How Did This Ad Track Me? Curious Case.

Everyone has been really hung ho about ads lately...or are we sick of talking about them entirely... Either way, here's the deal:

I started a part time job last week at a local store. The store is independently owned, but is part of a larger franchise in name. The store has a large advertising presence in Canada.

I applied for this job in person, heard of it via word of mouth, and was hired on the spot. I have never googled the chain, or sent an email about being hired. The only time I've mentioned it is in person to friends or family, and once via text message on my Android phone.

Since I've started the job, roughly 80% of the ads I see while using YouTube on my iPad are for the company I just started working with. Is this just a curious case of the company, who does have a large ad presence in Canada, upping their ad space on YouTube at the same time I happened to start with the company? Or, is my device tracking me in someway?

I didn't give the job my email address, I don't use social media. This job is "old school". They pay with physical cheques.

Any ideas?

a reply to: Atsbhct

Your phone. You bring it to work right?

Stores use wifi to track customers/potential customers. It sounds like this is happening to you, particularly if you have your phone with you in work.

Here's an article on it and how to stop it.

lifehacker.com...

a reply to: Kali74

Rarely, actually. And it only uses wi-fi, I don't have a data plan. It may have been inside the store one time.

How do you think it might be related?

ETA Okay, Colbaltic might have explained it. That's an aggressive campaign if my phone, with no data turned on, somehow linked into my home router, telling it, "Hey, she was here one time!". And then for the ads only to be shown on a different device?

Advertising is terrifying. I don't like it, and I don't respect it.

a reply to: Atsbhct

It works off your phones MAC address, it's a ID that's linked to the network interface card in your phone. Anything that can connect to a network has a MAC address and that's how they track you. So wiping all the data off your phone won't remove it (: you can change your MAC with certain programs, but you can never 'not have a MAC address'.

Welcome to technology and goodluck.

a reply to: GreenGunther

I don't have a MAC address on my phone, it's an Android.

Hmmmm...my guess would be that once you started the job you were somehow added to the parent companies data base. It really is freaky how specific and quickly ads will appear that correlate with what's happening in your life.

I had an interesting thing happen recently, although I know why the ads targeted me, it still was amazing me to me how quickly and accurately they targeted the ads to me. I've never bought clothing on-line, but decided to check out some dresses on-line for an up-coming event, I didn't purchase anything. Within literally minutes all these ads started showing up for dresses, but the freaky part to me was how accurately they sent ads for the dresses I liked the most ! Yikes....

originally posted by: Atsbhct
a reply to: GreenGunther

I don't have a MAC address on my phone, it's an Android.

This just made me laugh...and I'm not that big of a techie.


I'll let someone else explain with better knowledge and detail.

a reply to: Atsbhct

Heheh...that's not what MAC means!

As far as I know, everything from mobile phones to personal computers have MAC addresses. It uniquely identifies the machine to the network it is attached to, as a verifier of sorts.

I'm convinced that the phones listen to conversation and use keywords for targeted advertising.

It happened to me a few times - I'd talk about something but not have any digital activity related to it - and then it'd pop up in ads. Thought maybe I was being paranoid, but then other people started mentioning the same thing happening.

a reply to: Atsbhct

Like I said, anything that connects to a network has a MAC address. Doesn't matter if it's an android phone or your printer, or a wifi speaker.. It doesn't have anything to do with Apple, MAC is an acronym for media access control. It's always there and it's always gonna be there.

originally posted by: Atsbhct

Advertising is terrifying. I don't like it, and I don't respect it.

I couldn't agree with you more on that one. On top of that, it's so damn annoying. I bought an engagement ring near the end of October, all my ads are STILL for rings. Lots of times the exact ring, or very similar ones to the one I got. How many do they think I need?!

a reply to: Atsbhct

Welcome to the age of technology.

originally posted by: incoserv
I'm convinced that the phones listen to conversation and use keywords for targeted advertising.

It happened to me a few times - I'd talk about something but not have any digital activity related to it - and then it'd pop up in ads. Thought maybe I was being paranoid, but then other people started mentioning the same thing happening.

Microsoft was caught doing that with xbox 360 and kinect years ago. They would view how many people were in a room, and what gender they were and sent them targeted ads. Angela Merkel spoke the truth when she said the Xbox One is just a method to monitor the masses. It's microphone and network card are always on, even when it's turned off. So it's always listening

originally posted by: the owlbear

originally posted by: Atsbhct
a reply to: GreenGunther

I don't have a MAC address on my phone, it's an Android.

This just made me laugh...and I'm not that big of a techie.


I'll let someone else explain with better knowledge and detail.

Media Access Control. Every IP enabled device has an unique MAC address. This allows a network (whether a LAN, a WLAN or the any Internet connected system) to identify a specific device. It's an IEEE 802 standard.

You can learn more here.

originally posted by: GreenGunther
... Microsoft was caught doing that with xbox 360 and kinect years ago. ... It's microphone and network card are always on, even when it's turned off. So it's always listening

Same with a smart phone. We almost never turn them off, they are nearly always with us, they are always connected to a network and their microphones are always active.

a reply to: GreenGunther

Lol! Thanks to everyone who explained MAC addresses to me. I'm not a big techie either, which is clear from me using a 7 year old Android phone with limited data capabilities.

originally posted by: MDpvc

originally posted by: Atsbhct

Advertising is terrifying. I don't like it, and I don't respect it.

I couldn't agree with you more on that one. On top of that, it's so damn annoying. I bought an engagement ring near the end of October, all my ads are STILL for rings. Lots of times the exact ring, or very similar ones to the one I got. How many do they think I need?!

Right? How is that even a good advertising strategy?

a reply to: incoserv

Not so, you're data bill would rack up heavily if your phone was constantly uploading voice data from a mic. People would notice way to quickly. I think when it comes to phones things like this would be app related. You know every time you install an app and it asks for all those permissions? Go check them out, a lot of native google apps on android phones request permission for the mic, but usually have a good reason for this. Obviously other random apps do the same, but I think the destination of the voice data and frequency of sending it will be determined by the app, the developer, and their motives. It's the same with all brands of phones. Just check what you install and how an app behaves. If you know what you're doing you should be ok-ish.

a reply to: MountainLaurel

I hear stories like that a lot. Did you cave and buy the dress?

I could honestly care less about ads on ATS, I don't see them; but this? This makes me consider using an ad block program and researching what I can do to mitigate tracking in general.