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How do these ads know where I live?

bluebomberman

bluebomberman

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
I'm starting to see banner ads that show the name of the neighborhood I live in. (FYI: Whereas mail to Manhattan or Brooklyn is addressed as New York or Brooklyn respectively, mail to Queens is identified by neighborhood.)

How is it possible for an Internet ad to know what part of New York City I live in? Do they look at the IP address?

Creepy.
 
I don't think it's from IP address, cause I see a lot about Seattle, but I don't live in Seattle anymore. So it must be from some cookie somehow. I dunno 😕
 
Isn't it from your browser settings which are probably just your actual system settings? I know that's how F1.com tells you what local time the F1 races will be.
 
mad jew said:
Isn't it from your browser settings which are probably just your actual system settings? I know that's how F1.com tells you what local time the F1 races will be.
Click to expand...

No, there is nothing in my system settings that ever said Seattle. It does say Cupertino or Los Angeles for the time zone... but not Seattle.
 
wrc fan said:
I don't think it's from IP address, cause I see a lot about Seattle, but I don't live in Seattle anymore. So it must be from some cookie somehow. I dunno 😕
Click to expand...

It can't be cookies, because I can reset Safari (which wipes the browser clean) and get the same result.

mad jew said:
Isn't it from your browser settings which are probably just your actual system settings? I know that's how F1.com tells you what local time the F1 races will be.
Click to expand...

Where in my system settings would I have my neighborhood ready to display on an ad banner? It's much more specific than catching my time zone.
 
I believe it is from your IP address, which is visible to each web server you visit. Not all IP addresses can be looked up to neighborhood, but I think those banner ads are targeting the ads when they get a hit from an address in an IP range known to map to a specific location.
 
Doctor Q said:
I believe it is from your IP address, which is visible to each web server you visit. Not all IP addresses can be looked up to neighborhood, but I think those banner ads are targeting the ads when they get a hit from an address in an IP range known to map to a specific location.
Click to expand...

So why then does it get Seattle from my IP, which is definately not in Seattle?
 
Doctor Q said:
I believe it is from your IP address, which is visible to each web server you visit. Not all IP addresses can be looked up to neighborhood, but I think those banner ads are targeting the ads when they get a hit from an address in an IP range known to map to a specific location.
Click to expand...

Makes sense. I use Earthlink via Time Warner cable, so they probably divvy up IPs by zip code.

Still, it's weird. Half the people in my neighborhood don't speak English as their primary language, plus it's not exactly a famous location (many New Yorkers never heard of it). Seeing an ad targeted at a neighborhood with over 50 nationalities represented makes little sense to me.

Thanks for the reassurance, Doctor.
 
Reminds me of this time...

...when Lucy Liu, while hosting Saturday Night Live a few years back, exclaimed that she's from Jackson Heights (a NYC neighborhood featured in the movie Maria Full of Grace and close to where I'm at). All she received was silence, because most of the audience had no idea where Jackson Heights was.
 
That's so weird. I've never seen any L.A. targeted ads, which seems a bit weird since it's kind of a big city....It seems like someone, somewhere, is doing some reselling of person data.
 
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