Source
r/privacy•
Ultravioletmantis

I never searched for or cared about anything golf related in my life, went to a golf course for 1 hour and now most of my ads on reddit are golf related

question

So I never cared about golf, I know literally nothing about it, I have never searched for anything golf related once. Never typed the word 'golf' before this post.

A few days ago I ran into an acquaintance, he said he was going to play golf and asked if I wanted to join. I said yes, we drove to the course and played for 1 hour (he drove no GPS was used). I went home and haven't done anything golf-related since then digitally or otherwise.

I had my phone in my pocket the entire time with GPS on. The Reddit app only has 'storage' permission on my android so GPS/microphone/everything else is toggled to 'off'. Reddit was running in the background on my phone during this time, but I never opened the app to use it during the golfing period or transport to/from.

A few hours after I got home I got the first golf ad on Reddit in my life (never saw a golf ad on other platforms either). Since then for about two days half my ads were golf-related. Today I got more golf ads on reddit and even saw a post from r/golf on my personal feed (not 'popular' are 'all' feeds). I haven't noticed golf related ads on other sites including Google during this time.

Can anyone tell me what has happened?

Posted Jul 16, 2023, 11:44 AM UTC

111
Zookvuglop•

You mentioned golf in this post. They probably figured you liked golf.

1
UltravioletmantisOP•

This is -as I wrote- the first time I ever wrote the word 'golf' but the ads started coming a few days ago, so after I physically was on a golf course.

1
Zookvuglop•

Mobiles know they're Geo locations, golf courses are huge. Probably got it from that.

1
UltravioletmantisOP•

But how did the Reddit app get this information?

Is android selling my location data to any app without my permission?

1
Zookvuglop•

Google location histories are used for Google maps busyness information, you can turn that off. Devices have an advertising ID, you can disable that. Find my mobile is also another location feature you can turn off. Data is bought in as well as directly from apps.

1
Dark-Matter-Particle•

android and google knows your geolocation (if gps and wlan active). thats Apples USP to not do that.

1
Zookvuglop•

Use random MAC for networking. In developer settings you can also force it to change every connection but IP leases can get exhausted that way for the network if they're not short lease times.

1
ohsomofo•

Any app that asks for your GPS data probably either sells that info or has sharing agreements with and companies. It might not be the app directly even. Some developer tools like analytics feed back into Facebook, Google, and whatnot. So the ads you see on Reddit aren’t tailored just from your activity info collected via the Reddit app. I don’t know the specifics of their ad delivery but I’d guess the have data sharing arrangements or some ad slots are available to outside ad networks which got that info.

1
Bimancze•

One of the reasons I hated android, also why I switched to iPhone, at least you have an option to not allow apps to track you .. google hasnt done shit to block tracking by applications on android.. No matter how hard you go by lessening the unnecessary apps on your phone, or hardening the security/privacy, I don’t think that will prevent apps like reddit Facebook or similar from snooping on other applications on your phone

1
[deleted]•

[removed]

1
ZwhGCfJdVAy558gD•

There are several possibilities. One is that Google used your location history to target the ads. You should be able to stop that by disabling location history and app activity in your Google account. Another is that you were targeted because of your association with your golf-playing friend.

1