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Honestly a truly well-made ad targeting on me, something that really ticked all the right boxes... gosh I'd spend 3-4× more, easily. Because ordinarily I just d

by K0SM0S 6y ago

Honestly a truly well-made ad targeting on me, something that really ticked all the right boxes... gosh I'd spend 3-4× more, easily. Because ordinarily I just don't lose time on shopping websites, but I'm kinda of a spender when I do find things that I like. And I'm a sucker for good deals, I'm a patient prey hunter, I can wait months in ambush for the right deal. Anecdotally of course, as one of those tech-folks who's got nothing against good and relevant ads.

microcolonel 6y ago
I guess I just don't buy enough things to want to see any ads at all. I don't have any particular issue selecting products either. A well targeted ad doesn't need to serve you well, it just needs to convince you to buy; I have a lot of faith in myself and I'd say those are often the same thing, but experiences may differ.
save_ferris 6y ago
> Anecdotally of course, as one of those tech-folks who's got nothing against good and relevant ads. Be careful what you wish for. This TED talk[0] on persuasion architectures brings up some interesting moral arguments against this idea. If we generally accept that ad conversion is a metric of an ad's success, how do we handle the situation where people that are susceptible to addictive behaviors like gambling and compulsive shopping are exposed to ads that exploit their condition? Data-driven advertising systems are built particularly well to find and exploit these kinds of people. We already see this a lot in the scam call/email world. Once you fall for one, the amount of inbound traffic you receive from scammers increases dramatically. 0: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFTWM7HV2UI&t=872s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFTWM7HV2UI&t=872s
- Izkata 6y ago
  > how do we handle the situation where people that are susceptible to addictive behaviors like gambling and compulsive shopping are exposed to ads that exploit their condition? Ads like that used to be common. By your description, it sounds like they died out on their own.
  - save_ferris 6y ago
    How? Data-driven ad systems are built specifically to target people who have a high probability of conversion. The perfect person for such a system is one that would constantly (i.e. impulsively) buy or convert.
taurath 6y ago
The “ads just aren’t good enough yet” poster while right doesn’t really take into account the terrifying things companies would ask to know about you in order to properly target those ads

by K0SM0S 6y ago

microcolonel 6y ago

I guess I just don't buy enough things to want to see any ads at all. I don't have any particular issue selecting products either. A well targeted ad doesn't need to serve you well, it just needs to convince you to buy; I have a lot of faith in myself and I'd say those are often the same thing, but experiences may differ.

save_ferris 6y ago

> Anecdotally of course, as one of those tech-folks who's got nothing against good and relevant ads. Be careful what you wish for. This TED talk[0] on persuasion architectures brings up some interesting moral arguments against this idea. If we generally accept that ad conversion is a metric of an ad's success, how do we handle the situation where people that are susceptible to addictive behaviors like gambling and compulsive shopping are exposed to ads that exploit their condition? Data-driven advertising systems are built particularly well to find and exploit these kinds of people. We already see this a lot in the scam call/email world. Once you fall for one, the amount of inbound traffic you receive from scammers increases dramatically. 0: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFTWM7HV2UI&t=872s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFTWM7HV2UI&t=872s

Izkata 6y ago
> how do we handle the situation where people that are susceptible to addictive behaviors like gambling and compulsive shopping are exposed to ads that exploit their condition? Ads like that used to be common. By your description, it sounds like they died out on their own.
- save_ferris 6y ago
  How? Data-driven ad systems are built specifically to target people who have a high probability of conversion. The perfect person for such a system is one that would constantly (i.e. impulsively) buy or convert.

taurath 6y ago

The “ads just aren’t good enough yet” poster while right doesn’t really take into account the terrifying things companies would ask to know about you in order to properly target those ads