8 ms·
TV is watching you – Companies inventing new ways to make money off your data
- mikestew 2y agohttps://archive.is/p6vbz https://archive.is/p6vbz
- m463 2y agoNaive writer. "personalized ads" doesn't mean he will see ads he likes. It means advertisers will pay to show ads to him because of his age, income or behavior, and they can be ads he doesn't like.
- kulahan 2y agoThe goal of any advertising service is to match people with relevant ads, and collecting data is a major part of how you do that. That’s what the author is referring to.
- mjevans 2y agoOr they could base it on the content that's next to the ad.
- Terretta 2y agoNYT among others found ads placed with content outperformed ads attempting to target users. Also avoided awkwardly advertising things that shouldn't be advertised alongside certain content.
- throwaway48476 2y agoThis makes journalism on controversial subjects unprofitable. Who would want to do a content based ad on Israel/Gaza?
- windhaven 2y agoProbably aid groups like the Red Cross? I’ve seen plenty of ads from organizations whose premise is “this terrible thing is happening, donate to help end it!”
- throwaway48476 2y agoFair enough.
- kulahan 2y agoThey do both of these things simultaneously.
- m463 2y agoI'm talking about his conclusions from the "To be honest" paragraph. People are not matched with "relevant ads" due to their interests, it is due to the advertisers interest in your demographics. (also, the writer might be hedging his bets with ads/advertisers on his page)
- kulahan 2y agoAdvertisers are only interested in the demographic of “might buy my stuff”, which is only people who can potentially be interested in your product. I dislike this game where we mince words like it changes the fundamental argument. The two crowds want to be linked up in a way that transfers money most happily from consumers to producers. Unhappy purchases are likely to result in returns. Of course, if one advertiser can keep your returns below a certain rate (or won’t cause them to explode), that’s more ideal, so naturally the market will select for companies that do this unless they have some other incredible metrics outweighing that. Really the only time this isn’t true is with companies designed around maximal waste - products are often too cheap to bother returning and are only meant to last a use or two anyways.
- kyboren 2y ago> The goal of any advertising service is to match people with relevant ads The goal of any advertising service is fully automated population-scale digital pimping, with an extremely sophisticated matchmaking service (backed by all that data) as a value-add. They put your ass on the RTB street to turn tricks. You get mindfucked by--and maybe catch some viruses from--any John who wants to take a crack at you. In return, you get this nice cheap TV/Youtube/Gmail/article. Bitch better have my money!
- recursive 2y agoWhat's the difference? Ads are valuable to advertisers for a number of factors, including the estimated likelihood that the targeted user will pay money for $PRODUCT. An increase in relevance isn't exactly the same thing as an increase in favor, but it's hard to believe they're not correlated.
- pyrale 2y agoAdvertising is not limited to companies trying to sell an innocuous product.
- rightbyte 2y ago"Ads I like" would be like informative commercials about workshop tools, like how they were in the 70s. Not emotion focused ads, which is what The Man wants me to see to make me buy his stuff. I don't watch ads but if I did I would prefer a "what, how, price" setup.
- hammock 2y agoThere is little difference if we are talking cost per click. But many ads are still sold on cost per view
- izacus 2y agoLet me show you in practical terms - I've searched for some neat cases for a Pixel 9 Pro (for a family member). I'm now receiving targeted ads for phone cases on Instagram on my Galaxy S25. - Ads I'd like: More cute cases for either P9Pro or a Galaxy S25 I'm watching the ads on. - Ads the company is pushing: iPhone-only cases which I can't use anywhere. Quite staggering the incompetence of targeting those :)
- xnx 2y agoThe general public has little concept how much personal information ISPs, TV makers, car companies, websites (cross-site tracking), and shady mobile apps are collecting and selling. Google and Apple look like saints by comparison.
- tcfhgj 2y agoCan you expand and provide sources?
- soulofmischief 2y agoThey're not joking, unfortunately. https://www.classlawgroup.com/vizio-smart-tv-privacy-lawsuit https://www.classlawgroup.com/vizio-smart-tv-privacy-lawsuit Have you ever wondered why Roku TVs are so cheap? Check the default privacy settings. They fingerprint every single thing that displays on the TV and phone home. Here's an engineer right here on HN talking about it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21012268 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21012268 Also, there are ultrasonic beacons and other such signals at any reasonably busy public place and in many places you wouldn't expect. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-device_tracking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-device_tracking
- rmason 2y agoIt isn't just TV. All household appliances are adopting the same business model - add wifi, sell your data and profit. Even dishwashers: https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2025/i-wont-connect-my-dishwasher-your-stupid-cloud https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2025/i-wont-connect-my-dis... Is there an opening to have appliances that lack connectivity as a selling feature?
- hammock 2y agoWhat data does my dishwasher have that someone would buy?
- BLKNSLVR 2y agoI'm the linked article it says that specific features of the dishwasher require an app to run. Apps can generally find out other information about you and your habits from your phone. It's gross.
- maximus-decimus 2y agoYou really have to wonder if they put microphones/cameras in those to spy on you.
- hammock 2y agoA camera on the INSIDE that varies the wash time based on observed soil level and stops the cycle once it sees everything is clean, now there’s an idea…
- baby_souffle 2y agoJust by virtue of purchasing that model, I can assume a few things about your finances. How often you use it and which cycles you use it for let me infer a few other things about other people in the house. I can either use those to bolster confidence in a narrower profile or I can just add those data points to the raw profile and charge marketers more for either the higher confidence profile or the profile with more data points.
- 2y ago
- add-sub-mul-div 2y agoRoku's video ad experiment is the thing that got me to finally set up AdGuard. Now every one of my devices is improved. Thanks Roku?
- more_corn 2y agoIn late stage capitalist America, TV watches you!!!