I'm using Linux Mint 21.2 Cinnamon, 5.8.4

I downloaded Shortwave from the Software Manager so I could listen to Internet radio, and selected a Russian station.

For some reason, I'm still hearing ads in English. This shouldn't be going on, how can I make it stop?

I checked the website for the station to see if I could ask them, but it's in Cyrillic. That's why I think it's spyware or Cookie related. Please help! Thanks.

Why do you think that?

Or maybe they broadcast adverts in english because the majority of their listeners understand english? Or they geotarget their adverts and have detected you're using an IP from a country that's predominantly english speaking.

Yes.
I don't want them to geotarget me. Is there a way to block this?

Connect from a different IP?

Just like when I watch a Spanish tv channel (over the air) in USA, some ads are in english. They know most people here either know English or half know it or are learning it (or get enough out of the ad without the words), so don't always bother to make ads in another language.

Sometimes, when I listen to Pandora, I occasionally ads in spanish too! And I'm not listening to any music in spanish nor have I ever. I guess they just know almost half the people around here understand it or something. This one I do find odder than english ads on spanish tv channels tho.

I realize the last thing doesn't apply for internet radio, but still, if you're listening from an english speaking area, wouldn't be surprised to get ads in English.

Okay, so is there a way to BLOCK Shortwave from geotargeting without having to change my IP, use a proxy, etc.? Is there some file that can be deleted or modified? Some permission that can be turned off? Some radio button that can be clicked???

I don't want any information whatsoever coming from my computer going to theirs, except what station I want to listen to.

#1 that is unrealistic, more information than that can be detected from a simple ping (echo).

#2 Have you considered using the onion network? Using TOR like a VPN has some advantages. Tor does not block them from detecting things about you or your location, but it obfuscates some of the detail and replaces others with misleading detail.

#3 The best way to avoid having a site track you or your data is to never connect to that site. Have you considered using a guest machine on distrosea (or other online session hosting) to connect indirectly? That way the geo data they collect will be the hosting server, not your node.

No information is coming (or going) from your computer to theirs. Every single site you ever connect to knows your ip address. This is how a computer network works. If you want to appear to be from somewhere else, you'd have to change your ip via a vpn or proxy or whatever. It is not something you can hide, but it's not information from your computer.

That is not actually true. The very first query packet in the handshake to access port 80 to request a web pages identifies your browser name and version, your OS type and version, and possibly certain other information. This is in addition to the network information provided by the routing and packet addressing data that is network level only. (It is trivial to make your browser LIE in those packets, but that is a whole 'nother subject.)

Then, there is the whole range of things that a session can contain: cookies are just the beginning.

IF you have a good reason for wanting to HIDE that information, it does pay to do some research. Asking here is only a poor beginning, but the OP has made a start.
I hope the ideas presented here give them a decent start.

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Okay, I'll give you that, web browsers provide user agent on request, etc, so that's info from your computer. I'm not actually familiar with shortwave and its probably using http and probably responds to that query, and I guess that counts as information from your computer. My point was no matter what you do online tho, anything with internet is getting your ip address, its required, its the way networks work. Its not info from your computer itself. And if they look that ip up in a database to see which ISP provides it and where they are located, that's "geolocation"; you can't stop it other than coming from a different ip address.

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What is so unrealistic about expecting a computer program to not invade my privacy? I never clicked anything saying it was okay for this program to use my data in targeted ads.

I don't feel like anyone's getting the question I'm trying to ask. For this specific computer program, Shortwave for Linux, is there any way to block it from sending data used in targeted ads? I know that I can confuse it with the Onion network or VPNs but that's not the point. I should not have to. Is there a way to modify Shortwave so that it's strictly a one-way transmission, like an actual radio? Or is there an Internet radio program that works that way already?

You are correct, we were not clearly understanding the question you wanted to ask. A clearer statement of the question might have helped, but now that we have it ...

You would have to download the source code and examine it, but I believe the functionality requires communication TO AND FROM the station addresses. The station sites are not broadcasting, they are streaming to the client machines that request connection.

I might test with GRADIO, the parent application from which SHORTWAVE was spawned. IF that has adds, you have to consider that the radio site may be streaming them and without the income from that they could not continue the service. (Servers space, storage, bandwidth: none of it is free!)

(Well, Putin MIGHT be paying for it, but then you should expect it to run in a way that will keep HIM happy. And he LOVES to have his people spy on everyone!)

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On actual radio there are different ads in different areas too.

I started by mentioning on my actual ota tv, there are english ads on spanish language channels, as they are broadcasting in an area where most people know English.

So your comparison to actual radio isn't valid, other than the one way thing; they just use different transmitters in different areas

If I'm picking up the signal from Iowa, then I wouldn't hear ads from Florida. That's what I meant by comparing it to actual radio. If the stream is a literal copy of what's playing in the area I'm trying to listen to, then the ads wouldn't target me based on my IP.

NO TARGETED ADS. No information whatsoever goes from my actual radio to the broadcast station, and everybody receiving the broadcast gets the exact same commercials. I want whatever Internet radio app I use to behave like an actual radio. I realize that with Internet architecture an IP always goes through, and the problem isn't Shortwave, it's the companies running the stations.. so if I hear an ad that's out of place then I delete the channel from my library and make a note not to listen to other channels under the same company name.

But frankly I just want to listen to music and be left alone. At least if the propaganda is in Russian then I can't understand it.

Then you really need to get off the internet and get a radio, because that is how broadcast radio works and NOTHING on the internet works that way!
I recommend a radio that covers the shortwave bands. I used to listen to radio Venezuela from north central North Dakota, USA evenings on short wave. Never understood a word, but great music!