I have all tracking settings possible turned off on my devices, including in the Facebook and Amazon apps.<p>Usually the ads shown to me are random, great!<p>Except whenever I use the Amazon Android app, not long after Facebook starts showing me targeted ads based on products I've viewed on Amazon.<p>For instance I was looking for gravel and other types of decorative stones for gardening purposes. Many of the products I looked at were marketed as for use in aquariums or with reptiles.<p>So now Facebook is showing me ads for fish and reptile pet products. When I checked the "why am I seeing this ad?" page they've added pets, fish and reptiles to my "interests".<p>The only place I've looked at those types of things is in the Amazon app.<p>What's going on here?<p>P.S. I even have the global Android targeted ads setting turned off.
Same! It's daunting. I don't want to sound paranoid but what bugs me more is that more than rarely I see things I was just talking to my friend about (in person) showing up in ads when I scroll my social feeds...<p>(Btw I'm an iPhone user and have all tracking settings turned off as well.)
Update: So I discovered numerous services were sending data directly to Facebook, using some form of hashed identifier, presumably a hash of my contact info.<p>The two big ones being Amazon and Uber.<p>Anyway I've decided to switch to a dumb phone in the near future and just stop using the internet once I've found offline replacements for everything I currently use the internet for.<p>It's just not worth it anymore.