3 ms·

I get banning the collection of data, but why ban the targeting? Does showing someone products they're more likely to want hurt them in some way? Saying an adve

by causi 5y ago

I get banning the collection of data, but why ban the targeting? Does showing someone products they're more likely to want hurt them in some way? Saying an advertising company is allowed to know everyone's personal details but isn't allowed to, say, only show Islamic prayer mat advertisements to Muslims seems pretty backwards.

avs733 5y ago
You’re looking at positive examples. The negative examples have serious potential to create harm. E.g.; 1) a teenager exploring/researching their own sexuality on the family computer causes ads to be served to very religious mom and dad for queer friendly products or a pride flag 2) ads targeting someone with covid that send them to a scam testing site (that charges both the patient and the government) or pushing ineffective or dangerous treatments like colloidal silver. It’s not that these are the only categories that can be abused but these are some most rife for abuse
- notahacker 5y ago
  It must be said that the problem with (2) is the site pushing the claims being allowed to advertise/operate at all. Its only marginally less harmful if it can still profit from less directly targeted advertising. I also think there's an important distinction between data that can be used on a platform's own website and information that follows you around the Internet (which this legislation doesn't appear to draw). In practical terms, this is the distinction between ads for services a gay teenager might actually use on a login-based social profile the teenager has voluntarily publicly displayed their sexual orientation on (and bombarding them with slightly fewer invitations to be heterosexual!) and rainbow ads following their mum round Internet.
  - avs733 5y ago
    In the abstract I totally agree But if you limit their targeting the entire method becomes much much less effective and hurts the economic incentive. Right now that seems the best they can do. The policies have to be realistic. The issue is information following you…but good luck solving that
lrem 5y ago
You can't effectively ban the collection. Bing needs to get your search query to be able to answer it. You can muck around retention and what kind of processing can be done... But this approach seems to be simpler and more robust. Since most of the nefarious tracking is for ads targeting, forbid using sensitive data for ads targeting and you've outlawed most of the worst thing. And adding another layer of processing or even transferring the data between separate entities shouldn't work around such a regulation either. Now all that's left are the small matters of wording and enforcing the law...
- esarbe 5y ago
  > You can't effectively ban the collection. You can, that is what the EU's privacy regulations are all about.

by causi 5y ago

avs733 5y ago

You’re looking at positive examples. The negative examples have serious potential to create harm. E.g.; 1) a teenager exploring/researching their own sexuality on the family computer causes ads to be served to very religious mom and dad for queer friendly products or a pride flag 2) ads targeting someone with covid that send them to a scam testing site (that charges both the patient and the government) or pushing ineffective or dangerous treatments like colloidal silver. It’s not that these are the only categories that can be abused but these are some most rife for abuse

notahacker 5y ago
It must be said that the problem with (2) is the site pushing the claims being allowed to advertise/operate at all. Its only marginally less harmful if it can still profit from less directly targeted advertising. I also think there's an important distinction between data that can be used on a platform's own website and information that follows you around the Internet (which this legislation doesn't appear to draw). In practical terms, this is the distinction between ads for services a gay teenager might actually use on a login-based social profile the teenager has voluntarily publicly displayed their sexual orientation on (and bombarding them with slightly fewer invitations to be heterosexual!) and rainbow ads following their mum round Internet.
- avs733 5y ago
  In the abstract I totally agree But if you limit their targeting the entire method becomes much much less effective and hurts the economic incentive. Right now that seems the best they can do. The policies have to be realistic. The issue is information following you…but good luck solving that

lrem 5y ago

You can't effectively ban the collection. Bing needs to get your search query to be able to answer it. You can muck around retention and what kind of processing can be done... But this approach seems to be simpler and more robust. Since most of the nefarious tracking is for ads targeting, forbid using sensitive data for ads targeting and you've outlawed most of the worst thing. And adding another layer of processing or even transferring the data between separate entities shouldn't work around such a regulation either. Now all that's left are the small matters of wording and enforcing the law...

esarbe 5y ago
> You can't effectively ban the collection. You can, that is what the EU's privacy regulations are all about.