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I have an iPhone, an Amazon Echo, and a Google Home device. I recently had to watch live TV because I was watching a sports game, and the number of ads that tar
by mmanfrin 9y ago
I have an iPhone, an Amazon Echo, and a Google Home device. I recently had to watch live TV because I was watching a sports game, and the number of ads that targeted my listening devices was obscene. Every other ad was either for the Echo or Home, or for something unrelated but mentioning 'Hey Siri, tell me about [product being sold]'.
To me, it feels like it's an effort to subvert the always-listening/always-watching tracking. If Google has now searched for some random thing being sold because of that ad, then those ads will be shown to me when I browse on my computer (since it's all part of the same profile).
It's intrusive, obnoxious, and I feel zero remorse doing anything to avoid ads (such as use an ad blocker).
- funnelsgun 9y agoA friend of mine has Google Home and it just doesn’t appeal to me in the slightest! Perhaps I just don’t know how to get the most out of it, but whenever I go to his I either just ask it dumb questions or get it to change the music - to his frustration...
- mmanfrin 9y agoI've become a bit too used to using the echo as an alarm clock (which I can set without turning on a screen or looking at a light) and for morning/evening news briefings, which is really just a proxy to NPR/BBC podcasts, but it's useful. It is definitely something that I wish there was a 'self hosted' version of that was anywhere near as capable.
- Fifer82 9y agoReally? I mean, Really???? You have an unregulated device in your home, mining away on data which... you paid for, hard cash. Not a game, not a movie, not a simulation, not an experience. And your only use is an Alarm Clock? This is gold mate, gold. You know when people say "ach, the guy is just an idiot with money"? mmanfrin is what I see.
- rdruxn 9y agoComments like this inspire me to reach HN’s 500 upvote floor just so I can downvote you.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- Fifer82 9y agoI got to 500 easy enough, I suggest decent posts. Points on HN in 2017, is like reddit points in 2012, like 4chan in 2009. It has no value and you sleep like a baby whether hated or otherwise.
- dang 9y agoI appreciate your concern for comment quality, but please don't respond to a bad comment by posting another. That amounts to feeding trolls and the site guidelines ask you not to do it: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html. Instead, the thing to do is flag egregious comments, as described here: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html. You don't need nearly as much karma to do that, and we review most flagged comments.
- sctb 9y agoIf you comment like this again we'll ban the account. Please read the guidelines and start following them. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- Fifer82 9y agoSo sorry, you paid money so that google and amazon can collect your data (at this point, you were not given the device, you were not paid, you literally worked to pay to be mined). And you are on Hacker News? Like tell me brother, as an educated guy, how you got here?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- MikeFez 9y agoWhat an absolutely foolish reply. Do you shop on Amazon? Do you use Google search or Gmail? Do you watch Netflix? Do you use a credit card? You have a thousand data points mined per day - an Echo or Google Home are no different from any other service that you may be interested in using. Especially as these devices are not "listening in" until their keyword activates them.
- Fifer82 9y ago1. No 2. No 3. No 4. No 5. No The device is not "Listening In" and yet, remind me how you "activate it" to make it "Listen In"?
- kossae 9y agoThe biggest one I’m always reminded of is “Do you have a phone?”... The always-on, cloud-connected device that you carry everywhere at all times?
- Fifer82 9y agoNo. I don't have a phone. I don't need one. No one in the world at any time for any reason may simply interrupt my current cadence. If it is good news, I can wait, if it is bad news, I can wait. If it is part of a job, I want 20k, (so I don't get issued one). Having a phone isn't a free pass to letting business into the home that will in the end use your habits to sell you those habits at a premium.
- username223 9y ago
- cvsh 9y ago>or for something unrelated but mentioning 'Hey Siri, tell me about [product being sold]'. What? Seriously? Commercials try to hijack your devices? Isn't this fairly clear-cut unauthorized access of a computer system, and therefore criminal?
- ahbolinsky 9y agoUnauthorized access? Maybe if the commercial ordered something off Amazon using Alexa on your behalf.
- tonmoy 9y agoI think the GP means that the commercials show how you can ask Siri to search for their product.
- latexr 9y agoI think GP means the ads are actually trying to activate the devices: > If Google has now searched for some random thing being sold because of that ad, then those ads will be shown to me when I browse on my computer This isn’t unheard of. Burger King pulled that stunt to great success: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/12/business/burger-king-tv-ad-google-home.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/12/business/burger-king-tv-a...
- sleavey 9y agoI am not surprised at this ad abuse at all, and nor should you be. These devices are made and sold by companies for whom user tracking and monitoring is their main business.