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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You say you were not using a vpn. Then the site has your ip and probably has meta/google ads or other shit running on it and links the product with your ip.
This data is added to some data broker/ ad network and you see an ad when you visit a site using this network as you have “signalled” interest in the product by viewing the product page the first time.
I don’t see ads but if I were to, and despite all my precautions some would be on topic based on my past behavior I would methodically dissect to find out the leak. Namely I would try to automate the process :
- identify a place showing ads
- take an action, e.g. search or browser, on a verifiable unique topic (in order to prevent from generic suggestions, e.g medication during flu season)
- verify if the ads become relevant
- enable/disable any of the tools used, repeat
well, it would make no fucking difference if you had a vpn on, ALL IT DOES IS MOVE YOUR EXIT POINT. it cannot touch your browser traffic.
frustrates me to bo end the bullshit fucking ads/lies vpn companies peddle
If my exit point is my ISP, and my ISP is selling my data to advertisers (hypothetically), then a VPN would make a difference. That’s why I mentioned it.
search data would be difficult to obtain for a service provider. it would require a retargeting campaign or something to extract your search values.
search data is already tls encapsulated at the browser. isp can see your tcp metdata, but not the data.
also… not the point. sorry
I should’ve known that but forgot. You’re right, my ISP shouldn’t be able to see anything but that I visited Wikipedia. They wouldn’t know that I searched for rambutan.
How old is that game? Are there other people in your demographic who also play the game, and then searched for the same thing?
September 2025
Well, without a VPN your ISP sees every site you enter. I wasn’t aware they might be selling that data for targeted ads, but it makes sense, why wouldn’t them?
Looking it up my ISP isn’t exactly trustworthy, but there have been no clear allegations. I’d say it’s the most likely cause if not my Firefox extensions.
EDIT: I just got another theory, Cloudflare, I’ll add it to the list.
If you’re really crazy about your privacy I’d recommend getting rid of any extensions you don’t 100% need (keep ublock origin though) as not only can they stalk you themselves but it can also help websites fingerprint you. Keeping your extensions to a minimum will help you blend in with the crowd, especially if you use a hardened browser like LibreWolf and/or Mullvad Browser
I use AdGuard rather than uBlock Origin for adblocking, because it allows me to opt-in and only block ads when they are aggressive enough to be annoying. But I’ve not been trying to minimize fingerprinting. The issue is just that everything I used in this instance came with either a tacit or explicit promise not to track me and I don’t know which is lying.
Other extensions I use are:
- Remove YouTube Suggestions
- 10ten Japanese Reader (just now disabled)
- Tampermonkey
- Proton Pass (because my government services require 2FA, but only offer an official government app that uses the play integrity API, or a Passkey which is only natively supported on Windows or Mac)
- Time Tracker - Web Habit Builder
- Improve Crunchyroll (which seems to have stopped Crunchyroll from forcefully dropping my resolution to 144p).
- SteamDB (just now disabled)
I’ve never used AdGuard but you can customize uBlock Origin to fit your needs and block specific things for specific websites. uBlock Origin is commonly used as a default in hardened browsers which would help you fit in with the crowd even more (although I realize you said you weren’t going for anti-fingerprinting, just something to consider)
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I switched to using Grayjay Desktop rather than my browser for YouTube
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If you need a userscript manager, Violentmonkey is an open source alternative
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Proton Pass has an app, yes less convenient without the autofill but better for privacy not to have the extension
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Personally, I would just sail the seven seas
- I have Freetube installed but I found no reason to really use it when I have this browser extension and adblock (though I don’t have one enabled for YouTube so I have no idea why I’m not seeing ads). I can probably do what Remove YouTube Suggestions does with Tampermonkey or Violentmonkey anyway so I might switch.
- Didn’t realize Tampermonkey wasn’t open source. I’ll look into it when I can eventually be bothered.
- I can’t use a Passkey on my phone. GrapheneOS doesn’t support passkeys.
- Piracy isn’t worth the hassle to me, though it’s not like Crunchyroll has been much better lately.
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Do any extensions have permission to view your browsing data? You can check by opening the extension manager, clicking the extension and clicking the ‘permissions and data’ tab. I would suspect 5 and 6 the most, 1 might be suspect too. Those extensions by nature would need such permissions to some extent.
AdGuard, ProtonPass, TamperMonkey, Time Tracker, and 10ten have those permissions. The others don’t. I don’t think any of these extensions would be able to function without these permissions.
