7 mo. ago • 85%

Google-Amazon connection?

Today I was watching a few YouTube videos about groundwork with horses. First time I did that. Yes, I was logged in.

Later today, I hopped on Amazon to track one of my packages. And in my suggestions, there were horse grooming kits, halters and the like, even though I had never before looked for things like these on there.

My mail addresses are different on the two places, and so are, of course, my passwords. I am on Linux with Firefox, uBlock etc. So this must be an incredible coincidence, a miracle, mind-reading, or maybe witchcraft?

I wonder what I could tweak to make things like this happen less in future. I am thinking of adding a Pi-hole to my router, yet I am no longer so sure, if it would help?

33 comments

You know how cookies are a big deal and how every website keeps asking you to accept their cookies? Now you know why...it's not a conspiracy, it's just how the internet works.

36
- So I may try out Firefox's sandboxing capabilities. That should take care of cookies, but I am not sure about fingerprinting.
  
  4
No, a Pi-Hole would not work in this case, as suggestions are not "ads", technically.

They probably did that by IP. Keep in mind that Google is an ad-company that makes money by profiling and Amazon wants you to buy their stuff. Of course Amazon gets info from Google to make more money out of you.

There might be a way to block Amazon recommendations, tho. Maybe even something officially supported, some kind of toggle in your profile config.

Also, don't use YouTube directly, use Invidious or Piped, and this particular issue would be gone.

10
- Also, don’t use YouTube directly, use Invidious or Piped, and this particular issue would be gone.
  
  It's the convenience. If you want to run a channel, you're kind of damned to sell your soul. 🙃 The question is for how much you'd sell yourself out completely.
  
  Not sure, if these apps run on a desktop computer, though, which is my main workhorse.
  
  1
  
  my main workhorse.
  
  I see what you did there.
  
  2
As much as people like to delve into conspiratorial gossiping, making swooping statements about how Google and Amazon work together, there's often much simpler and more reasonable explanations.

For one, you are one of billions of people browsing both these sites today, it's bound to happen to some of you.

But what prompted you to look up the horses stuff? Sometimes it's an article, a social media post (reddit and Lemmy count), a radio segment, etc. That often leads a group of people to look up the same stuff en-masse.

Its also possible that you've visited other sites about horses that have put you in that cohort, where manufacturers have placed their own tracking pixels whose info they can supply to Amazon for targeting.

The reason why a Google / Amazon collaboration seems so unlikely is that they are competing. Not just at large, but in this specific case. Those recommendations you see on Amazon are ads too. People pay for them, and use specific targeting rules to find people to click on them. This is what both Amazon and Google sell, access to specific eyeballs (eg. males in their late 30's who have once shown interest in motorsports). This is their secret sauce. They'd be crazy to allow that information to flow to a competitor with their own ad platform.

I know this goes against the grain here, so feel free to downvote, but keep in mind that conjecture and wildly inaccurate gossip about what these giant companies do often muddies the waters and makes it much harder to attack them on the shady and downright evil stuff that they do do.

9
- what prompted you to look up the horses stuff?
  
  Nothing really. I am more interested in dogs, but wanted to know how other animals are trained and possibly learn something new from their techniques.
  
  I could try Firefox's sandboxing, maybe.
  
  1
  
  Were you horsing around? Hahahaha
  
  1
- I agree with you here. It is similar to "my phone is listening to what i am talking about and it shows me topic related ads" which has been basically disproven many times over the years.
  
  1
Amazon has connections with everyone including banks.

Amazon likes to offer a free trial and then after you cancel well before the free trial ends, they continue to charge you month by month.

I had this happen to me a few times. The most recent time I reported my American Express card lost/stolen, that way I would get an entirely different card number/expiration/cvv/ everything. I continued to get charged every month by Amazon.

Turns out banks will continue allowing certain companies like Amazon to continue taking payment even though the original card information you provided was changed and reported lost/stolen. Amazon is so big they can ask for your CC information once and continue to take payment without re-authorization no matter the situation.

https://www.reddit.com/r/amazonprime/comments/16bpca8/comment/k8u5mps/

Do not use Amazon for anything.

6
I'd look at cookies and fingerprinting first. The former will be easy to take care of, while the latter might be trickier.

6
De-google everything. I use a VPN and run LibreWolf with some plugins like uBlock, uMatrix, deArrow and SponsorBlock. Still haven't gotten around installing Lineage on my phone to get rid of Google there, but at least I run VPN on my phone at all times aswell.

Now since I use LibreWolf it deletes cookies on every shutdown. This is a bit annoying because I have to log back in every time I visit websites. Therefore I run BitWarden and have also allowed some cookies in website settings.

Its not the best privacy solutions but it's an easy setup for a lot of profit imo.

3
- Still haven't got around installing Lineage on my phone to get rid of Google there
  
  I'm going through that right now, definetely worth it, but it can be quite a job on some devices, have a spare phone ready when you start :)
  
  2
  
  Yeah I am thinking about waiting until I get a new one for that specific reason.
  
  2
- I run VPN on my phone at all times
  
  Which?
  
  1
  
  Mullvad VPN :)
  
  1
This is why you should not use Google or Amazon

3
https://www.howtogeek.com/884818/what-are-tracking-cookies-really/

3
Anonymized user info is sold on open markets and can be de-anonymized through fingerprinting and various other techbiques.

You can find some interestinf info on it here, even though the core of the article is on a somewhat unrelated topic.

https://www.wired.com/story/how-pentagon-learned-targeted-ads-to-find-targets-and-vladimir-putin/

3
Public IP but not sure companies like google and amazon might also have your private IP

2
- You mean RFC1918 private addresses? I guess they keep it at hand but it’s not really interesting to them. Almost all “client side” internet connections are behind a NAT connection, where private addresses are only unique to the router. So while your public address 1.2.3.4 is unique to you, your inside address 192.168.1.1 is only unique inside your LAN. Your neighbour will have the same address inside, but a different one outside, say 4.3.2.1.
  
  3
Has happened to me multiple times.

1
your first mistake was to use what I presume was a stock android phone with the official YouTube app. Switch to Lineage/Divest/Graphene and NewPipe

1
- Nope, Desktop computer with Linux, Firefox with uBlock, noScript etc.
  
  1
  
  ah, browser fingerprinting and IP address correlation then. Use Mullvad Browser or Cromite and a VPN. But now they have already correlated your two accounts so you'd have to make a new YouTube account or amazon account
  
  1
I can see the devices you use mattering. Where were you watching the videos? Do you have the Amazon app installed on the same device, or on a device with a microphone? My tin-foil hat theory is that the Amazon app is always listening from your phone, based on similar things happening to my wife.

0
- It's not.
  
  Battery consumption would be obvious
  
  Network traffic would be obvious
  
  That's not how app lifecycles work on phones: the only thing always ruining is the OS.
  
  Source: professional app developer who has also worked for big G
  
  3
  
  cautiously lifts tinfoil hat off head
  
  3
  
  Something on stock Android phones is always listening though. I had a similar experience as OP where I had an IRL conversation once with my son about a product I don't normally talk about. My phone was unused & "asleep" nearby. An hour later at work I was inundated with ads for said product all over the internet in my Chrome browser on my work computer. It was way too heavy handed to be a coincidence. The phone had listened to our conversation.
  
  (That day marked the first on my journey to de-Google and take serious steps preserve my privacy online)
  
  -1
- Do you have the Amazon app installed on the same device
  
  Linux pc. There is no Amazon nor YouTube app for that, that I know of.
  
  1

You've viewed 33 comments.