5 ms·

Shouldnt the title be "Pornhub searches" not Google? as far as I know Google doesnt even show autocomplete results for porn related keywords.

deleted 9y ago
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dragonwriter 9y ago
“Doesn't show autocomplete” doesn't mean “doesn't collect data”.
- js2 9y ago
  The article indicates that he has data from both pornhub and google. The interview questions jump between the two, but the questions about porn are mostly based on the pornhub data. One thing I'm curious about is that the article implies he has demographic information (sex, income, etc) about the searchers and I don't know how google/pornhub would know that. I would imagine the majority of searches are anonymous except for IP and whatever the browser gives up. But maybe he's only looking at logged-in data?
  - infogulch 9y ago
    To be fair, "whatever the browser gives up" more than enough to reliably identify people.
    - js2 9y ago
      I work at Yahoo (er, Verizon). We absolutely do not correlate logged-in and logged-out data. I am going to assume the same for Google. Regardless, based on things like OS and IP, I understand how you could infer, say, an income range from that, but how precise could it be? But even assuming google/pornhub has identified me based on my browser fingerprint, how do they know my income level? I've never given that info to Google, nor filled it out on any surveys, warranty cards, etc that I can recall. Maybe I'm not typical and people freely give up this information?
      - MaulingMonkey 9y ago
        > Regardless, based on things like OS and IP, I understand how you could infer, say, an income range from that, but how precise could it be? A simple geoip query is pretty accurate when it comes to placing my neighborhood, which is already a fairly big indicator of income level I believe. And all the laptop advertisements google is showing me because I looked up my laptop recently show they know plenty enough about my shopping habits to make some fairly accurate guesses about my demographics, I'd wager.
  - jononor 9y ago
    "Google for" has almost become an alias for "searching for", regardless of site used.
sundvor 9y ago
So basically if Google treated shopping the same way it treats porn, it wouldn't have been hit by that massive EU fine. I.e. stay out of recommending / promoting results itself. (Disclaimer: Haven't read TFA).

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

dragonwriter 9y ago

“Doesn't show autocomplete” doesn't mean “doesn't collect data”.

js2 9y ago
The article indicates that he has data from both pornhub and google. The interview questions jump between the two, but the questions about porn are mostly based on the pornhub data. One thing I'm curious about is that the article implies he has demographic information (sex, income, etc) about the searchers and I don't know how google/pornhub would know that. I would imagine the majority of searches are anonymous except for IP and whatever the browser gives up. But maybe he's only looking at logged-in data?
- infogulch 9y ago
  To be fair, "whatever the browser gives up" more than enough to reliably identify people.
  - js2 9y ago
    I work at Yahoo (er, Verizon). We absolutely do not correlate logged-in and logged-out data. I am going to assume the same for Google. Regardless, based on things like OS and IP, I understand how you could infer, say, an income range from that, but how precise could it be? But even assuming google/pornhub has identified me based on my browser fingerprint, how do they know my income level? I've never given that info to Google, nor filled it out on any surveys, warranty cards, etc that I can recall. Maybe I'm not typical and people freely give up this information?
    - MaulingMonkey 9y ago
      > Regardless, based on things like OS and IP, I understand how you could infer, say, an income range from that, but how precise could it be? A simple geoip query is pretty accurate when it comes to placing my neighborhood, which is already a fairly big indicator of income level I believe. And all the laptop advertisements google is showing me because I looked up my laptop recently show they know plenty enough about my shopping habits to make some fairly accurate guesses about my demographics, I'd wager.
- jononor 9y ago
  "Google for" has almost become an alias for "searching for", regardless of site used.

sundvor 9y ago

So basically if Google treated shopping the same way it treats porn, it wouldn't have been hit by that massive EU fine. I.e. stay out of recommending / promoting results itself. (Disclaimer: Haven't read TFA).