How to See What the Internet Knows About You • Hacker News Board

Re: How to See What the Internet Knows About You

#41

Post by criddell » Fri, Jul 07, 2017, 9:05 PM UTC

commenter98456 wrote: post #24

Why is targeted advertising acceptable? it is not ok for a seller to stalk potential buyers. I get that everyone has accepted this as a "fact of life" but consider how TV advertising was done. The advertisement is tailored to the show you are watching and the time of day. In other words, if I'm on a tech blog, advertise to me tech products, if I'm reading a cooking recipe, advertise kitchenware,grocery delivery and t…

I'm fine with certain kinds of targeted advertising.

For example, if I search for "subaru" on Google, it makes sense for the ads on the page to be for cars and local car dealers.

Other than that, I think the online ad industry is almost entirely built on lies and half-truths. Ads support a lot of sites I visit, but I think what it costs me (in computer resources and loss of privacy) is no longer reasonable. I run with an ad blocker all the time now. Mostly I object to the tracking, not the ads.

Re: How to See What the Internet Knows About You

#42

Post by iamnothere » Fri, Jul 07, 2017, 9:07 PM UTC

Swizec wrote: post #7

owlninja wrote: post #6

These companies know "more about your life than you do", but yet the targeted ads continue to be pretty useless. The ad on this site was an Amazon ad for a pool filter I bought on Amazon about a week ago. It should know that I don't need these for like another year now. The other was for a cruise which I just got back from last week. Maybe some after-sun lotion or something vehicle related for the fact I drove 6 hour…

Hint: they don't care. It works well enough. I use remarketing and it definitely annoys some people and they complain that I'm following them around. But you know what? They buy. Without remarketing they forget. I would love to turn it off after they do buy, but it's too hard to configure and hey, it reminds them to actually use the thing they bought. Customers are great, but only users tell their friends,

Your comment explains something crucial about targeted advertising that other people often fail to understand. The ad tech companies provide a platform for advertising, but it is up to the user (the advertiser) to configure and use the platform correctly. Often, advertisers may configure their targeting in ways that are suboptimal. Or, their e-commerce platform may not be properly set up to record conversions and associate them with targets. (Depending on the platform, they may not even have that option.)

Poorly configured ad targeting happens just as often as poorly configured firewalls, servers, Wordpress installs, cloud deployments, etc... probably more often since the consequences aren't as dire.

(Not a fan of targeted ads either, but I often see people complaining about post-purchase targeted ads as if this is a universal problem. So much depends on the specific platforms involved, the skill levels and intentions of the many different ad buyers on each platform, and so on. Results will vary.)

Re: How to See What the Internet Knows About You

#43

Post by inovica » Fri, Jul 07, 2017, 9:17 PM UTC

j_s wrote: post #2

Michael Bazzell is an expert on (both sides of) Open Source Intelligence (OSINT: data collected from publicly available sources). https://www.amazon.com/Michael-Bazzell/e/B007GNUI92/ He maintains a virtual machine "pre-configured for online investigators" and a podcast. https://inteltechniques.com/buscador/index.html

Thank you. Never seen this before - just ordered one of his books.

Re: How to See What the Internet Knows About You

#44

Post by logfromblammo » Fri, Jul 07, 2017, 9:30 PM UTC

gaius wrote: post #34

spyspy wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ad companies make money based on clicks, not views. It's in their interest to make them interesting enough to click on.

I don't think that's true, because who is clicking on these ads for things they already own?

An intelligent advertising engine would know the typical interval between two purchases of the same product, and start advertising similar products just before that interval has elapsed since the last purchase.

Examples:

  pool filter: 12 months
  reptile UV lamp: 6 months
  gift-wrapping paper: 12 months
  oil filter, recycling box, 5 qt oil: 4 months
  8-ct paper towel rolls: 2 months
  television: 4 years
  automobile: 10 years
  magazine subscriptions: 1 year
  tacos: every Tuesday

Re: How to See What the Internet Knows About You

#45

Post by woobar » Fri, Jul 07, 2017, 9:37 PM UTC

commenter98456 wrote: post #24

Why is targeted advertising acceptable? it is not ok for a seller to stalk potential buyers. I get that everyone has accepted this as a "fact of life" but consider how TV advertising was done. The advertisement is tailored to the show you are watching and the time of day. In other words, if I'm on a tech blog, advertise to me tech products, if I'm reading a cooking recipe, advertise kitchenware,grocery delivery and t…

TV advertising was targeted too. They used Nielsen data to identify potential audience (white males, 40-50 y.o., middle class income) and show ads targeting this demo.

Re: How to See What the Internet Knows About You

#46

Post by gaius » Fri, Jul 07, 2017, 9:46 PM UTC

logfromblammo wrote: post #44

gaius wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that's true, because who is clicking on these ads for things they already own?

An intelligent advertising engine would know the typical interval between two purchases of the same product, and start advertising similar products just before that interval has elapsed since the last purchase. Examples: pool filter: 12 months reptile UV lamp: 6 months gift-wrapping paper: 12 months oil filter, recycling box, 5 qt oil: 4 months 8-ct paper towel rolls: 2 months television: 4 years automobile: 10 years…

Indeed, but this engine doesn't exist, and in 15+ years of weaponised adtech, noone's been sufficiently economically incentivised to make it. Telling, no?

Re: How to See What the Internet Knows About You

#47

Post by mirimir » Fri, Jul 07, 2017, 9:55 PM UTC

Adversaries only know what you let them. But this article does little more than rehash well-known clickbait. And it offers little useful coaching.

Re: How to See What the Internet Knows About You

#48

Post by mungoid » Fri, Jul 07, 2017, 10:14 PM UTC

It seems so strange to me that there is such an ever increasing push to get people to click ads when I can't tell you a single person I know that ever actually clicks one on purpose. If I see an ad for something I just search it instead because I don't trust ads..

Except for one time years ago when I saw an ad on my own site for a drawing tablet and getting my account suspended for cheating even though I actually bought the tablet. Decided then I'm never gonna do ads on any of my sites.

I think the advertisers care more about about manipulating companies to buy ads than actually increasing that companies sales.

Re: How to See What the Internet Knows About You

#49

Post by albertgoeswoof » Fri, Jul 07, 2017, 10:16 PM UTC

mungoid wrote: post #48

It seems so strange to me that there is such an ever increasing push to get people to click ads when I can't tell you a single person I know that ever actually clicks one on purpose. If I see an ad for something I just search it instead because I don't trust ads.. Except for one time years ago when I saw an ad on my own site for a drawing tablet and getting my account suspended for cheating even though I actually bou…

I have clicked ads. A lot of people do- if they're relevant and right there we click them.

Re: How to See What the Internet Knows About You

#50

Post by sparky_z » Fri, Jul 07, 2017, 10:19 PM UTC

gaius wrote: post #10

owlninja wrote: post #6

These companies know "more about your life than you do", but yet the targeted ads continue to be pretty useless. The ad on this site was an Amazon ad for a pool filter I bought on Amazon about a week ago. It should know that I don't need these for like another year now. The other was for a cruise which I just got back from last week. Maybe some after-sun lotion or something vehicle related for the fact I drove 6 hour…

The purpose of these ads is not to sell you stuff. Its to sell advertising to companies that don't understand this internet stuff but are terrified of being "left behind". The ads need to be plausible, thats why someone has to see them, but who that is literally doesn't matter.

How does that explain Amazon ads? They should actually want to make a sale, right?