You A Fresh Perspective Overworked Employee Quits Because He Wasn't Getting A Fair Wage, Costs The Company $40 Million Share your thoughts POST M O'Connell M O'Connell Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago I don't have much of a social media presence, so its somewhat humorous what ads google ad services puts together for me. It seems relatively convinced that I work with heavy equipment (I do not), and that I am interested in meeting seniors in my area (though I am single, that's hardly my demographic). I do really wish it would figure out that I decided at 7-years-old that I would never consume alcohol, never have, and all the catchy microbrew commercials they show me aren't going to change my mind. 10 10points reply Helen Haley Helen Haley Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago I seem to confuse the heck out of algorithms. I find it endlessly amusing. I look up really random stuff to just satisfy curiosity. 4 4points reply Load More Replies... Chaos&Roses Chaos&Roses Community Member • points posts comments upvotes 1 year ago This is the only social media account I have. I live alone in the middle of the bush usually but like now, staying at my daughter house who has tons of SM accounts. I use her wifi, and this post now answers questions that have plagued me for months, getting ads for stuff I've never looked at or for products I would never buy. 3 3points reply Kateryna Kateryna Community Member • points posts comments upvotes 1 year ago Does BoredPanda collect our data? 10 10points reply Hans Hans Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago BP probably not, but look at what is integrated. Facebook, Pinterest, the Google APIs, Twitter, along with CDN services, along with services such as web content assessor. All of them are generating data on you, and very likely they do so across sites that you use. 10 10points reply Load More Replies... Rob Rob Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago Of course it does. And third parties like Amazon, Facebook, Google, Twitter, Pinterest, Scorecardresearch, and about a dozen others, who are all looking over your shoulder in this website, are as well. You agreed to that when you created your account. 7 7points reply qwerty qwerty Community Member • points posts comments upvotes 1 year ago Hmm. No clue since the ads are always about anime for me, and I've never read anime in my life. 7 7points reply Claire Claire Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago No anime ads for me, they are the dodgy Chinese ads for scam products that I report endlessly on Facebook. 3 3points reply Caffeinated Hedgehog Caffeinated Hedgehog Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago Sometimes ads aren't about what you currently want or previously enjoyed, but rather influencing you to try something new. 1 1point reply Martha Meyer Martha Meyer Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago Since none of us pay to use this website and they need to pay for server space and staff, obviously they live off ads. 4 4points reply WilvanderHeijden WilvanderHeijden Community Member • points posts comments upvotes 1 year ago Are there ads on BP? Except for the advertorials I have never seen one. Must be because I use an ad-blocker. 0 0points reply Grady'sRaider Grady'sRaider Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago Yup. Download a copy of the duckduckgo browser and visit any site. It will show you who is busy behind the scenes. Just tap on the black icon in the address bar to access the Privacy Dashboard. Tap on the ### trackers blocked to see who is tracking you. 1 1point reply Grady'sRaider Grady'sRaider Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago BTW. From a fresh launch. When I logged into BP using duckduckgo the tracker blocked count was 40. Accessing this article jumped it to 60. After logging in to type this comment jumped the count to 181. This was after I opted for ad lite. 1 1point reply Paradise Paradise Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago If you sign in with an email associated with other things, and use the same IP address, etc, your online content is probably very tracable if someone wanted to. 1 1point reply Falcon Falcon Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago I'm on Brave browser and it shows 15(!) cross-site trackers blocked. 5 are just from Facebook. 0 0points reply Sky Render Sky Render Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago Crap like this reminds me of why I'm thankful I got on the ad-blocking train over 20 years ago and never looked back. If a site's worth my time, they'll get my business. 8 8points reply Load More Comments POST M O'Connell M O'Connell Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago I don't have much of a social media presence, so its somewhat humorous what ads google ad services puts together for me. It seems relatively convinced that I work with heavy equipment (I do not), and that I am interested in meeting seniors in my area (though I am single, that's hardly my demographic). I do really wish it would figure out that I decided at 7-years-old that I would never consume alcohol, never have, and all the catchy microbrew commercials they show me aren't going to change my mind. 10 10points reply Helen Haley Helen Haley Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago I seem to confuse the heck out of algorithms. I find it endlessly amusing. I look up really random stuff to just satisfy curiosity. 