# How did they know I am a male heterosexual?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-know-i-am-a-male-heterosexual/717044
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [April 7, 2015, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-know-i-am-a-male-heterosexual/717044 "2015-04-07T16:28:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@harmonicamoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmonicamoon)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2015, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-know-i-am-a-male-heterosexual/717044/1 "2015-04-07T16:28:36Z")
My computer recently died and I have been using the IPad. I have never used the IPad to search porn.
I went to a site to view a TV series. When I clicked on the episode, a bunch of porn pages opened. The computer has flash block and add block, the iPad doesn’t.
So, how do they know I am a male heterosexual?
I posted this in MPSIMS for the entertainment value. But, if you have GQ responses, I would like to read them.
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### Author:  [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2015, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-know-i-am-a-male-heterosexual/717044/2 "2015-04-07T16:42:56Z")
Just playing the odds I’d guess. And apparently they were right.
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### Author:  [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2015, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-know-i-am-a-male-heterosexual/717044/3 "2015-04-07T16:50:28Z")
Because that’s the default search that was set up.
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### Author:  [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2015, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-know-i-am-a-male-heterosexual/717044/4 "2015-04-07T16:53:12Z")
According to the porn ads I get, I’m male and heterosexual as well, and either white, or a black guy seriously into white women, particularly ones with shaved pussies. And I like my women on the skinny side, although I don’t mind fake boobs.
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### Author:  [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2015, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-know-i-am-a-male-heterosexual/717044/5 "2015-04-07T17:11:24Z")
iPads do not have flash block because the have no need of it: they do not run flash. You must be getting javascript pop-up stuff, which can be disabled in some browsers, but that would disable a lot of content.
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### Author:  [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2015, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-know-i-am-a-male-heterosexual/717044/6 "2015-04-07T17:12:42Z")
Being a male nurse, I get penis enlargement and breast augmentation spam, sometimes in the same batch. Good times.
Within days of my 50th birthday I started getting sexy senior spam.
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### Author:  [@somepumpkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/somepumpkin)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2015, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-know-i-am-a-male-heterosexual/717044/7 "2015-04-07T17:20:25Z")
I’ve noticed that Google Chrome syncs my browser history between my iPad and my computer(s). Perhaps that’s got something to do with your situation.
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### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2015, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-know-i-am-a-male-heterosexual/717044/8 "2015-04-07T17:20:36Z")
Hey, at least you’re getting porn. All I get is spam for eastern European women who want to marry me.
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### Author:  [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2015, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-know-i-am-a-male-heterosexual/717044/9 "2015-04-07T17:22:23Z")
> [@outlierrn](#):
>
> Being a male nurse, I get penis enlargement and breast augmentation spam, sometimes in the same batch. Good times.
>
> Within days of my 50th birthday I started getting sexy senior spam.
Spam is spam. I get all kinds of spam for ads wanting to sell me something to enlarge my p3n1s. I don’t know what a p3n1s is, but whatever it is, I definitely don’t have one.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2015, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-know-i-am-a-male-heterosexual/717044/10 "2015-04-07T17:49:12Z")
> [@kunilou](#):
>
> Hey, at least you’re getting porn. All I get is spam for eastern European women who want to marry me.
It’s always awkward when you recognize your future bride from last week’s porn ad.
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### Author:  [@leftfield6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leftfield6)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2015, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-know-i-am-a-male-heterosexual/717044/11 "2015-04-07T18:00:03Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#):
>
> It’s always awkward when you recognize your future bride from last week’s porn ad.
Or its a BONUS!!! Glass half-full , ya know? 😉
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### Author:  [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2015, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-know-i-am-a-male-heterosexual/717044/12 "2015-04-07T18:05:48Z")
At least you can be sure she will know what to do when she gets here
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### Author:  [@D18](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D18)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2015, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-know-i-am-a-male-heterosexual/717044/13 "2015-04-07T18:21:48Z")
Hah! So now we know what [caused the problems with your Mac!](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=753564) 😃
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### Author:  [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2015, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-know-i-am-a-male-heterosexual/717044/14 "2015-04-07T18:48:18Z")
At least it’s just spam. If it ever gets through to the 3D printers the streetscapes will look like a Kraft-Ebbing-fueled nightmare.
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2015, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-know-i-am-a-male-heterosexual/717044/15 "2015-04-07T18:55:19Z")
> [@eschereal](#):
>
> iPads do not have flash block because the have no need of it: they do not run flash. You must be getting javascript pop-up stuff, which can be disabled in some browsers, but that would disable a lot of content.
For a while now I’ve noticed that sites with Flash ads will serve non-Flash ads if you don’t have Flash installed. And nearly all popups are JavaScript anyways.
And, yeah. While women are into porn these days, and gay people have always been just as into porn, the majority of people looking for porn are still straight men. Type “nude \_\_\_\_,” into Google Image Search, where \_\_\_\_ is a nationality or gender neutral profession or even stuff like “selfies,” and most if not all your results will be women.
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### Author:  [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2015, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-know-i-am-a-male-heterosexual/717044/16 "2015-04-07T18:59:05Z")
> [@BigT](#):
>
> Type “nude \_\_\_\_,” into Google Image Search, where \_\_\_\_ is a nationality
Those women are nice enough, but decidedly NOT Eskimo.
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### Author:  [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2015, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-know-i-am-a-male-heterosexual/717044/17 "2015-04-07T19:21:13Z")
> [@harmonicamoon](#):
>
> My computer recently died and I have been using the IPad. I have never used the IPad to search porn.
>
> I went to a site to view a TV series. When I clicked on the episode, a bunch of porn pages opened. The computer has flash block and add block, the iPad doesn’t.
>
> So, how do they know I am a male heterosexual?
>
> I posted this in MPSIMS for the entertainment value. But, if you have GQ responses, I would like to read them.
My first thought is: What TV show? If you’re watching Ax Men, Bar Rescue, or Sports Center… well, yeah, they know you’re a heterosexual male with a fair degree of certainty. Some shows exist on TV for no other reason than the fact that they attract a narrow demographic that advertisers want to sell things to.
But my second thought is that spammers don’t really care who you are. They sell what sells. They already know that 99.9% of the market will ignore them, so even if you personally at not interested, they’re still after that one who is. Targeting their ads by audience might get a 99.8% ignore rate instead, but it’s still a numbers game where a massive volume of viewings generate a small number of responses.
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### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2015, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-know-i-am-a-male-heterosexual/717044/18 "2015-04-08T01:42:38Z")
For the first couple years I was on Facebook, I got both dating ads “for mature people only” in addition to ones showing scene girls. They finally stopped showing me dating ads at all when I told them I was “not the proper demographic” for an annoying recurring ad for a country bar even though I was indeed in the right location, gender, and age: they didn’t ask if I was a rock-listening introvert. I guess they haven’t figured out my demographic yet.
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### Author:  [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2015, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-know-i-am-a-male-heterosexual/717044/19 "2015-04-08T04:31:09Z")
> [@leftfield6](#):
>
> Or its a BONUS!!! Glass half-full , ya know? 😉
“Glass”? How many girls with that?
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### Author:  [@harmonicamoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmonicamoon)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2015, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-know-i-am-a-male-heterosexual/717044/20 "2015-04-08T08:22:45Z")
Yahoo mail spam folder. I went there. Maybe 50% of the mail was for penis extenders.
How did they know that I, well you know, …had something different?
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