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> The companies make money by monitoring their customers’ online activity and selling the data, largely to advertisers. Not true. They make money by monitoring

> The companies make money by monitoring their customers’ online activity and selling the data, largely to advertisers. Not true. They make money by monitoring their customers' online activity and using the data to target ads, which they sell to advertisers. I can't take anyone's reporting or opinion on FB and Google seriously if they don't understand this extremely important distinction.

ashtonian 7y ago
Unfortunately you are not the target audience
danpalmer 7y ago
While this distinction is accurate, I'm not sure it's useful? If you can target with enough granularity, which is fairly typical of these modern ad networks like Facebook/Google, then you have the data about those users who click through by the fact that they saw that targeting. It may not be perfect data, but it's close enough to be incredibly valuable to companies. I can't buy an email list from Facebook with salaries attached, but I can target those who have a salary in the range I'm interested in and see who I get through. You're right that this is a distinction, but I think it has very similar outcomes.
- nerfhammer 7y ago
  It's completely different and meant to be inflammatory rather than accurate
- bduerst 7y ago
  It's an important distinction because without it, it implies some human being is reviewing information linked to your name somewhere, when in reality the information is being anonymously evaluated by algorithms to target ads.
  - mostlysimilar 7y ago
    Disagree. The important point isn't whether or not an actual human is "spying" on my activity, it's that the platforms providing the targeted ads are not behaving responsibly with regards to the content being shown. I don't care about being shown ads for products I might buy. I care about targeted disinformation being fed to "persuadables" in order to affect massive political upheaval (current political breakdown in the United States, Brexit in the UK, other instances all across the globe in smaller nations.) The only important thing here is that e.g. Facebook has the data and sells access to nefarious actors. Selling the data "directly" or not isn't the point.
hello_friendos 7y ago
This comment feels like nitpicking. Distracting from the actual conversation and focusing on something else.
perlgeek 7y ago
> Not true. They make money by monitoring their customers' online activity and using the data to target ads, which they sell to advertisers. That's only half the truth. In real-time bidding system, personal identifiable information is actually sent to advertisers at scale. It's not directly selling the information, but advertisers who make generate too little revenue can't participate in those RTB platforms, so there is effectively a minimal amount that advertisers pay per potential click, so close enough to actually selling the data.
raldi 7y ago
Indeed; if Google is selling users' data, where do I sign up to buy some?

ashtonian 7y ago

Unfortunately you are not the target audience

danpalmer 7y ago

While this distinction is accurate, I'm not sure it's useful? If you can target with enough granularity, which is fairly typical of these modern ad networks like Facebook/Google, then you have the data about those users who click through by the fact that they saw that targeting. It may not be perfect data, but it's close enough to be incredibly valuable to companies. I can't buy an email list from Facebook with salaries attached, but I can target those who have a salary in the range I'm interested in and see who I get through. You're right that this is a distinction, but I think it has very similar outcomes.

nerfhammer 7y ago
It's completely different and meant to be inflammatory rather than accurate
bduerst 7y ago
It's an important distinction because without it, it implies some human being is reviewing information linked to your name somewhere, when in reality the information is being anonymously evaluated by algorithms to target ads.
- mostlysimilar 7y ago
  Disagree. The important point isn't whether or not an actual human is "spying" on my activity, it's that the platforms providing the targeted ads are not behaving responsibly with regards to the content being shown. I don't care about being shown ads for products I might buy. I care about targeted disinformation being fed to "persuadables" in order to affect massive political upheaval (current political breakdown in the United States, Brexit in the UK, other instances all across the globe in smaller nations.) The only important thing here is that e.g. Facebook has the data and sells access to nefarious actors. Selling the data "directly" or not isn't the point.

hello_friendos 7y ago

This comment feels like nitpicking. Distracting from the actual conversation and focusing on something else.

perlgeek 7y ago

> Not true. They make money by monitoring their customers' online activity and using the data to target ads, which they sell to advertisers. That's only half the truth. In real-time bidding system, personal identifiable information is actually sent to advertisers at scale. It's not directly selling the information, but advertisers who make generate too little revenue can't participate in those RTB platforms, so there is effectively a minimal amount that advertisers pay per potential click, so close enough to actually selling the data.

raldi 7y ago

Indeed; if Google is selling users' data, where do I sign up to buy some?