4 4points reply Load More Replies... Chaos&Roses Chaos&Roses Community Member • points posts comments upvotes 1 year ago This is the only social media account I have. I live alone in the middle of the bush usually but like now, staying at my daughter house who has tons of SM accounts. I use her wifi, and this post now answers questions that have plagued me for months, getting ads for stuff I've never looked at or for products I would never buy. 3 3points reply Kateryna Kateryna Community Member • points posts comments upvotes 1 year ago Does BoredPanda collect our data? 10 10points reply Hans Hans Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago BP probably not, but look at what is integrated. Facebook, Pinterest, the Google APIs, Twitter, along with CDN services, along with services such as web content assessor. All of them are generating data on you, and very likely they do so across sites that you use. 10 10points reply Load More Replies... Rob Rob Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago Of course it does. And third parties like Amazon, Facebook, Google, Twitter, Pinterest, Scorecardresearch, and about a dozen others, who are all looking over your shoulder in this website, are as well. You agreed to that when you created your account. 7 7points reply qwerty qwerty Community Member • points posts comments upvotes 1 year ago Hmm. No clue since the ads are always about anime for me, and I've never read anime in my life. 7 7points reply Claire Claire Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago No anime ads for me, they are the dodgy Chinese ads for scam products that I report endlessly on Facebook. 3 3points reply Caffeinated Hedgehog Caffeinated Hedgehog Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago Sometimes ads aren't about what you currently want or previously enjoyed, but rather influencing you to try something new. 1 1point reply Martha Meyer Martha Meyer Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago Since none of us pay to use this website and they need to pay for server space and staff, obviously they live off ads. 4 4points reply WilvanderHeijden WilvanderHeijden Community Member • points posts comments upvotes 1 year ago Are there ads on BP? Except for the advertorials I have never seen one. Must be because I use an ad-blocker. 0 0points reply Grady'sRaider Grady'sRaider Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago Yup. Download a copy of the duckduckgo browser and visit any site. It will show you who is busy behind the scenes. Just tap on the black icon in the address bar to access the Privacy Dashboard. Tap on the ### trackers blocked to see who is tracking you. 1 1point reply Grady'sRaider Grady'sRaider Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago BTW. From a fresh launch. When I logged into BP using duckduckgo the tracker blocked count was 40. Accessing this article jumped it to 60. After logging in to type this comment jumped the count to 181. This was after I opted for ad lite. 1 1point reply Paradise Paradise Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago If you sign in with an email associated with other things, and use the same IP address, etc, your online content is probably very tracable if someone wanted to. 1 1point reply Falcon Falcon Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago I'm on Brave browser and it shows 15(!) cross-site trackers blocked. 5 are just from Facebook. 0 0points reply Sky Render Sky Render Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago Crap like this reminds me of why I'm thankful I got on the ad-blocking train over 20 years ago and never looked back. If a site's worth my time, they'll get my business. 8 8points reply Load More Comments Popular on Bored Panda I Used AI To See What These 23 Popular Cartoon Characters Would Look Like In Real Life 30 Y.O. 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Privacy Tech Worker Explains How Ads Know Things They Seemingly Shouldn t
253Kviews Denis Tymulis andLiucija Adomaite
Thousands of people around the world have noticed one odd phenomenon-online ads popping up about the things you talked about with friends, family, or co-workers but haven't searched up. These micro targeted advertisements can include your mom's favorite brand of coffee beans, a travel destination your colleague just got back from, or food for cats since your friend told you over the phone they're getting one from the shelter next week. So how on earth does this happen? Well, privacy tech advocate Robert G. Reeve may have an answer. He recently penned an illuminating thread to strip the mystery behind such ads, claiming that "Tons of people report on this. It's just, nobody cares." "We've already given away too much of ourselves," he said on how data aggregators pull up all sorts of information about us from everywhere. So let's read the full investigation right below.
