Why we see advertising of certain brands

Each Internet user shares personal information online. Many smartphone apps require access to contacts and location during installation. Now data aggregators know so much about us that it seems they are eavesdropping on us. Why we see advertising of certain brands.

First of all, social networking applications do not eavesdrop on us. This is a conspiracy theory that has been repeatedly debunked. The fact is that they do not need it: we ourselves unconsciously tell the algorithms everything they need.

Applications collect a variety of data from our smartphone: device ID, location, demographics. Everyone knows this.

Data aggregators pay to collect data from any source. When do I use a discount card in the store? Does this happen with every purchase? This dataset can be sold.

Shopping in an online supermarket can be linked to a Twitter account: both companies have my email and phone. And when I accepted the terms of the agreement and the privacy policy, I allowed them to share data.

And here begins the most interesting.

If my smartphone is regularly in the same GPS area as another person's device, this information is also tracked. Aggregators are starting to rebuild the network of people I communicate with on a regular basis.

Advertisers can use my interests, browsing history, and purchases to show ads to my friends and to me based on their data. According to relatives, friends or colleagues.

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That way, I'll get advertising of what I don't need. However, this product or service may be of interest to someone close to you.

As a result, I unknowingly start a conversation about the same toothpaste. Algorithms do not need to listen to us. They have enough aggregated metadata.

In addition, it is important to understand: this is a known fact. This has been repeatedly written about. It's just that everyone doesn't care. We decided that our privacy was worthless, and we had already talked too much about ourselves.

So here's how it happened.

• They know what toothpaste my mom buys.
• They know that I visited her.
• They know my Twitter account.
• Now I see a Twitter ad for this toothpaste.

Our data concerns not only us. They can be used when interacting with other people to control their behavior.

Not surprisingly, personal data policy remains a pressing issue. Germany recently banned Facebook from collecting WhatsApp user data. In addition, in January 2021, the company announced that users who do not accept the new privacy policy will not be able to use the messenger. However, the decision provoked widespread criticism, and it was decided to abandon it.