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Folks in real life make judgements about you, and what you want, all the time in most cases it's entirely acceptable. Maybe it's disconcerting because online ma
by tomkarlo 13y ago
Folks in real life make judgements about you, and what you want, all the time in most cases it's entirely acceptable. Maybe it's disconcerting because online matches are often based on more tenuous information and less context. It can be ham-handed.
As someone who has been harassed for urban photography, by law enforcement, I think that's a very different situation. Having someone in a position of authority mis-interpret innocent actions is a much more threatening thing than someone doing it for commercial reasons. A vendor can bug you but they're not going to detain you based on their guess that you might be interested in what they're selling.
I raise this primarily because it seems like conflating an innocent mistake with overzealous / threatening law enforcement devalues the latter problem.
- derekp7 13y agoYes, it is on a different level -- that was just the first example that popped in mind (and I hesitated posting it, worrying that I could offend someone else). But you have the same problem with any analogy; there are always differences between the two items being compared. I think the problem for me is that I see it as a software bug, and since it is a bug that comes to light based on personal actions / data, it gets under my skin. Kind of like how Clippy got annoying back in the day. Or when Tivo makes inappropriate recommendations because you happened to watch a particular show (such as "My Tivo thinks I'm an 80-year-old retired grandmother").
- tomkarlo 13y agoPart of the issue, I suspect, is that we aren't as forgiving of computers (and in particular, ad servers) as we are of people, due to different expectations. If you went to a video rental store (back when those existed) and the guy recommended 3 videos to you and 1 was a clunker, you wouldn't be annoyed. But when your Tivo does the same you may not be as patient, even though it's making rational decisions based on your past behavior.
- PavlovsCat 13y agoIf you went to a video rental store (back when those existed) and the guy recommended 3 videos to you and 1 was a clunker, you wouldn't be annoyed. Can you speak for yourself? You're kinda proving the point here. Know yourself, but don't pretend to know or speak for others... that goes for everybody, orders of magnitude more so for corporations.
- tomkarlo 13y agoUsing "you" in that context doesn't mean I'm "speaking for you". It's a didactic device used to convey a hypothetical situation.