This privacy tech advocate has explained why people keep getting ads for things they talked about but never searched up in this viral thread
Image credits: RobertGReeve Image credits: RobertGReeve Image credits: RobertGReeve Advertising online is not a new thing, but lately many targeted ads have become more personal, intrusive, and often, plain annoying. Sometimes all it takes is one browse of a wristwatch you've been thinking of lately, and the damned thing will be following you everywhere: popping up on your computer, Facebook feed, and phone. These stalker ads are no fun in the first place, but micro-targeted ads about things you mention in conversation are the worst. Image credits: RobertGReeve Image credits: RobertGReeve Image credits: RobertGReeve Image credits: RobertGReeve Image credits: RobertGReeve Image credits: RobertGReeve Image credits: RobertGReeve Image credits: RobertGReeve Image credits: RobertGReeve To find out more about how these ads work, Bored Panda reached out to Daniel Markuson, a digital privacy expert at NordVPN, a leading virtual private network service provider. First of, Daniel said that we keep getting ads for things that we never searched for because some of our devices listen to us quite often. "Research conducted in the US by Consumer Reports showed that nearly 43% of Americans believe their phone records conversations without their permission," he said and added: "This belief is connected to voice assistants that most smartphones and IoT devices have installed. And these programs (Google Assistant, Siri, Alexa, and others) are designed to listen to us at all times so that they can hear a voice command and assist." "The system works the same way as search engines like Google work. If you are looking for some products online, inevitably, corresponding ads will start chasing you across the internet."Big companies like Facebook collect personal data in many ways and voice assistants are one of them says digital privacy expert
When asked about the conspiracy that suggests big businesses like Facebook are listening and stalking their users, Daniel said "it's not entirely untrue." "We are surrounded by devices with microphones and the default settings usually let them record and store the recordings of the commands we make to our virtual assistants. Also, the passive listening on those devices results in accidental recordings, when words are misheard as activation phrases (like using 'OK good' instead of 'OK google'). Some of those recordings are then heard by real humans to develop AI technologies." "Most of the smart devices are, in fact, manufactured by big tech companies, like Amazon, Google, or Apple. Those companies have admitted several times that they collect some data from their voice assistants for improving the service quality." It turns out, we can not really be sure what happens with the information we give to these big companies "so the data can be used for targeting us, as users, as well," he suggested.Online ads are not only getting more annoying they re becoming much more personal too
When asked why online ads have been getting more intrusive, personal, and annoying lately, Daniel believes it has to do with our decreased attention span and marketers coming up with smart ways to catch our attention. "Our latest NordVPN research shows that the more effective those ads are supposed to be, the more annoyed users feel, with overlay (69%) and flashing banners (54%) being the most annoying for users." Moreover, "the pandemic made online advertising very important for marketers as they have much fewer opportunities to sell their products offline," he added. As a result, "there has been an emergence of more online business, which led to more online ads and more intrusive ways to reach buyers." Not only are ads getting more annoying, they're also getting more personal. "Have you ever asked yourself how much information your phone knows about you? Your searching history, your holiday destination, people you talk the most with, etc.," Daniel said. "All this information then helps to create advertising profiles, which represent targeting audiences quite accurately," he explained.Algorithms are so smart these days they may end up knowing more about our personal lives than people who are closest to us
Bored Panda also spoke to Lina Survila, PR manager at CyberNews.com, who said that targeted ads by social networks have become an urban myth at this point. "We do get surprised when we get ads about stuff we only think of," she said and added that "algorithms are very smart and trained to actually know what you will want or need at a certain time." "Remember the case when Target figured out the teen girl was pregnant before her father did? Well, that's the power of algorithms predicting human behavior (in this case, it was her discount card that saw unusual activity that is linked to pregnant women)." Lina said that we indeed do stuff, often without realizing, that makes advertisers believe we are a great fit for their next customer. "Also, there are these things we often use as geotags, hashtags, our discount cards. You name it! By using all available tools, cards, devices, and apps, you give that information out," she explained.This is what others had to comment on data privacy in response to the thread
