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> I thought building personality profiles and launching targeted ads was pretty mundane at the end of the day. The next level of discussion that interests me is

by knzhou 7y ago

> I thought building personality profiles and launching targeted ads was pretty mundane at the end of the day. The next level of discussion that interests me is why social media manipulation is so powerful in the first place. Well, if you push in that direction then the whole narrative falls apart. There is absolutely no evidence that social media based personality profiles are actually effective -- why would knowing somebody likes Taylor Swift be better for targeting political ads than knowing where they live and their party affiliation, like in traditional ad targeting? It's just absurd, and nobody ever counters this narrative because nobody has an incentive to. Journalists want people to believe this to get them afraid of Facebook. Facebook wants people to believe it because that makes their ads worth paying for. Doubly so for Cambridge Analytica and the like.

chillacy 7y ago
> social media based personality profiles It's not based on social media likes, it's a literal 5-factor psychology personality survey [1]. [1] https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-personality-test-cambridge-analytica-data-trump-election-2018-3 https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-personality-test-ca...
freeflight 7y ago
> There is absolutely no evidence that social media based personality profiles are actually effective And that's why microtargeting has become pretty widespread in its use during political campaigning [0], because it's not effective at all. > why would knowing somebody likes Taylor Swift be better for targeting political ads than knowing where they live and their party affiliation Because FB knows all of these things, and not only who likes Taylor Swift. Care to name any other place where data like that exists in such an aggregated format? [0] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-29/the-german-far-right-finds-friends-through-facebook https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-29/the-germa...
- knzhou 7y ago
  > Care to name any other place where data like that exists in such an aggregated format? Come on. Both political parties maintain databases of voters containing plenty of personal information. When people canvas door to door they know precisely what kind of people will answer the door. This is a basic aspect of campaigning that was around well before Facebook. 2004 wasn’t the stone age.
netsharc 7y ago
You're picking Taylor Swift to make it sound your argument is solid... Aren't there better indicators? If I follow my local city's LGBT group's FB page, well, what do you think my political leanings would be? Or on the opposite end, if I follow that megachurch's FB page? Or even if I'm just friends with many people who "checked-in" there last Sunday.
- knzhou 7y ago
  Sure, but do you really think this basic information about general political leanings wasn’t available before social media? 2004 wasn’t the stone age.
  - netsharc 7y ago
    Can you point me to the online ad service where in 2004 you can do "Show this ad to people of (gender/age/race/sexual orientation) living in (area) who like (these things)"? Also Cambridge Analytica did more than that, they figured out whether the voters were easy to influence from their Facebook profiles, and they targeted people on the fence with ads pointing to Anti-Hillary conspiracy videos... If you think journalists are just lying about Facebook being able to do all that (it's just all fake news, right?), read this article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2014/06/28/facebook-manipulated-689003-users-emotions-for-science/#aea56f0197c5 https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2014/06/28/facebook... and notice how FB didn't have any concrete denials in the lines of "None of this is true"...

by knzhou 7y ago

chillacy 7y ago

> social media based personality profiles It's not based on social media likes, it's a literal 5-factor psychology personality survey [1]. [1] https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-personality-test-cambridge-analytica-data-trump-election-2018-3 https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-personality-test-ca...

freeflight 7y ago

> There is absolutely no evidence that social media based personality profiles are actually effective And that's why microtargeting has become pretty widespread in its use during political campaigning [0], because it's not effective at all. > why would knowing somebody likes Taylor Swift be better for targeting political ads than knowing where they live and their party affiliation Because FB knows all of these things, and not only who likes Taylor Swift. Care to name any other place where data like that exists in such an aggregated format? [0] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-29/the-german-far-right-finds-friends-through-facebook https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-29/the-germa...

knzhou 7y ago
> Care to name any other place where data like that exists in such an aggregated format? Come on. Both political parties maintain databases of voters containing plenty of personal information. When people canvas door to door they know precisely what kind of people will answer the door. This is a basic aspect of campaigning that was around well before Facebook. 2004 wasn’t the stone age.

netsharc 7y ago

You're picking Taylor Swift to make it sound your argument is solid... Aren't there better indicators? If I follow my local city's LGBT group's FB page, well, what do you think my political leanings would be? Or on the opposite end, if I follow that megachurch's FB page? Or even if I'm just friends with many people who "checked-in" there last Sunday.

knzhou 7y ago
Sure, but do you really think this basic information about general political leanings wasn’t available before social media? 2004 wasn’t the stone age.
- netsharc 7y ago
  Can you point me to the online ad service where in 2004 you can do "Show this ad to people of (gender/age/race/sexual orientation) living in (area) who like (these things)"? Also Cambridge Analytica did more than that, they figured out whether the voters were easy to influence from their Facebook profiles, and they targeted people on the fence with ads pointing to Anti-Hillary conspiracy videos... If you think journalists are just lying about Facebook being able to do all that (it's just all fake news, right?), read this article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2014/06/28/facebook-manipulated-689003-users-emotions-for-science/#aea56f0197c5 https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2014/06/28/facebook... and notice how FB didn't have any concrete denials in the lines of "None of this is true"...