So a bit ago I got an add for “canned rambutan”. I had looked up Rambutan a few days prior after hearing it mentioned 10 hours into the video game Baby Steps. I wasn’t using a VPN at the time and I didn’t have fingerprinting protections active but I only mentioned it to a few sources (according to my browser history) all of which generally are implied to be private.

Which of these do you think is the reason the ad networks know?

  • Wikipedia
  • Startpage Search
  • Duckduckgo Search
  • My ISP
  • Firefox
  • My Firefox Extensions
  • Kubuntu
  • CachyOS
  • The omnipotent algorithm connecting my mentions of Baby Steps with my progress through the game.
  • Does this only make sense if my browser history is incomplete?
  • Maybe I was using DNS over HTTPS via Cloudflare at the time of my search.

Any guesses as to where the weak link is?

  • tjoa@feddit.org
    21·
    1 day ago

    You make it sound like it’s always the case but ISPs in some countries are less centralized/ not on the stock market and rather oldschool so I bet they don’t do anything with your data (yet). Think of utility companies.

    • Skankhunt420@sh.itjust.works
      21·
      1 day ago

      some countries

      Ok, but what if you live in UK or USA? You can pretty much guarantee without the shadow of a doubt that every single one available is selling your data. In fact, I think their terms even say they will do that.

      In a case like that I would 100% rather trust a paid VPN service from a country that isn’t a privacy nightmare.

      • tjoa@feddit.org
        21·
        14 hours ago

        So your answer to „you can’t generalize vpn good, isp bad because not everyone is living in the UK and US“ is „but what if everyone does?!“ ok

        • Skankhunt420@sh.itjust.works
          1·
          9 hours ago

          Even in other countries using something that is tested and proven for its no logs policy beats taking a stab in the dark and being hopeful that your ISP doesn’t.

          You said yourself you “bet” that ISPs in other countries don’t do it but you don’t know. Something like Mullvad has been proven not to keep logs which sounds a lot better than some dudes hunch.

          But if you want to gamble with your privacy by all means do it but you shouldn’t act like you know what you’re talking about when you tell people to trust ISPs because you think if you’re in a certain country they don’t spy on you or sell your data.