3 ms·
I'm not so sure those advertising profiles are "the data" as much as a simplified representation of the data for users to manage. I don't know about Google spec
by chefandy 3y ago
I'm not so sure those advertising profiles are "the data" as much as a simplified representation of the data for users to manage. I don't know about Google specifically but there's no way in hell the limit of Facebook's marketing profile is what they show you in their analogous interface.
- skybrian 3y agoYes, lack of transparency and lack of trust are big problems. I'm hopeful that the ad topics code in Chromium will improve this situation somewhat. Maybe someday we will see reproducible builds for Chrome?
- chefandy 3y agoPersonally, I'm hoping the internet business world will discover an entirely different currency to exchange for online services. While I do pay for email, search, news, etc. I don't have a problem with some single-party tracking. If I go to a pharmacy website and search for Q-tips, I see no problem with them banner advertising their generic cotton swabs on subsequent page loads. However, the actual psychological profiles created by today's ad tracking systems have proven to be quite dangerous, a la state actor interference in recent US elections. At its heart, this is not a discussion about advertisements. This is about marketing companies making large-scale tools specifically designed to manipulate the behavior of millions of people. I don't care about what's in product ads-- I do care about bad actors using that data for its intended purpose in another domain.
- skybrian 3y agoYes, that sounds bad, but the ad topics in Chrome look nothing like a psychological profile. It's a list of very generic topics like "Computer & Video Games", "News", and "Real Estate". This is targeted, but only barely.