Hi there! I like to listen to the “Slightly something else” podcast. Although it is gaming-related, they have these ad-segments that have some kind of targetting, as it is always in the language from where I’ve downloaded the episone.

Yesterday I was really surprised that the ad seemed very well targeted, because it has been referencing a very specific topic concerning my flatmates and me that doesn’t have anything to do with gaming.

My first theory was that my IP was correlated with search terms my partner googled in my home IP (I search with searxng). But then I realized that I’ve subscribed to another podcast related to the advertised topic. (also: the episode with the advertisements was downloaded via mobile network)

So… Apparently, spotify (where slightly something else is hosted via anchor.fm) analyzes the podcasts I subscribe to via rss feed. Is there any way how I can avoid being profiled? Is this the reason why I’d start using a commercial VPN?

Edit: I’d like to reply to your comments, but my lemmy instance won’t display them correctly. So I’ll try to answer here: I’m already using Antennapod with rss feeds for download. That’s why I was so suprised and pissed that the ad was so obviously targeted.

  • jet@hackertalks.comEnglish
    12·
    1 year ago

    Start using an open source program to get your podcasts, like antennaPod which is excellent.

    If it continues to be a problem, then you can download your podcast over ToR for free.

    Or you could use one of the privacy respecting VPNs like Mullvad. Well worth the $5 a month they charge

    • Stantana@lemmy.sambands.netEnglish
      8·
      1 year ago

      I use AntennaPod. It doesn’t work like that, assuming the ads is from the publisher and not injected by the podcast platform.

      Does the old mantra still hold valid; “Please don’t use TOR for downloading”?

      VPN does change the IP and thus what country one could recieve ads from. But if it is the subscriptions+IP that causes this like OP believes, it will not help. Only anonymize and offer the targeted ads in a different language.

      But anonymity is still valuable in this situation as there won’t be any “personal” IP to connect it to.

      • jet@hackertalks.comEnglish
        3·
        1 year ago

        Antenna pod would at least help remove the personalized ads, because they wouldn’t be using the very intrusive proprietary application.

        I don’t know what the current recommended best practices, but you can watch YouTube on tor. And since their use case is not about anonymization from a APT, but rather just preventing personalized ads it seems sufficient.

        • ErwinLottemann@feddit.de
          3·
          1 year ago

          unfortunately there are still ads in the podcasts antennapod downloads. podgrab on the other hand downloads adfree versions apparently. i’m not sure why, though 😐