Still getting suspiciously targeted ads

ahab2137

I've been using Graphene for 2 or 3 months now, and have multiple profiles to separate internet and phone activity.

Yesterday, my phone was primarily in my "Main" profile (where I keep phone contacts, signal, telegram, etc). I have Instagram installed on a separate profile that I use for social media. I was with a friend yesterday and bought her a copy of House of Leaves from a used book store. We didn't talk overly much about the book at that point besides explaining how good it is and that she should read it.

I woke up this morning, however, and switched to my media profile to rot my brain a bit on Instagram. Was shocked to see an ad specifically about House of Leaves. I keep my microphone blocked on my media profile and even then I have Instagram set to a "Ask every time" basis. I don't believe this could have been through my email and bank as it was a used and locally owned bookstore, so I'm inclined to believe that Insta somehow obtained info through my microphone, despite everything. This isn't the first time I've had this happen since installing graphene, and it's getting quite uncomfortable. I'm waiting on my faraday bag to come in and that's just where my phone is going to sit when I'm not actively using it.

Any advice?

userofgos

ahab2137 there are various opinions on this matter. I'd suggest reading other threads relating to this topic:

brightjob4495

ahab2137 I'd say that the most likely thing is that your friend looked up that book, and Meta has made the connection on your social graph that you two are friends. Correlated with other data they might have on you, they inferred that since your friend was interested in that book, you might be too

ahab2137

userofgos I'll read through them. It's just very off-putting, feels like the ad targetting for me has only gotten more accurate since switching to GOS (could also be some kind of perception bias). Either way, I leave wifi and bt off, clear my cookies, et cetera. I did notice yesterday that right after ordering some mouthwash from Amazon, I got advertised another brand of mouthwash on Instagram. My current theory is that I'm getting advertised by my email address it's just been picking up lately, for whatever reason.

DeletedUser495

ahab2137 well, you got to stop using Gmail :) that was a joke of course. At least you can see how far reaching tracking and fingerprinting is and will give some of those apps a big fat boot for your own good.

GrouchyGrape

ahab2137 Amazon may have shared with an advertiser that you bought something and then said advertiser targeted you with an ad of said product? I don't believe it... /s

All jokes aside, this is common practice. Assume everyone shares with everyone else what you do. That's why this forum is my full extent of "social media" usage.