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Would a service like this work on people who don't use the popular social networks? E.g. I get my news + dopamine from the local newspaper (physical paper edit

Would a service like this work on people who don't use the popular social networks? E.g. I get my news + dopamine from the local newspaper (physical paper edition) and HN, respectively. Ofc HN pretty much qualifies as a social network, but it has no targeting. My girlfriend isn't on any social network at all, unless WhatsApp qualifies as one and IMO it doesn't, unless you have a gazillion active group chats (which sounds like hell on earth). I'm inclined to think that this makes both of us immune to attacks like the ones performed by this company, but I have an uneasy feeling that I'm missing something. Anyone with a better insight in targeting hacks than me able to chip in?

schoen 7y ago
If you click through to other sites, such as news sites, blogs, web comics, and so on, they may be loading ads from adtech companies, which may be retargeted based on your browser cookies without involving any social media site. So your overall vulnerability to this targeting has more to do with what your browser does (such as whether it blocks trackers and expires or removes some cookies) and what sites you visit (in terms of where they choose to embed ads from).
ipsa 7y ago
Anywhere you can see retargeted ads online you could be targeted. WhatsApp group chats were used to spread carefully crafted opposition memes and fake news. So, while you may be safe against 50$ campaigns, it could be a false sense of security. For 5000$-50000$ I am sure I can get a special message in front of your face: Take out local ads, plant a newspaper story, create a huge story about your controversial 5-million-dollar-revenue website on HackerNews (remember, no such thing as bad publicity, this website will see their customers spike today!) > He banked on people hate-tweeting it. “I don’t mind what they feel, as long as they think something”, Halib said – which is scarily like something I’ve said in talks I’ve given about coming up with PR ideas that bang.

schoen 7y ago

If you click through to other sites, such as news sites, blogs, web comics, and so on, they may be loading ads from adtech companies, which may be retargeted based on your browser cookies without involving any social media site. So your overall vulnerability to this targeting has more to do with what your browser does (such as whether it blocks trackers and expires or removes some cookies) and what sites you visit (in terms of where they choose to embed ads from).

ipsa 7y ago

Anywhere you can see retargeted ads online you could be targeted. WhatsApp group chats were used to spread carefully crafted opposition memes and fake news. So, while you may be safe against 50$ campaigns, it could be a false sense of security. For 5000$-50000$ I am sure I can get a special message in front of your face: Take out local ads, plant a newspaper story, create a huge story about your controversial 5-million-dollar-revenue website on HackerNews (remember, no such thing as bad publicity, this website will see their customers spike today!) > He banked on people hate-tweeting it. “I don’t mind what they feel, as long as they think something”, Halib said – which is scarily like something I’ve said in talks I’ve given about coming up with PR ideas that bang.