Android phones are simply an advertising tool!?!?!? Well, duh!!!

Brothers of Briar

Help Support Brothers of Briar:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
D

DWSmith

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 26, 2022
Messages
508
Reaction score
280
Location
Midwest
Sorry! I meant to put this in Technology.

Maybe I'm the last person on the planet to see it but I've been messing around with my Android phone today. I've heard rumors of such things but never came across concrete evidence. In case I misunderstand the purpose of it can someone explain to me what the purpose of the Advertising ID is on my phone? Seems obvious but maybe I'm wrong.

Settings -> Google -> Ads

Advertising ID???

I should be getting paid to use/carry my phone.
 
Last edited:
The ad ID passes on your shopping searches to online retailers who care to pay for the data. Try this, shop for some item, like a candy you never bought online. Within a day or two Amazon and other retailers will appear in news stories and other "info" sites with ads for the product. After about a week they'll disappear if you don't bite, internet fishing!
 
I wonder whose database(s) my Advertising ID is stored in. Seems like an easy way for my browsing history to be kept in spite of deleting my browsing history on my phone.

I got this churning feeling in my stomach when I first saw that Advertising ID. I am truly amazed at how blatantly obvious it is that my actions are being tracked like that. Perhaps I'm just too naive.

I deleted my Advertising ID from my phone.
 
Last edited:
I thought about shutting down my moderately priced, relatively speaking, smart phone and getting something more to my liking but I decided to just delete or shut down/pause as many apps as I can get away with. It's not exactly what I want but it's much closer than before.

It's been just over a week since I did this and I feel just a bit better about the phone. Time will tell.
 
DWSmith said:
I thought about shutting down my moderately priced, relatively speaking, smart phone and getting something more to my liking but I decided to just delete or shut down/pause as many apps as I can get away with.
Click to expand...
To make my laptop run better I deleted all the apps or put them in stop. I did the same for my phone and turned off the apps that can access the camera and microphone.

A running joke with people I work with is we will be talking about tools or household goods. Those items show up as ads in internet searches because the phone picks up conversations on the mic. Some people it does not bother them I guess.
 
Yep, some people swear it happens to them and some 'organizations' swear it can't happen. I've heard too many examples of that happening to not believe it.

Your phone has your email address and you access you email through your laptop so the two get tied together. No big mystery.
 
Wish someone would explain this. If I look up something on my "smart" phone my wjfe gets ads for same on hers. No connection other than her number is in my contact list and vice versa. I like the smart phone but hate the pop up ads.
 
Top