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As someone in marketing, I’ll point out that the technology has advanced quite a bit from the infamous Target case study. The most powerful signals now are not

As someone in marketing, I’ll point out that the technology has advanced quite a bit from the infamous Target case study. The most powerful signals now are not demographics and search history, but location, transactions and automatic content recognition (ACR). Transactions is pretty straightforward, your bank and/or payment networks sell your data to brokers at a merchant level. Many retailers sell your data at a SKU level. Location is less visible. There are various levels of granularity of location tracking and reporting built into many SDKs that are included in just about any mobile app you download, and that data is sold. Automated content recognition (ACR) is the craziest. The actual contents of your screen- the Instagram post, the TV show you are watching, etc (and its underlying transcript) are analyzed by the app or the TV, and sold often in real time to data brokers with such efficiency that you can be viewing the photo of the new Land Rover your friend just bought and posted, to your very next swipe being an ad for a Land Rover

londons_explore 2y ago
Buuuut.... The flip side is that all these mechanisms are unreliable. They might match your phone up with someone elses laptop and you'll see ads for stuff they searched. They might get your location wrong by 1000 miles and suddenly all the ads are in French. You might have clicked no to a cookie banner so now you get to see ads for ED medication despite definitely not having a use for it... Advertising is all a numbers game, and they just aim to be mostly right most of the time.
TacticalCoder 2y ago
Location and ACR may explain the ads I keep getting. But they're way off (because I'm cautious). I happen to live in one of country with the highest GDP per capita (higher than the US) and I also spend lots of time in another country, in France, on a very famous place on the french riviera. That'd be the location part. Then I love fast expensive sports cars. I just can't help it. Own two or three. So what kind of ads do I get all the time? Ads for very very very rich people. Ads that want to sell me private jets flights or... Directly private jets. Yup: I'm not kidding, I keep getting ads where this insert many millions here private jets are for sale. Porsche cars: all the time. Needless to say: I don't have anywhere what it'd take to fly private, let alone buy a private jet (even used). But I find it funny: somehow the ad industry is thinking I'm completely ballin'. Now of course I make sure to not only click on the ads but also pretend I'm deeply interested: for example I'll make sure to Google "Is a used Embraer better than a used Gulfstream?" : )
- prng2021 2y ago
  What is the point of your story? You click on ads and search for things targeted to billionaires and... get more ads targeted to billionaires.
ivan_gammel 2y ago
God bless GDPR, I haven’t seen this technology yet and hopefully will never see. Does availability of such data/tech contribute to the discussion where it’s better to start the company - EU or USA?
- rglullis 2y ago
  You not seeing does not mean it's not used. Despite all my attempts at educating her on the matter, my wife still signs up for pretty much every newsletter and browses mostly from her Google Phone. This leads to things like having her discussing about Ikea furniture with a friend and less than 10 minutes later being shown an Ikea ad on the TV while watching YouTube.
  - derwiki 2y ago
    Discussing in person and the phone is spying? Or over some text messaging platform? (And if so, which platform?)
    - rglullis 2y ago
      In person
  - ivan_gammel 2y ago
    I can be sure it is not used against me. I avoid of course using American services directly, only through their European entities.
    - rglullis 2y ago
      > I can be sure it is not used against me. Oh,the hubris on this one... Can you say with 100% confidence that everyone you know and interact with has as good as a digital hygiene as you? Can you say with 100% confidence that no company is acquiring data about you through shady brokerages? Can you say with 100% confidence that no company had a data leakage (accidental or not) and went on without reporting it?
kjkjadksj 2y ago
All the more reason to use cash and throw the phone on airplane mode until you want to pull from the network. You might even get back to battery life measured in days territory of the dumb phone era making use of that setting more often.
hilbert42 2y ago
"…your very next swipe being an ad for a Land Rover" That automation has reached this degree of sophistication is why I claimed in my post that internet privacy is dead for the vast majority of people. One cannot own a smartphone and maintain even a modicum of privacy unless one takes drastic measures such as those mentioned in my post. And the vast majority will never go that far and Big Tech is fully cognizant of the fact (acquiescence is so much easier than struggling to achieve one's privacy, it underpins Big Tech's huge success).
- derwiki 2y ago
  I essentially don’t see ads online. Do I have privacy or just an illusion of privacy?
  - saurik 2y ago
    If no one tells you your secrets but they all know them, do you have privacy?
BriggyDwiggs42 2y ago
How do you feel about working in marketing?
- kubanczyk 2y ago
  Let me guess: "I was only following orders."

