Comment by cm2012
12 hours ago
The effect of that data is serving you better ads. Its not a big deal. Dystopian governments have way better sources of citizen data than anonymized ad exchanges. It basically just powers product discovery in a giant global marketplace.
I’m glad you mention this. From today https://www.404media.co/cbp-tapped-into-the-online-advertisi...
This shows a really fascinating dynamic.
In theory, the government doesn't need the ad exchanges which have very lossy information. They have access to the ISPs and cell service providers, etc, with a warrant. Dictatorships like China and Russia don't need ad network data to be police states, they just use the core phone, internet and computer data.
But in this case, the US gov are using the insecure private data as a run-around to the warrant process. This is definitely unfortunate, and I think laws should be amended to prevent this workaround.
They don’t need a warrant for the ad exchanges
>The effect of that data is serving you better ads.
On the contrary, the ads become worse, since they become better at trying to get me to buy some crap I don't need.
The more irrelevant to my profile they are, the better.
This is not just about "better ads" - though I don't understand the term better anyway here. This is about profiling people. Ads are just one benefit here. Profiles can be sold to get a better idea of the potential customer base.+
> It basically just powers product discovery in a giant global marketplace.
That is also incomplete. See how profiling led to ICE finding people - and ICE has a proven track record of executing US citizens. That is also a fact. It does not mean profiling led to the death of the people here, 1:1, but it meant that it is a contributing factor to the build-up of government troops killing people (which is very similar of Europe 1930s by the way).
Would you write your name down the side of your car?
There's a subset of people in Ireland who are legally required to write down an ID on their vehicle, that can be matched to a name/photograph in seconds.
https://www.transportforireland.ie/getting-around/by-taxi/dr...
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Additionally, in plenty of European Countries, it's pretty common to write your name on your address: https://c8.alamy.com/comp/B01RP4/personal-name-plates-at-blo...
My name is on my car, the license plate can be matched to my name in seconds.
To those who have access on the registry - yes. But not everyone knows the name because they do not have access to the registry.
Writing it down would give more information to everyone else at all times.
Would you not? It would look odd and draw a lot of attention simply for being unusual, but I'm struggling to come up with any way in which doing so would actually harm me.
If you do it right now I will reveal my answer.
I disagree, because there’s always a chunk of advertising that seems to be all about targeting low-income or people who aren’t financially savvy and I don’t think it’s ethical for an apparatus to take advantage of them.
I think if a product is harmful, advertising it should be banned. Alcohol, drugs, gambling ads should be banned.
That is a pretty simplistic, prohibitionist worldview.
What about food products that can be used to excess? What about cars or AI or vacations? All these products can be harmful when misused.
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Insurance is likely using that same data to adjust rates.
” it’s not a big deal. Just gets you better ads.”
I thought this was just ignorance.
Then I checked the profile. They ”have lots of experience with digital advertising “
Really? So the profile is like an ad-bot. Good to know. It was the only account that tried to promote ads; everyone else hates ads, so they don't write in a positive tone about them.
This might’ve been true in 2012 but definitely is not the case today
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it”
The counter point to that quote is that someone whose salary depends on something likely has a lot more understanding of the topic than the average person. Not saying theyre always in the right. But the average internet user thinks they are way better informed than they actually are.