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How to See What the Internet Knows About You

nytimes.com

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Re: How to See What the Internet Knows About You

#51

Post by reaperducer »

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?

You've got to think beyond the computer. Most big companies pay per ad view, not per click. Per click is for the low-end advertisers. Per action is for bottom-feeders.

Think about billboards, TV, radio, and magazines. Can't click on any of them, yet hundreds of billions of dollars are spent on them every year because repeating the brand, logo, visual, or message works. There's a reason McDonald's and Coca-Cola advertise heavily. It works.

Re: How to See What the Internet Knows About You

#52

Post by bahmboo »

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…

It shows that even with huge inefficiencies web ads are making tons of money for all the major players both supply and demand (sorry bloggers). Amazon and Google are well aware of the problem and working on it to some extent but I guess there are bigger fish to fry in the meantime.

Re: How to See What the Internet Knows About You

#53

Post by jereees »

com2kid wrote: post #31
jasonrhaas wrote: post #16

I recently got tired of all the creepy targeted advertising, so I hit the nuclear option. Turned off all targeted ads on all social networks, cleared all cookies, all search histories, and installed the Disconnect Chrome extension. Also disabled all images in my email to stop those email trackers. I've always used an ad-blocker but I don't think that stops the data collection aspects of it. I've always known this is…

> I recently got tired of all the creepy targeted advertising, so I hit the nuclear option. Credit cards, mortgage providers, retail stores, and car dealers all sell customer information on the open market. Every cell phone company out there knows what provider you have, stores knows what type of clothing you like to buy. Wiping your computer clean prevents the ads from appearing on your PC, but the tracking of you i…

What are some ways in which you can prevent this sort of real life tracking from happening or at least minimize it?

Re: How to See What the Internet Knows About You

#54

Post by jakub_g »

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…

I used to think the same but I've read recently the rationale as follows: apparently, you're most likely to buy a pool filter just after you bought one, because maybe the one you bought broke, or you don't like it, or whatever else, and you need a new one.

Not sure how much truth is there behind it, but maybe there's a bit. Obviously, it does not apply much to the cruise though.

Re: How to See What the Internet Knows About You

#55

Post by mungoid »

albertgoeswoof wrote: post #49
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.

Oh yeah, I definitely know people do. There wouldn't be so much advertising out there if visitors didn't click them.

I'm just generally a little overly suspicious about ads because they can be 'phishy'. That and, like others have commented already, the ads i see are for things I recently bought so I have no need to buy them again soon.

Re: How to See What the Internet Knows About You

#56

Post by PhasmaFelis »

dublinben wrote: post #38
PhasmaFelis wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried turning off targeted Google ads on my phone, and got only the worst ads possible from then on. Like, 100% strobing "YOUR PHONE HAS 37 VIRUSES, CLICK HERE TO CLEAN". Eventually I had to turn it back because ad-supported apps are nearly unusable with strobing banners at the bottom, which I'm sure was Google's intent.

Have you considered paying for the apps you use, or using open source apps (such as from F-Droid) that don't include ads?

Many apps don't have paid versions, only ad-supported, and even more apps don't have open-source equivalents. I'm sure you're aware of this.

Re: How to See What the Internet Knows About You

#57

Post by snowwrestler »

gaius wrote: post #46
logfromblammo wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

You're underestimating how hard it would be to build such an engine. Google and Facebook have sunk $billions into their knowledge graphs so far, and not made much of a dent.

Re: How to See What the Internet Knows About You

#58

Post by knz »

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…

> These companies know "more about your life than you do", but yet the targeted ads continue to be pretty useless

It always amuses me when Facebook reminds me that it was my wife's birthday the previous day. A real AI would alert me at least a week in advance!

Re: How to See What the Internet Knows About You

#59

Post by snowwrestler »

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?

No one, of course.

The problem isn't 100% negative matching (ads shown only to people who already own the thing), the problem is greedy pattern matching (ads shown to anyone who might possibly be interested). That ends up matching against people who want the thing, and people who just got the thing.

And that's not really that bad for advertisers because they only pay for the clicks. People who don't want it (perhaps because they just bought it) just won't click.

It is only a "problem" for the ad platform, in terms of the efficient use of inventory. In theory a poorly matched ad is displacing a better targeted ad that would perform better and make the platform more money.

But practically speaking it is only a competitive disadvantage if your targeting is worse than competing platforms. Even if the targeting leaves a lot be desired, if it is even a little better than everyone else, you'll still land contracts and make money.

Re: How to See What the Internet Knows About You

#60

Post by rubber_duck »

jereees wrote: post #53
com2kid wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I recently got tired of all the creepy targeted advertising, so I hit the nuclear option. Credit cards, mortgage providers, retail stores, and car dealers all sell customer information on the open market. Every cell phone company out there knows what provider you have, stores knows what type of clothing you like to buy. Wiping your computer clean prevents the ads from appearing on your PC, but the tracking of you i…

What are some ways in which you can prevent this sort of real life tracking from happening or at least minimize it?

Pay cash ?
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