Image credits: TheHiredSwords Image credits: RobertGReeve Image credits: RobertGReeve Image credits: RobertGReeve Image credits: RobertGReeve Image credits: RobertGReeve Image credits: NyLow9 Image credits: ClearlieMe Image credits: aripap Image credits: RustySwings Image credits: Speeddog830 Image credits: That_Girl_Tasha Image credits: jjeremyscott Image credits: thekarmikbob Anyone can write on Bored Panda. Start writing! Follow Bored Panda on Google News! Follow us on Flipboard.com/@boredpanda! 253Kviews Share on Facebook Denis Tymulis Follow Unfollow Denis Tymulis Author, Community member Denis is a photo editor at Bored Panda. After getting his bachelor's degree in Multimedia and Computer Design, he tried to succeed in digital design, advertising, and branding.Also, Denis really enjoys sports and loves everything related to board sports and water. Read more » Liucija Adomaite Liucija Adomaite Author, BoredPanda staff Liucija Adomaite is a creative mind with years of experience in copywriting. She has a dynamic set of experiences from advertising, academia, and journalism. This time, she has set out on a journey to investigate the ways in which we communicate ideas on a large scale. Her current mission is to find a magic formula for how to make ideas, news, and other such things spread like a virus. Read more » Show All Contributors Get the latest inspiring stories via our awesome iOS app! Download Bored Panda app! You May Like Amazon Driver Says Manager Asked Him To Finish His Route Before Heading To The ER, Goes Viral With 177K Views Saulė Tolstych 40 Times People Left Such Ridiculous Reviews, They Had To Be Posted In These Online Groups Kotryna Brašiškytė Management Tells Off This Employee For Using Their Days Off Not For Work, They Quit On The Spot Kotryna Brašiškytė Popular on Bored Panda Woman Shows How "Harry Potter" Characters Were Supposed To Look According To Book Descriptions (35 Pics) 50 ‘Weird Facts’ About The World That Might Give You A Fresh Perspective Overworked Employee Quits Because He Wasn't Getting A Fair Wage, Costs The Company $40 Million 40 Embarrassing Moments People Didn't Know Who They Were Talking To And Made A Fool Of Themselves 30 Of The Most Hectic Homes As Shared On 'The Broke Agent' Instagram Account Bride Doesn't Include Wedding Dinner Price In Her Wedding Invites, Is Surprised To See Many Guests Canceling On Her After They Find Out Woman Shows How "Harry Potter" Characters Were Supposed To Look According To Book Descriptions (35 Pics) 50 ‘Weird Facts’ About The World That Might Give You A Fresh Perspective Overworked Employee Quits Because He Wasn't Getting A Fair Wage, Costs The Company $40 Million Share your thoughts POST M O'Connell M O'Connell Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago I don't have much of a social media presence, so its somewhat humorous what ads google ad services puts together for me. It seems relatively convinced that I work with heavy equipment (I do not), and that I am interested in meeting seniors in my area (though I am single, that's hardly my demographic). I do really wish it would figure out that I decided at 7-years-old that I would never consume alcohol, never have, and all the catchy microbrew commercials they show me aren't going to change my mind. 10 10points reply Helen Haley Helen Haley Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago I seem to confuse the heck out of algorithms. I find it endlessly amusing. I look up really random stuff to just satisfy curiosity. 4 4points reply Load More Replies... Chaos&Roses Chaos&Roses Community Member • points posts comments upvotes 1 year ago This is the only social media account I have. I live alone in the middle of the bush usually but like now, staying at my daughter house who has tons of SM accounts. I use her wifi, and this post now answers questions that have plagued me for months, getting ads for stuff I've never looked at or for products I would never buy. 3 3points reply Kateryna Kateryna Community Member • points posts comments upvotes 1 year ago Does BoredPanda collect our data? 10 10points reply Hans Hans Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago BP probably not, but look at what is integrated. Facebook, Pinterest, the Google APIs, Twitter, along with CDN services, along with services such as web content assessor. All of them are generating data on you, and very likely they do so across sites that you use. 10 10points reply Load More Replies... Rob Rob Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago Of course it does. And third parties like Amazon, Facebook, Google, Twitter, Pinterest, Scorecardresearch, and about a dozen others, who are all looking over your shoulder in this website, are as well. You agreed to that when you created your account. 7 7points reply qwerty qwerty Community Member • points posts comments upvotes 1 year ago Hmm. No clue since the ads are always about anime for me, and I've never read anime in my life. 7 7points reply Claire Claire Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago No anime ads for me, they are the dodgy Chinese ads for scam products that I report endlessly on Facebook. 3 3points reply Caffeinated Hedgehog Caffeinated Hedgehog Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago Sometimes ads aren't about what you currently want or previously enjoyed, but rather influencing you to try something new. 1 1point reply Martha Meyer Martha Meyer Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago Since none of us pay to use this website and they need to pay for server space and staff, obviously they live off ads. 4 4points reply WilvanderHeijden WilvanderHeijden Community Member • points posts comments upvotes 1 year ago Are there ads on BP? Except for the advertorials I have never seen one. Must be because I use an ad-blocker. 