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Is the whole point of all this data collection nonsense really just to serve me irrelevant ads I never click? What are they doing with all this worthless inform

Is the whole point of all this data collection nonsense really just to serve me irrelevant ads I never click? What are they doing with all this worthless information? I downloaded a shitty freemium mobile game once and now 80% of my Instagram ads have been ads for shitty mobile games for more than a year. Is this really the best the 500k+ a year ad magicians at Meta came up with? Is this what gives Meta its trillion market cap? Just like Amazon serving me ads for washing machines, right after I bought one. And Google Maps promoting shitty restaurants and services I don't want to go to. Is this the cake apple wants a share of? I can't wrap my head around data collection.

danielheath 3y ago
> Amazon serving me ads for washing machines, right after I bought one Counterintuitive, but there’s a chance that the one you bought didn’t work out - and that’s high enough to make you much more likely than the general population to buy a washing machine. Consider: in the past 20 years there have been about two weeks (total) where an ad for a washing machine could be relevant. That’s about 0.2% of the time. If the RMA rate for new appliances is higher than .2%, that’s a useful bit of targeting information.
- alias_neo 3y ago
  I don't buy this; because it always happens when I've bought something from them, not from elsewhere. Amazon knows if the one I bought worked out or not because I RMAd it or didn't; yet, every time I buy something, I'm inundated with suggestions for the same thing until I've searched or bought a sufficient number of other things, to replace them, and the cycle begins again. Don't get me wrong, they have some fairly decent suggestions based on the things I browse and purchase, or browse and didn't purchase, but showing me dozens of things like the thing I just bought is hilarious.
  - quesera 3y ago
    People often research replacements before they return an item. To imagine that Amazon hasn't data scienced this out, to completion, is absurd.
cqqxo4zV46cp 3y ago
You are getting Instagram ads for shitty freemium mobile games because everyone else does. This isn’t shitty targeting, it’s just bottom of the barrel spray and pray advertising. There’s a reason that Apple is addicted to the revenue from casino games: there’s a lot of it out there.
- gnyman 3y ago
  Yep, I would wager that you have probably opted out from as much profiling as possible. Which means you are served the stuff which targets "everyone", i.e. the people for which they have no profile or can't use it for targeting. And currently that category (on mobile) is casino-games. It's like if you open YouTube in incognito. It will show you whatever clickbait is most likely to catch an "average" YouTube-user from your country. It's wildly different from what you are seeing signed-in.
Aerroon 3y ago
Isn't it more the case that services like Google etc collect data about you and put you under certain categories/tags. Then the company buying an ad selects the categories and tags they wish their ad to be shown to? In other words, the company paying for the ad wants you to see the ad. For some reason they think you might buy the product. Why would Google tell them "no" if they're offering money for that?
lukaszwojtow 3y ago
I feel the same. I think they realise it, but for the lack of better ideas, this is what shareholders want. It's like "we have to collect data, because everyone does it, and use it for anything"
simonbarker87 3y ago
To you they are irrelevant ads you never click. To millions of small business they are the only viable way to reach their customers. As tech focussed people we often ignore this or play it down. Facebook (as it’s the most used example) being blocked in a country or region (EU for example) would be devastating thousands/tens of thousands of businesses. The usual reply is “those businesses shouldn’t be so reliant Facebook etc” which misses the point that these business only have a viable route to market thanks to these platforms. Some of the most useful things I have bought have been thanks to “shitty Facebook and Instagram ads” including home gym equipment I use daily, DIY and wood working products, kitchen utensils, etc
- dns_snek 3y ago
  > Facebook (as it’s the most used example) being blocked in a country or region (EU for example) would be devastating thousands/tens of thousands of businesses. You've stated this as a fact but small businesses thrived before Facebook, so I think it's fair to assume they'll thrive after Facebook is long gone, absent other evidence. The only type of business I genuinely see suffering are those who advertise crap dropshipped from Alibaba that nobody is looking for organically, sold at 2000% markups, and that would be a good riddance.
  - simonbarker87 3y ago
    > You've stated this as a fact but small businesses thrived before Facebook, so I think it's fair to assume they'll thrive after Facebook is long gone, absent other evidence. The unit economics have totally changed though as there are many more businesses that exist now that simply could not have done in the old model. The previous company I started was a direct to consumer UK heating product. In the old world we would have had to go through big shed retailers and lost 50-60% margin with 90 to 180 day payment terms and would have had to stock all of their stores from day one. The expense would have stopped that business from ever being started. With digital platform advertising we could specifically reach our target demographic, loose only 20% margin to customer acquisition and postage costs (so afford to start with smaller manufacturing runs), get paid the day we sold the unit so cash flow positive, hold much less stock and order from our suppliers in response to demand and run our own just in time factory. The business was much smaller that it would have had to be in the previous world, much less risky and, frankly, only viable thanks to very targeted advertising that allowed us to tell our potential customers about our product when they most needed it. In this kind of discussion people seem to assume the product spectrum is binary. It's either useful and so would thrive regardless of advertising or useless tat that only exists thanks to digital platform marketing. That just isn't the case, sure - those ends of the spectrum exist but there is a vast array of businesses in the middle that could not have existing in the old world and aren't useless drop shipped tat.
andai 3y ago
>I can't wrap my head around data collection. After Microsoft bought Skype, they changed it from p2p to centralized, so all calls were routed through NSA PRISM. This also had the result of making calls laggier and worse quality. I think there might be a bit of that sort of thing going on in other places too.
- rcarmo 3y ago
  I just have to ask--what evidence do you have of that, and do you understand how SIP works?
  - andai 3y ago
    Looked into the Snowden files a while back. 80% sure that part wasn't a dream ;) Edit: Extraordinary claims require ... 30 seconds of Googling, apparently: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype_protocol#Peer-to-peer_architecture https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype_protocol#Peer-to-peer_...

