Something really odd happened to me this morning. The situation makes it look like Apple is sharing App Store customer data with a 3rd party advertising network. It appears to be a fetchback ad network.
Here's what happened. Yesterday I was browsing the App Store and looked at a program called Boom. I had never looked at this program before. Nor did I visit their website with the link from the Apple store. I did not buy the program.
This morning I was reading Hacker News via NetNewsWire software. There was a link to an article about best practices for signup forms. I clicked the link to read the article and low and behold there was an ad sitting on the right column (the only ad) for the Boom software offering me 25% off with a code. Here's a link to a screenshot:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/65099140@N04/5927227432/lightbox/
The ad was being served via a network called Carbon. Carbons website says it's an "invite only" ad network. Could it be a completely random event? Maybe? But it sure looks suspicious. Almost as if Apple is sharing my IP information and the software I was looking at with Carbon ad/fetchback network.
I'll also add I've never visited the website this article was on. It was my first visit.
Maybe this is old news, but I've never heard about it and if it's true certainly wouldn't be happy about it.
Here's what happened. Yesterday I was browsing the App Store and looked at a program called Boom. I had never looked at this program before. Nor did I visit their website with the link from the Apple store. I did not buy the program.
This morning I was reading Hacker News via NetNewsWire software. There was a link to an article about best practices for signup forms. I clicked the link to read the article and low and behold there was an ad sitting on the right column (the only ad) for the Boom software offering me 25% off with a code. Here's a link to a screenshot:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/65099140@N04/5927227432/lightbox/
The ad was being served via a network called Carbon. Carbons website says it's an "invite only" ad network. Could it be a completely random event? Maybe? But it sure looks suspicious. Almost as if Apple is sharing my IP information and the software I was looking at with Carbon ad/fetchback network.
I'll also add I've never visited the website this article was on. It was my first visit.
Maybe this is old news, but I've never heard about it and if it's true certainly wouldn't be happy about it.