How did the Ad Networks find my search? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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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?

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[-] far_university1990@reddthat.com 1 points 2 months ago

But see ip you connect to. Reverse dns using own dns could show set of url possible on ip.

[-] ivn@jlai.lu 4 points 2 months ago

Reverse DNS would only show domain name, not URL. And even then a lot of websites are sharing IPs. No point in doing that when you've got SNI.

[-] far_university1990@reddthat.com 2 points 2 months ago

True only domain. TIL about sni. But vpn still protect against sni analysis no?

[-] ivn@jlai.lu 4 points 2 months ago

With a VPN it's the VPN that has access to the list of domain you visit instead of your ISP. Whether you should put your trust in your ISP or a VPN is another question.

this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2025

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