danielheath 3y ago

> Amazon serving me ads for washing machines, right after I bought one Counterintuitive, but there’s a chance that the one you bought didn’t work out - and that’s high enough to make you much more likely than the general population to buy a washing machine. Consider: in the past 20 years there have been about two weeks (total) where an ad for a washing machine could be relevant. That’s about 0.2% of the time. If the RMA rate for new appliances is higher than .2%, that’s a useful bit of targeting information.

alias_neo 3y ago
I don't buy this; because it always happens when I've bought something from them, not from elsewhere. Amazon knows if the one I bought worked out or not because I RMAd it or didn't; yet, every time I buy something, I'm inundated with suggestions for the same thing until I've searched or bought a sufficient number of other things, to replace them, and the cycle begins again. Don't get me wrong, they have some fairly decent suggestions based on the things I browse and purchase, or browse and didn't purchase, but showing me dozens of things like the thing I just bought is hilarious.
- quesera 3y ago
  People often research replacements before they return an item. To imagine that Amazon hasn't data scienced this out, to completion, is absurd.

cqqxo4zV46cp 3y ago

You are getting Instagram ads for shitty freemium mobile games because everyone else does. This isn’t shitty targeting, it’s just bottom of the barrel spray and pray advertising. There’s a reason that Apple is addicted to the revenue from casino games: there’s a lot of it out there.

gnyman 3y ago
Yep, I would wager that you have probably opted out from as much profiling as possible. Which means you are served the stuff which targets "everyone", i.e. the people for which they have no profile or can't use it for targeting. And currently that category (on mobile) is casino-games. It's like if you open YouTube in incognito. It will show you whatever clickbait is most likely to catch an "average" YouTube-user from your country. It's wildly different from what you are seeing signed-in.

Aerroon 3y ago

Isn't it more the case that services like Google etc collect data about you and put you under certain categories/tags. Then the company buying an ad selects the categories and tags they wish their ad to be shown to? In other words, the company paying for the ad wants you to see the ad. For some reason they think you might buy the product. Why would Google tell them "no" if they're offering money for that?

lukaszwojtow 3y ago

I feel the same. I think they realise it, but for the lack of better ideas, this is what shareholders want. It's like "we have to collect data, because everyone does it, and use it for anything"

simonbarker87 3y ago

To you they are irrelevant ads you never click. To millions of small business they are the only viable way to reach their customers. As tech focussed people we often ignore this or play it down. Facebook (as it’s the most used example) being blocked in a country or region (EU for example) would be devastating thousands/tens of thousands of businesses. The usual reply is “those businesses shouldn’t be so reliant Facebook etc” which misses the point that these business only have a viable route to market thanks to these platforms. Some of the most useful things I have bought have been thanks to “shitty Facebook and Instagram ads” including home gym equipment I use daily, DIY and wood working products, kitchen utensils, etc

dns_snek 3y ago
> Facebook (as it’s the most used example) being blocked in a country or region (EU for example) would be devastating thousands/tens of thousands of businesses. You've stated this as a fact but small businesses thrived before Facebook, so I think it's fair to assume they'll thrive after Facebook is long gone, absent other evidence. The only type of business I genuinely see suffering are those who advertise crap dropshipped from Alibaba that nobody is looking for organically, sold at 2000% markups, and that would be a good riddance.
- simonbarker87 3y ago
  > You've stated this as a fact but small businesses thrived before Facebook, so I think it's fair to assume they'll thrive after Facebook is long gone, absent other evidence. The unit economics have totally changed though as there are many more businesses that exist now that simply could not have done in the old model. The previous company I started was a direct to consumer UK heating product. In the old world we would have had to go through big shed retailers and lost 50-60% margin with 90 to 180 day payment terms and would have had to stock all of their stores from day one. The expense would have stopped that business from ever being started. With digital platform advertising we could specifically reach our target demographic, loose only 20% margin to customer acquisition and postage costs (so afford to start with smaller manufacturing runs), get paid the day we sold the unit so cash flow positive, hold much less stock and order from our suppliers in response to demand and run our own just in time factory. The business was much smaller that it would have had to be in the previous world, much less risky and, frankly, only viable thanks to very targeted advertising that allowed us to tell our potential customers about our product when they most needed it. In this kind of discussion people seem to assume the product spectrum is binary. It's either useful and so would thrive regardless of advertising or useless tat that only exists thanks to digital platform marketing. That just isn't the case, sure - those ends of the spectrum exist but there is a vast array of businesses in the middle that could not have existing in the old world and aren't useless drop shipped tat.

andai 3y ago

>I can't wrap my head around data collection. After Microsoft bought Skype, they changed it from p2p to centralized, so all calls were routed through NSA PRISM. This also had the result of making calls laggier and worse quality. I think there might be a bit of that sort of thing going on in other places too.

rcarmo 3y ago
I just have to ask--what evidence do you have of that, and do you understand how SIP works?
- andai 3y ago
  Looked into the Snowden files a while back. 80% sure that part wasn't a dream ;) Edit: Extraordinary claims require ... 30 seconds of Googling, apparently: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype_protocol#Peer-to-peer_architecture https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype_protocol#Peer-to-peer_...