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I suspect that in the early days of internet advertising casino/poker/porn was much more common because they were the ones willing to take a risk on advertising

by Smoosh 5y ago

I suspect that in the early days of internet advertising casino/poker/porn was much more common because they were the ones willing to take a risk on advertising in the new media. Over time other more mainstream industries joined in. I don't agree about the good intentions. The tracking is a means to an end. People are tracked to measure engagement and to target ads, both of which have the purpose of increasing the value of the advertising to the benefit of the ad networks. They don't care if you get relevant ads. They care that they can charge more for your eyeballs because they can classify you as "male, 19-29, in USA, interested in technology, art, exercise" and sell you as part of a package to companies wanting to target that market.

spfzero 5y ago
Yes, no one at the advertising agency is going "let's make sure each person gets relevant ads." They are saying, "let's make sure we can charge more by assuring the buyer that their ad went to the demographic they asked us to show it to." They need to track so that they can "prove" they did what they sold.
kwanbix 5y ago
Of course is about money. The world is based on money. Advertising has existed for years, but it is only now being able to target with more precision. I know this might be an unpopular opinion here in HN, but I really don't see the problem with target advertising.
- jimkleiber 5y ago
  For me, I don't seem to care much if it's a company trying to sell me a refrigerator, but when a company/org is trying to sell me an idea that a group of people is evil and out to get me and all my problems will be fixed if I vote for X or distance myself from my "evil" friends and family, etc., then I start to worry more. The challenge with having access to that much information is that it can be very powerful and a very lopsided/asymmetric power. I remember when Facebook had Open Graph Search-when any user on the platform could perform complex searches of their friends, friends of friends, and more. It was so powerful at times it freaked me out how powerful it was. I could search for friends of friends who are women who live in San Francisco who speak Spanish who are single and who like Dave Matthews and it would give me a list. Facebook shut it down a few years ago, but I imagine something similar still exists on the advertising side of things (side note, there was someone a few years ago that used the advertiser tools to send ads specifically to his one friend as a prank). So for me, why should some groups have access to this information and others not? Who gets to control who has so much info? Again, the info itself is not necessarily the problem I see, it's the asymmetry and how those people use the asymmetric info they have on me, which can be to powerfully help me or hurt me or maybe even ignore me.

by Smoosh 5y ago

spfzero 5y ago

Yes, no one at the advertising agency is going "let's make sure each person gets relevant ads." They are saying, "let's make sure we can charge more by assuring the buyer that their ad went to the demographic they asked us to show it to." They need to track so that they can "prove" they did what they sold.

kwanbix 5y ago

Of course is about money. The world is based on money. Advertising has existed for years, but it is only now being able to target with more precision. I know this might be an unpopular opinion here in HN, but I really don't see the problem with target advertising.

jimkleiber 5y ago
For me, I don't seem to care much if it's a company trying to sell me a refrigerator, but when a company/org is trying to sell me an idea that a group of people is evil and out to get me and all my problems will be fixed if I vote for X or distance myself from my "evil" friends and family, etc., then I start to worry more. The challenge with having access to that much information is that it can be very powerful and a very lopsided/asymmetric power. I remember when Facebook had Open Graph Search-when any user on the platform could perform complex searches of their friends, friends of friends, and more. It was so powerful at times it freaked me out how powerful it was. I could search for friends of friends who are women who live in San Francisco who speak Spanish who are single and who like Dave Matthews and it would give me a list. Facebook shut it down a few years ago, but I imagine something similar still exists on the advertising side of things (side note, there was someone a few years ago that used the advertiser tools to send ads specifically to his one friend as a prank). So for me, why should some groups have access to this information and others not? Who gets to control who has so much info? Again, the info itself is not necessarily the problem I see, it's the asymmetry and how those people use the asymmetric info they have on me, which can be to powerfully help me or hurt me or maybe even ignore me.