[blakesterz]

> The next generation of tracking tech relies on the backend transfer of server logs between a website and the ad platform, which is invisible to your own network

I've not heard of this, what sites are giving logs to networks?

[marketingtech]

I couldn't tell you a specific site, but here's an explanation of both Google's and Facebook's functionality.

FB: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/conversio...

Google: https://developers.google.com/google-ads/api/docs/conversion...

This is also why companies like Tealium and Segment are currently valued at billions of dollars. They provide a single middleware integration point to funnel customer data to the dozens of marketing companies that are now leveraging server-side APIs instead of browser pixels.

[iamacyborg]

Not to forget Google's server side containers in Google Tag Manager.

https://developers.google.com/tag-manager/serverside

[cloudking]

All Shopify powered sites have the functionality available to send tracking data directly to Facebook via their API, if the merchant enables it. https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/promoting-marketing/analy...

[pineconewarrior]

"Server Side GTM" is a good starting point for for relevant information

[georgyo]

Shipping logs would be an extreme breach in my mind.

But I can BS. Without a cross site unique identifier, the logs would not be usable across different sites...

Though... I guess a browser fingerprint could be used as a non-centralized method to generate that unique key...

[krono]

Anonymous metrics, just the basics to help us keep track of service availability. Oh and a unique device identifier along with some information about your hardware and OS. Well... and your IP and connection times of course.

Don't worry though, the marketing websites of the commercial services we use to gather and analyse this data say they're keeping your data very safe and secure!

Your privacy means a lot to us.

[robin_reala]

No no, it’s “we value your privacy” which can be read in a couple of different ways.

[reaperducer]

Login name, email address, credit card number. Lots of ways for companies to get together like this to follow you around the web and apps. All invisibly. And you'd never know it.

[willvarfar]

Matching up is called “entity resolution” and reminds me of this recent showHN https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28127650

[haliskerbas]

Ad tech does not need a cross site unique identifier for everyone in order for cross device targeting to work well enough.

There’s other tricks of the trade that make it good enough.