4 ms·

I think that’s incorrect, relevant ads could be displayed based purely on the site content, without user info attached to ad calls. We’ve been there.

rpastuszak 7y ago
Why the downvote? Care to provide a reason?
- aeorgnoieang 7y ago
  From [the guidelines](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html): > Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading.
  - rpastuszak 7y ago
    Thanks, didn’t know about that. I wish I had received a better feedback there, though, as I’m deeply interested in the topic and generally it’s quite hard for me to find negative opinions, counterarguments I could work on. I find negative feedback more helpful, if it’s constructive.
    - aeorgnoieang 7y ago
      I think maybe the problem with the comment was that it started with "I think that’s incorrect" but it reads like a non sequitur. The comment to which yours was replying was claiming that matching ads to viewers is itself a privacy violation but your point seems to have been that it – matching ads to viewers – is unnecessary, which, altho related, is a different point and doesn't follow from you thinking that the other commenter's point is "incorrect". I think you're right in that "site content" is a good-enough proxy for users/viewers/targets for advertising, tho I also readily understand why advertisers would always like more info with which to target their ads.
0xffff2 7y ago
True and irrelevant. If you're displaying ads based on site content, you are matching ads to the site content, not to the viewer.
- eitland 7y ago
  It is actually relevant because they are matching the ads to the user, only it happens by a proxy variable which is the site you are visiting.
  - 0xffff2 7y ago
    The original question was "Is there any way to improve the matching of ads to the viewer without violating their privacy?" Your answer is that we should match something other than the user, that happens to correlate with user interests. That is, by definition, not matching ads to viewers.
    - eitland 7y ago
      In think either our idea of "by definition" or something else differs. Viewers get ads matching their interests, as proven by the fact that they are on a related website. I don't see how that isn't "matching ads to viewers"?
- ggg3 7y ago
  false and irrelevant. advertising to the site content really means "to the site's content audience demographics". what you describe is actually the personal ad targeting apocalypse we experienced recently. very well illustrated with the famous Taboola scam, where tabloid sites only had ads taking you to other tabloid sites.

rpastuszak 7y ago

Why the downvote? Care to provide a reason?

aeorgnoieang 7y ago
From [the guidelines](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html): > Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading.
- rpastuszak 7y ago
  Thanks, didn’t know about that. I wish I had received a better feedback there, though, as I’m deeply interested in the topic and generally it’s quite hard for me to find negative opinions, counterarguments I could work on. I find negative feedback more helpful, if it’s constructive.
  - aeorgnoieang 7y ago
    I think maybe the problem with the comment was that it started with "I think that’s incorrect" but it reads like a non sequitur. The comment to which yours was replying was claiming that matching ads to viewers is itself a privacy violation but your point seems to have been that it – matching ads to viewers – is unnecessary, which, altho related, is a different point and doesn't follow from you thinking that the other commenter's point is "incorrect". I think you're right in that "site content" is a good-enough proxy for users/viewers/targets for advertising, tho I also readily understand why advertisers would always like more info with which to target their ads.

0xffff2 7y ago

True and irrelevant. If you're displaying ads based on site content, you are matching ads to the site content, not to the viewer.

eitland 7y ago
It is actually relevant because they are matching the ads to the user, only it happens by a proxy variable which is the site you are visiting.
- 0xffff2 7y ago
  The original question was "Is there any way to improve the matching of ads to the viewer without violating their privacy?" Your answer is that we should match something other than the user, that happens to correlate with user interests. That is, by definition, not matching ads to viewers.
  - eitland 7y ago
    In think either our idea of "by definition" or something else differs. Viewers get ads matching their interests, as proven by the fact that they are on a related website. I don't see how that isn't "matching ads to viewers"?
ggg3 7y ago
false and irrelevant. advertising to the site content really means "to the site's content audience demographics". what you describe is actually the personal ad targeting apocalypse we experienced recently. very well illustrated with the famous Taboola scam, where tabloid sites only had ads taking you to other tabloid sites.