4 ms·

They're an advertising company that gets most of its profits by collecting personal information about people and trying to manipulate them into buying things.

They're an advertising company that gets most of its profits by collecting personal information about people and trying to manipulate them into buying things. Sounds pretty unethical to me.

ehsankia 9y ago
That's one way to look at it. Another way to look at it is: They're an advertisement company that profits from showing you the most relevant data and things that you will like. It's all about perspective. You can take anything and spin it to be nefarious if you try hard enough.
- specialist 9y ago
  If google's personalization efforts actually created the filter bubble that I want, more more and less less, it'd be a fair trade. But they don't, so it isn't.
ptasci67 9y ago
Are billboards or radio stations or television channels unethical to you? Because they are also trying to "manipulate" you into buying things. Advertising is not inherently unethical. I want people to buy my product so I need to raise awareness of it, encourage people that it is the best, make them feel like they need it. I would even go so far as to say that Google's default anonymized model makes this far better. My preferences can be used to serve more meaningful ads to me which makes everyone happier. Eg, I was searching for tent reviews online. Saw an ad for a tent from a brand I had never heard of. Looked up their reviews and bought that tent. Unfortunately, they are a lot of bad actors in this space. Google is actively trying to weed them out. They are deeply incentivized to rid the internet of them because it means less ad blockers and less spam and more money for them. Any website you visit or app you use is going to collect some personal information about you. How many times have you questioned why you need to turn over your email to a stopwatch app. At least with Google's default-anonymized model, you are opting in to a fairly sweet deal. You volunteer things you are interested in so that Google can serve you better ads and keep the internet free (in the dollar sense) and the information you provide is not reversible back to you. Doesn't sound too unethical to me especially because it is all one big opt-in.
- peterwwillis 9y ago
  > Are billboards or radio stations or television channels unethical to you? Because they are also trying to "manipulate" you into buying things. For the most part, yes. Most of the products people are trying to sell you are bad for you, wasteful, and generally corrosive to the fabric of society, because most of us just don't need it. You don't need potato chips, soft drinks, plastic shoes, a new game app, furniture, a new car, a new movie, makeup, a new credit card, a new mobile phone, a new tv/internet/mobile plan, or over the counter drugs. If you did, you'd just go and find it. Advertisers push you to buy the things you don't need, and similar to taking medicine you don't need, this can hurt you. It hurts your health, it hurts your wallet, and it pushes unreasonable expectations on you by convincing society to expect them. Advertising and marketing are not always bad for you. But for the most part, they are. Irregardless, we live in a consumer society. If we didn't constantly buy cheap shit, our economy would probably tank, and China wouldn't be the new biggest global power. It's kind of ironic that some day we will be making tennis shoes for them, whereupon money spent on advertising in the US will actually lower.
- n1231231231234 9y ago
  the difference between a billboard and google is that ppl are aware that a billboard is advertisement. i don't think that ppl really understand what they are agreeing to when they get a pixel, chromebook, or even just gmail. and this way, google can put up those micro billboards that we often do not consciously perceive but that still influence our actions. and the google billboards that we do perceive, for them, very few ppl understand why they are so powerful at showing us personally just the right stuff.
- 4bpp 9y ago
  If nothing else, the difference between those and Google is at least one of scale and power. With great power comes great responsibility, but Google does not really appear like its sense of responsibility has grown in proportion to its power.
- specialist 9y ago
  How do you feel about jurisdictions which ban (or severely limit) outdoor advertising like billboards?
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

They're an advertising company that gets most of its profits by collecting personal information about people and trying to manipulate them into buying things. Sounds pretty unethical to me.

ehsankia 9y ago

That's one way to look at it. Another way to look at it is: They're an advertisement company that profits from showing you the most relevant data and things that you will like. It's all about perspective. You can take anything and spin it to be nefarious if you try hard enough.

specialist 9y ago
If google's personalization efforts actually created the filter bubble that I want, more more and less less, it'd be a fair trade. But they don't, so it isn't.

ptasci67 9y ago

Are billboards or radio stations or television channels unethical to you? Because they are also trying to "manipulate" you into buying things. Advertising is not inherently unethical. I want people to buy my product so I need to raise awareness of it, encourage people that it is the best, make them feel like they need it. I would even go so far as to say that Google's default anonymized model makes this far better. My preferences can be used to serve more meaningful ads to me which makes everyone happier. Eg, I was searching for tent reviews online. Saw an ad for a tent from a brand I had never heard of. Looked up their reviews and bought that tent. Unfortunately, they are a lot of bad actors in this space. Google is actively trying to weed them out. They are deeply incentivized to rid the internet of them because it means less ad blockers and less spam and more money for them. Any website you visit or app you use is going to collect some personal information about you. How many times have you questioned why you need to turn over your email to a stopwatch app. At least with Google's default-anonymized model, you are opting in to a fairly sweet deal. You volunteer things you are interested in so that Google can serve you better ads and keep the internet free (in the dollar sense) and the information you provide is not reversible back to you. Doesn't sound too unethical to me especially because it is all one big opt-in.

peterwwillis 9y ago
> Are billboards or radio stations or television channels unethical to you? Because they are also trying to "manipulate" you into buying things. For the most part, yes. Most of the products people are trying to sell you are bad for you, wasteful, and generally corrosive to the fabric of society, because most of us just don't need it. You don't need potato chips, soft drinks, plastic shoes, a new game app, furniture, a new car, a new movie, makeup, a new credit card, a new mobile phone, a new tv/internet/mobile plan, or over the counter drugs. If you did, you'd just go and find it. Advertisers push you to buy the things you don't need, and similar to taking medicine you don't need, this can hurt you. It hurts your health, it hurts your wallet, and it pushes unreasonable expectations on you by convincing society to expect them. Advertising and marketing are not always bad for you. But for the most part, they are. Irregardless, we live in a consumer society. If we didn't constantly buy cheap shit, our economy would probably tank, and China wouldn't be the new biggest global power. It's kind of ironic that some day we will be making tennis shoes for them, whereupon money spent on advertising in the US will actually lower.
n1231231231234 9y ago
the difference between a billboard and google is that ppl are aware that a billboard is advertisement. i don't think that ppl really understand what they are agreeing to when they get a pixel, chromebook, or even just gmail. and this way, google can put up those micro billboards that we often do not consciously perceive but that still influence our actions. and the google billboards that we do perceive, for them, very few ppl understand why they are so powerful at showing us personally just the right stuff.
4bpp 9y ago
If nothing else, the difference between those and Google is at least one of scale and power. With great power comes great responsibility, but Google does not really appear like its sense of responsibility has grown in proportion to its power.
specialist 9y ago
How do you feel about jurisdictions which ban (or severely limit) outdoor advertising like billboards?

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]