LucasForums advertising policy

[Char Ell]

I was surprised to see in a sidebar ad today that Mate1 Intimate Dating showed me girls that were available in the area I live in.

I don't recall if I provided LF with my zip code when I registered but I couldn't find any location info other than the location field in my LF profile and all I've got in there is U.S.A.

Does LF share any member info with its advertisers, specifically Mate1? I've never been to Mate1's website or provided them with any info so I'm trying to figure out how that website would know what area of the U.S. I lived in.

[Ray Jones]

A) Coincidence.

B) Your IP Address.

C) Why do you enter your ZIP code at all if you don't want someone to know?

[Jeff]

Yeah, It has nothing to do with Lucasforums directly. I've seen those ads on other websites as well. It's just because of your IP address.

Lucasforums doesn't collect any information about where you live besides whatever you put for your location, and perhaps you could also include your IP address.

[Thrik]

Yeah, all IPs can be traced down to a rough location (NOT your home address), so all an advertiser has to do is have a database which compares IP blocks to locations and display the appropriate one for each. Quite a lot of advertisers are using them now to try and target them somewhat.

Maybe we'll have those ads like in sci-fi films that know your name before long.

[Char Ell]

Hmmm... Do you think they can narrow it down to city and state in the U.S.A. when my ISP is a rather large broadband provider in Arizona? I wouldn't have taken notice if it was simply something for my state but when the ad actually referred to my city that got my attention.

I'm thinking it may have been a tracking cookie. Gotta remember to run the anti-spyware more often.

[Jeff]

I'm pretty sure they can get it down to the city you live in. I have comcast broadband, the major provider in my area, and they get it down to the little city that I live in.

[Thrik]

Yeah cutmeiser, they definitely can. Most ISPs have IPs that are city specific. In fact, my ISP which covers the whole of England indicates my town in the hostmask, which is just a small place near Nottingham.

There's no tracking cookies involved as all it's doing is looking at your IP and comparing it to a database of which IPs match which towns. Someone could feasibly put an image of the sort in their signature and it'd work just the same.

[Char Ell]

^^^
Ugh!!! That is just wrong!!! What's going to be next?!

Originally Posted by Thrik

Maybe we'll have those ads like in sci-fi films that know your name before long.

Oh. Yeah. Forgot that question had already been answered.

[Ray Jones]

Originally Posted by cutmeister

That is just wrong!!! What's going to be next?!

That's just the way IP works. It's like going to the supermarket. They could have someone to follow you home, spy out your fridge so they can send you 'got milk?' ads because it's out. :]

[Joshi]

Originally Posted by Ray Jones

That's just the way IP works. It's like going to the supermarket. They could have someone to follow you home, spy out your fridge so they can send you 'got milk?' ads because it's out. :]

I thought I saw you outside Tesco's!

Yeah, I get plenty of those ads specific to my area, it's all to do with IP (although I've never seen them here on LF...)

[Det. Bart Lasiter]

If you hate it that much you can just use a proxy. Pages usually load slow as hell when you go through a proxy though.

The easiest way to use one is using Tor and the TorButton Firefox plugin:

http://tor.eff.org/

[Rogue Nine]

Paranoid much?

[St. Jimmy]

There is one simple solution. Aliens.

[Halo_92]

yes aliens live in my closet at night then leave at exactly 5:00 in the morning.

[Joshi]

I keep telling you! If I don't leave at exactly 5 I miss the bus!

[Ray Jones]

And that would make me angry, because I need my alien slaves to be here at 6.