londons_explore 2y ago

Buuuut.... The flip side is that all these mechanisms are unreliable. They might match your phone up with someone elses laptop and you'll see ads for stuff they searched. They might get your location wrong by 1000 miles and suddenly all the ads are in French. You might have clicked no to a cookie banner so now you get to see ads for ED medication despite definitely not having a use for it... Advertising is all a numbers game, and they just aim to be mostly right most of the time.

TacticalCoder 2y ago

Location and ACR may explain the ads I keep getting. But they're way off (because I'm cautious). I happen to live in one of country with the highest GDP per capita (higher than the US) and I also spend lots of time in another country, in France, on a very famous place on the french riviera. That'd be the location part. Then I love fast expensive sports cars. I just can't help it. Own two or three. So what kind of ads do I get all the time? Ads for very very very rich people. Ads that want to sell me private jets flights or... Directly private jets. Yup: I'm not kidding, I keep getting ads where this insert many millions here private jets are for sale. Porsche cars: all the time. Needless to say: I don't have anywhere what it'd take to fly private, let alone buy a private jet (even used). But I find it funny: somehow the ad industry is thinking I'm completely ballin'. Now of course I make sure to not only click on the ads but also pretend I'm deeply interested: for example I'll make sure to Google "Is a used Embraer better than a used Gulfstream?" : )

prng2021 2y ago
What is the point of your story? You click on ads and search for things targeted to billionaires and... get more ads targeted to billionaires.

ivan_gammel 2y ago

God bless GDPR, I haven’t seen this technology yet and hopefully will never see. Does availability of such data/tech contribute to the discussion where it’s better to start the company - EU or USA?

rglullis 2y ago
You not seeing does not mean it's not used. Despite all my attempts at educating her on the matter, my wife still signs up for pretty much every newsletter and browses mostly from her Google Phone. This leads to things like having her discussing about Ikea furniture with a friend and less than 10 minutes later being shown an Ikea ad on the TV while watching YouTube.
- derwiki 2y ago
  Discussing in person and the phone is spying? Or over some text messaging platform? (And if so, which platform?)
  - rglullis 2y ago
    In person
- ivan_gammel 2y ago
  I can be sure it is not used against me. I avoid of course using American services directly, only through their European entities.
  - rglullis 2y ago
    > I can be sure it is not used against me. Oh,the hubris on this one... Can you say with 100% confidence that everyone you know and interact with has as good as a digital hygiene as you? Can you say with 100% confidence that no company is acquiring data about you through shady brokerages? Can you say with 100% confidence that no company had a data leakage (accidental or not) and went on without reporting it?

kjkjadksj 2y ago

All the more reason to use cash and throw the phone on airplane mode until you want to pull from the network. You might even get back to battery life measured in days territory of the dumb phone era making use of that setting more often.

hilbert42 2y ago

"…your very next swipe being an ad for a Land Rover" That automation has reached this degree of sophistication is why I claimed in my post that internet privacy is dead for the vast majority of people. One cannot own a smartphone and maintain even a modicum of privacy unless one takes drastic measures such as those mentioned in my post. And the vast majority will never go that far and Big Tech is fully cognizant of the fact (acquiescence is so much easier than struggling to achieve one's privacy, it underpins Big Tech's huge success).

derwiki 2y ago
I essentially don’t see ads online. Do I have privacy or just an illusion of privacy?
- saurik 2y ago
  If no one tells you your secrets but they all know them, do you have privacy?

BriggyDwiggs42 2y ago

How do you feel about working in marketing?

kubanczyk 2y ago
Let me guess: "I was only following orders."