4 ms·

> we will block ad targeting based on the age, gender, or interests of people under 18 Sounds like I should adjust the age on my Google profile.

WORMS_EAT_WORMS 5y ago
This is a right move by Google. - Even for adults, ad targeting based on gender or age (or race) seems… wrong? - Would like them to come out and assume all personalization and recommendation systems they have also waive this for children. E.g.: YouTube recommendations are based solely on similar videos versus profile, location, viewing habits, whatever other magic they probably do.
- aaomidi 5y ago
  Honestly disabling all ad targeting has been the best thing I've done.
  - asteroidbelt 5y ago
    Is your browsing experience better now? Or you think it makes world a better place? I like certain ads. For example, I often click of property ads just to learn what they are building in the city I live, what is the price range etc. Because one day I'm going to buy. Of course I'd prefer no ads, but better this than random junk IMO.
    - aaomidi 5y ago
      I would argue my browsing experience is better ~ I do enjoy seeing the random junk because that also doesn't make my brain think about "hmm maybe I would like to buy that". Even if I actively avoid thinking about an ad I saw, it still impacts my psyche.
- asteroidbelt 5y ago
  > Even for adults, ad targeting based on gender or age (or race) seems… wrong? Wrong how? I don't mind ads target based on my gender (e.g. male suits, not cocktail dresses), age (no teenager sneakers), race (probably not interested in Diwali party). But practically it doesn't matter anyway. The neural network will learn my gender, age and race based on my previous behavior. It will be encoded in trained data, but not explicitly visible. And because of that modern ads developers don't actually need sex, age and race parameters, it won't make targeting better.
  - Tenoke 5y ago
    Depends on how much data they have on each person but typically adding variables that can be mostly inferred still usually improve model behavior by a little bit overall.
rand0mx1 5y ago
Then many youtube videos will be inaccessible.
- toomuchtodo 5y ago
  Dummy account for YouTube access (or rather, YouTube-dl scraping).
  - teddyh 5y ago
    youtube-dl can’t download age-restricted videos from YouTube anymore.
    - toomuchtodo 5y ago
      https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27359561 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27359561
      - FeistySkink 5y ago
        You still need to be able to see them in the first place. That is prove your age to Google.
        toomuchtodo 5y ago
        Hence the dummy account to segregate your day to day Google activities from your YouTube retrieval activities with a cookie piped into ytdl.
    - ModernMech 5y ago
      Take a youtube url and put 9xbud.com/ in front of it. Works like a charm for me. e.g. https://9xbud.com/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2eXs4pCs3k https://9xbud.com/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2eXs4pCs3... (A video of guys smoking weed) This actually works for most sites with embedded videos.
toast0 5y ago
Google has been prompting me for the past several months to add my birthday. Leaving it in doubt seems to be the best way forward.
- smt88 5y ago
  Unfortunately the price you might pay for this is getting locked out of your account. It happened to my brother. One verification step was supposed to be birthday.
sam_goody 5y ago
Actually, Google collects MUCH more data (I know that doesn't sound possible) from children under 18. Open the Family filter and look at what they colect. It is like, everywhere you go, every page you open, every image you look at etc. - Becuase, you know, "think of the kids". And yes, they may be collecting too much about every one, but this is just another level. And then, for the tiny fraction of kids that opt oout, they have a HUGE data point about them that can be combined with future actions to later build an even more powerful profile.

WORMS_EAT_WORMS 5y ago

This is a right move by Google. - Even for adults, ad targeting based on gender or age (or race) seems… wrong? - Would like them to come out and assume all personalization and recommendation systems they have also waive this for children. E.g.: YouTube recommendations are based solely on similar videos versus profile, location, viewing habits, whatever other magic they probably do.

aaomidi 5y ago
Honestly disabling all ad targeting has been the best thing I've done.
- asteroidbelt 5y ago
  Is your browsing experience better now? Or you think it makes world a better place? I like certain ads. For example, I often click of property ads just to learn what they are building in the city I live, what is the price range etc. Because one day I'm going to buy. Of course I'd prefer no ads, but better this than random junk IMO.
  - aaomidi 5y ago
    I would argue my browsing experience is better ~ I do enjoy seeing the random junk because that also doesn't make my brain think about "hmm maybe I would like to buy that". Even if I actively avoid thinking about an ad I saw, it still impacts my psyche.
asteroidbelt 5y ago
> Even for adults, ad targeting based on gender or age (or race) seems… wrong? Wrong how? I don't mind ads target based on my gender (e.g. male suits, not cocktail dresses), age (no teenager sneakers), race (probably not interested in Diwali party). But practically it doesn't matter anyway. The neural network will learn my gender, age and race based on my previous behavior. It will be encoded in trained data, but not explicitly visible. And because of that modern ads developers don't actually need sex, age and race parameters, it won't make targeting better.
- Tenoke 5y ago
  Depends on how much data they have on each person but typically adding variables that can be mostly inferred still usually improve model behavior by a little bit overall.

rand0mx1 5y ago

Then many youtube videos will be inaccessible.

toomuchtodo 5y ago
Dummy account for YouTube access (or rather, YouTube-dl scraping).
- teddyh 5y ago
  youtube-dl can’t download age-restricted videos from YouTube anymore.
  - toomuchtodo 5y ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27359561 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27359561
    - FeistySkink 5y ago
      You still need to be able to see them in the first place. That is prove your age to Google.
      - toomuchtodo 5y ago
        Hence the dummy account to segregate your day to day Google activities from your YouTube retrieval activities with a cookie piped into ytdl.
  - ModernMech 5y ago
    Take a youtube url and put 9xbud.com/ in front of it. Works like a charm for me. e.g. https://9xbud.com/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2eXs4pCs3k https://9xbud.com/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2eXs4pCs3... (A video of guys smoking weed) This actually works for most sites with embedded videos.

toast0 5y ago

Google has been prompting me for the past several months to add my birthday. Leaving it in doubt seems to be the best way forward.

smt88 5y ago
Unfortunately the price you might pay for this is getting locked out of your account. It happened to my brother. One verification step was supposed to be birthday.

sam_goody 5y ago

Actually, Google collects MUCH more data (I know that doesn't sound possible) from children under 18. Open the Family filter and look at what they colect. It is like, everywhere you go, every page you open, every image you look at etc. - Becuase, you know, "think of the kids". And yes, they may be collecting too much about every one, but this is just another level. And then, for the tiny fraction of kids that opt oout, they have a HUGE data point about them that can be combined with future actions to later build an even more powerful profile.