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I don't understand why people are so against Advertisers targetting people based on their data? what are people so afraid of? the way i see it, the worst case

I don't understand why people are so against Advertisers targetting people based on their data? what are people so afraid of? the way i see it, the worst case scenario is you get an Ad for something you might actually like...

bloomingeek 3y ago
Because it's none of their damn business! If you are cautious in public around strangers, and you better be, why would any sane person trust a company with their personal data?!? Your question is either super naive or you have a stake in facebook or apple.
- tomcar288 3y ago
  I could care less if someone or the whole world knows that I like elvis presely, fence repair or cucumbers and gardening and a whole host of other random facts. i mean so what? that data can go out of date very easily. any second now I could decide I don't like elvis presely, etc. the vast majority of "data" collected is all nonsense anyways. the things I don't want getting into anyone's hands are things like: financial info, address, phone number, social security, my middle name, birthday, etc. none of those things are stuff I share with a social network.
Keirmot 3y ago
If that’s the worst you think it can happen, you lack imagination. I Myanmar fingerprinting helped the military find dissidents, the the US Cambridge Analytica managed to get enough data to influence an election, and there’s many more examples. Besides, if a private company can sell access to you through ads, less benevolent actors can use that access for other more nefarious practices.
- cscurmudgeon 3y ago
  If that’s the worst you think it can happen, you lack imagination. It is 2023 and you don't need ads to influence people. E.g, TikTok not acting on dangerous trends. https://www.vox.com/technology/2023/6/1/23742757/kia-hyundai-challenge-tiktok-instagram-youtube https://www.vox.com/technology/2023/6/1/23742757/kia-hyundai...
heavyset_go 3y ago
> the way i see it, the worst case scenario is you get an Ad for something you might actually like... That's hardly the worst case scenario when there are countless stories like "Facebook Allowed Advertisers to Target Users Interested in “White Genocide” — Even in Wake of Pittsburgh Massacre"[1]. There's also the time Facebook's targeted ads were used to facilitate genocide in Myanmar[2][3]. [1] https://theintercept.com/2018/11/02/facebook-ads-white-supremacy-pittsburgh-shooting/ https://theintercept.com/2018/11/02/facebook-ads-white-supre... [2] https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/digital-threats/rohingya-facebook-hate-speech/ https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/digital-threats/r... [3] https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/09/myanmar-facebooks-systems-promoted-violence-against-rohingya-meta-owes-reparations-new-report/ https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/09/myanmar-faceb...
- charcircuit 3y ago
  >when there are countless stories like "Facebook Allowed Advertisers to Target Users Interested in “White Genocide” What's wrong with that? The more interests available the better ads can be targetted. >There's also the time Facebook's targeted ads were used to facilitate genocide in Myanmar The article doesn't mention ads were used. It just sounds like Facebook was connecting people based off a common interested people shared.
  - Timon3 3y ago
    Generally speaking it's never a good idea to stoke the fire of unfounded fears in people. Doing so directly leads to stochastic terrorism and other horrible things. There are more important things in this world than money. Surely we can all agree that "better ad targeting" isn't worth human lives?
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
thinkling 3y ago
For one reason, because the data lives on forever, and these companies merge or go out of business eventually, at which point the data ends up in the hands of someone else. Data is also shared with data brokers (Acxiom and the like) which collect unknown quantities of data about you, linked to your actual identity. That data can then affect whether you get a loan or a job. Most importantly, we don't know what's done with the data and have no control should we want it to be forgotten.
hotnfresh 3y ago
1) The data are the privacy equivalent of nuclear waste. A company having it is also barely different from the government having it, directly. The data ought not be collected, period. It’s astonishingly dangerous. 2) Someone following you around writing notes about everything you do doesn’t stop being creepy-as-fuck harassment just because it’s online and “at scale”. And actually a lot of this transcends the Internet and gets connected with real world activities, blurring the difference even more. It’s wrong when someone does it to a single person for some personal reason, and it’s even more wrong when a megacorp does it to everyone to make a buck. 3) It harms the function of markets. Massive nearly-impossible-for-a-small-business-to-attain data-moats protect monopolies and discourage competition. It adds to the already-harmful-to-market-function information imbalance between individuals and companies.
balderdash 3y ago
It’s not the targeting, it’s the largely surreptitious compilation of the dossier about people that is so vile. If someone showed up at your house with a folder about a loved one, turns out they had been following them around town, tracking their movements, taking pictures, reading their emails, etc. I don’t think you’d be two thrilled, but hey they’re only going to use that info to target ads…pinky swear…
potamic 3y ago
Advertisers can sell you things at higher prices if they know you have more money. The first rule of negotiation in business is that information is power.
barrysteve 3y ago
I mean, come on. WW2 and all that. What's the worst that could happen... sheesh why don't we not find out for a change. Watch the 10hr long interview documentary called Shoah and listen to how trains, buildings and institutions were used to do 'the deed'. It was impossible to tell what was going to happen ahead of time for the victims, they assumed they were heading to a labour camp and being assigned a block of soap and sent to the showers was a good thing... Why does this even need to be said! Do we not know our dark european history? Conserving the known good we have, is not an 'immediate fail', as many futurists would indulge in saying... At least you know now where you can discover one reason (of many) as to why some people are wary of collective control.