0 0points reply Grady'sRaider Grady'sRaider Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago Yup. Download a copy of the duckduckgo browser and visit any site. It will show you who is busy behind the scenes. Just tap on the black icon in the address bar to access the Privacy Dashboard. Tap on the ### trackers blocked to see who is tracking you. 1 1point reply Grady'sRaider Grady'sRaider Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago BTW. From a fresh launch. When I logged into BP using duckduckgo the tracker blocked count was 40. Accessing this article jumped it to 60. After logging in to type this comment jumped the count to 181. This was after I opted for ad lite. 1 1point reply Paradise Paradise Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago If you sign in with an email associated with other things, and use the same IP address, etc, your online content is probably very tracable if someone wanted to. 1 1point reply Falcon Falcon Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago I'm on Brave browser and it shows 15(!) cross-site trackers blocked. 5 are just from Facebook. 0 0points reply Sky Render Sky Render Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago Crap like this reminds me of why I'm thankful I got on the ad-blocking train over 20 years ago and never looked back. If a site's worth my time, they'll get my business. 8 8points reply Load More Comments POST M O'Connell M O'Connell Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago I don't have much of a social media presence, so its somewhat humorous what ads google ad services puts together for me. It seems relatively convinced that I work with heavy equipment (I do not), and that I am interested in meeting seniors in my area (though I am single, that's hardly my demographic). I do really wish it would figure out that I decided at 7-years-old that I would never consume alcohol, never have, and all the catchy microbrew commercials they show me aren't going to change my mind. 10 10points reply Helen Haley Helen Haley Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago I seem to confuse the heck out of algorithms. I find it endlessly amusing. I look up really random stuff to just satisfy curiosity. 4 4points reply Load More Replies... Chaos&Roses Chaos&Roses Community Member • points posts comments upvotes 1 year ago This is the only social media account I have. I live alone in the middle of the bush usually but like now, staying at my daughter house who has tons of SM accounts. I use her wifi, and this post now answers questions that have plagued me for months, getting ads for stuff I've never looked at or for products I would never buy. 3 3points reply Kateryna Kateryna Community Member • points posts comments upvotes 1 year ago Does BoredPanda collect our data? 10 10points reply Hans Hans Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago BP probably not, but look at what is integrated. Facebook, Pinterest, the Google APIs, Twitter, along with CDN services, along with services such as web content assessor. All of them are generating data on you, and very likely they do so across sites that you use. 10 10points reply Load More Replies... Rob Rob Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago Of course it does. And third parties like Amazon, Facebook, Google, Twitter, Pinterest, Scorecardresearch, and about a dozen others, who are all looking over your shoulder in this website, are as well. You agreed to that when you created your account. 7 7points reply qwerty qwerty Community Member • points posts comments upvotes 1 year ago Hmm. No clue since the ads are always about anime for me, and I've never read anime in my life. 7 7points reply Claire Claire Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago No anime ads for me, they are the dodgy Chinese ads for scam products that I report endlessly on Facebook. 3 3points reply Caffeinated Hedgehog Caffeinated Hedgehog Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago Sometimes ads aren't about what you currently want or previously enjoyed, but rather influencing you to try something new. 1 1point reply Martha Meyer Martha Meyer Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago Since none of us pay to use this website and they need to pay for server space and staff, obviously they live off ads. 4 4points reply WilvanderHeijden WilvanderHeijden Community Member • points posts comments upvotes 1 year ago Are there ads on BP? Except for the advertorials I have never seen one. Must be because I use an ad-blocker. 0 0points reply Grady'sRaider Grady'sRaider Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago Yup. Download a copy of the duckduckgo browser and visit any site. It will show you who is busy behind the scenes. Just tap on the black icon in the address bar to access the Privacy Dashboard. Tap on the ### trackers blocked to see who is tracking you. 1 1point reply Grady'sRaider Grady'sRaider Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago BTW. From a fresh launch. When I logged into BP using duckduckgo the tracker blocked count was 40. Accessing this article jumped it to 60. After logging in to type this comment jumped the count to 181. This was after I opted for ad lite. 1 1point reply Paradise Paradise Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago If you sign in with an email associated with other things, and use the same IP address, etc, your online content is probably very tracable if someone wanted to. 1 1point reply Falcon Falcon Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago I'm on Brave browser and it shows 15(!) cross-site trackers blocked. 5 are just from Facebook. 0 0points reply Sky Render Sky Render Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 1 year ago Crap like this reminds me of why I'm thankful I got on the ad-blocking train over 20 years ago and never looked back. If a site's worth my time, they'll get my business. 8 8points reply Load More Comments Popular on Bored Panda I Used AI To See What These 23 Popular Cartoon Characters Would Look Like In Real Life 30 Y.O. 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