bloomingeek 3y ago

Because it's none of their damn business! If you are cautious in public around strangers, and you better be, why would any sane person trust a company with their personal data?!? Your question is either super naive or you have a stake in facebook or apple.

tomcar288 3y ago
I could care less if someone or the whole world knows that I like elvis presely, fence repair or cucumbers and gardening and a whole host of other random facts. i mean so what? that data can go out of date very easily. any second now I could decide I don't like elvis presely, etc. the vast majority of "data" collected is all nonsense anyways. the things I don't want getting into anyone's hands are things like: financial info, address, phone number, social security, my middle name, birthday, etc. none of those things are stuff I share with a social network.

Keirmot 3y ago

If that’s the worst you think it can happen, you lack imagination. I Myanmar fingerprinting helped the military find dissidents, the the US Cambridge Analytica managed to get enough data to influence an election, and there’s many more examples. Besides, if a private company can sell access to you through ads, less benevolent actors can use that access for other more nefarious practices.

cscurmudgeon 3y ago
If that’s the worst you think it can happen, you lack imagination. It is 2023 and you don't need ads to influence people. E.g, TikTok not acting on dangerous trends. https://www.vox.com/technology/2023/6/1/23742757/kia-hyundai-challenge-tiktok-instagram-youtube https://www.vox.com/technology/2023/6/1/23742757/kia-hyundai...

heavyset_go 3y ago

> the way i see it, the worst case scenario is you get an Ad for something you might actually like... That's hardly the worst case scenario when there are countless stories like "Facebook Allowed Advertisers to Target Users Interested in “White Genocide” — Even in Wake of Pittsburgh Massacre"[1]. There's also the time Facebook's targeted ads were used to facilitate genocide in Myanmar[2][3]. [1] https://theintercept.com/2018/11/02/facebook-ads-white-supremacy-pittsburgh-shooting/ https://theintercept.com/2018/11/02/facebook-ads-white-supre... [2] https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/digital-threats/rohingya-facebook-hate-speech/ https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/digital-threats/r... [3] https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/09/myanmar-facebooks-systems-promoted-violence-against-rohingya-meta-owes-reparations-new-report/ https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/09/myanmar-faceb...

charcircuit 3y ago
>when there are countless stories like "Facebook Allowed Advertisers to Target Users Interested in “White Genocide” What's wrong with that? The more interests available the better ads can be targetted. >There's also the time Facebook's targeted ads were used to facilitate genocide in Myanmar The article doesn't mention ads were used. It just sounds like Facebook was connecting people based off a common interested people shared.
- Timon3 3y ago
  Generally speaking it's never a good idea to stoke the fire of unfounded fears in people. Doing so directly leads to stochastic terrorism and other horrible things. There are more important things in this world than money. Surely we can all agree that "better ad targeting" isn't worth human lives?
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]

thinkling 3y ago

For one reason, because the data lives on forever, and these companies merge or go out of business eventually, at which point the data ends up in the hands of someone else. Data is also shared with data brokers (Acxiom and the like) which collect unknown quantities of data about you, linked to your actual identity. That data can then affect whether you get a loan or a job. Most importantly, we don't know what's done with the data and have no control should we want it to be forgotten.

hotnfresh 3y ago

1) The data are the privacy equivalent of nuclear waste. A company having it is also barely different from the government having it, directly. The data ought not be collected, period. It’s astonishingly dangerous. 2) Someone following you around writing notes about everything you do doesn’t stop being creepy-as-fuck harassment just because it’s online and “at scale”. And actually a lot of this transcends the Internet and gets connected with real world activities, blurring the difference even more. It’s wrong when someone does it to a single person for some personal reason, and it’s even more wrong when a megacorp does it to everyone to make a buck. 3) It harms the function of markets. Massive nearly-impossible-for-a-small-business-to-attain data-moats protect monopolies and discourage competition. It adds to the already-harmful-to-market-function information imbalance between individuals and companies.

balderdash 3y ago

It’s not the targeting, it’s the largely surreptitious compilation of the dossier about people that is so vile. If someone showed up at your house with a folder about a loved one, turns out they had been following them around town, tracking their movements, taking pictures, reading their emails, etc. I don’t think you’d be two thrilled, but hey they’re only going to use that info to target ads…pinky swear…

potamic 3y ago

Advertisers can sell you things at higher prices if they know you have more money. The first rule of negotiation in business is that information is power.

barrysteve 3y ago

I mean, come on. WW2 and all that. What's the worst that could happen... sheesh why don't we not find out for a change. Watch the 10hr long interview documentary called Shoah and listen to how trains, buildings and institutions were used to do 'the deed'. It was impossible to tell what was going to happen ahead of time for the victims, they assumed they were heading to a labour camp and being assigned a block of soap and sent to the showers was a good thing... Why does this even need to be said! Do we not know our dark european history? Conserving the known good we have, is not an 'immediate fail', as many futurists would indulge in saying... At least you know now where you can discover one reason (of many) as to why some people are wary of collective control.