It becomes scary when you realize this is just the beginning of it. They will go too far with it in the next ten years.
I left the ad industry because of data tracking
131–140 of 241 posts
Re: I left the ad industry because of data tracking
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
To wit, A few weeks ago there was a discussion here about a method by which you could figure out how fast a browser/machine could compute an SHA 512 hash, and that this was being used to fingerprint users even who had cookies, images, JavaScript disabled.
I would like to see more. How can you get their computer to compute the hash? Is it somewhere in the https interaction?
I don't recall the details, but it had something to do with a would-be security feature in the browser that computes the hash of something before following a link.
Re: I left the ad industry because of data tracking
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have uBlock origin and I still occasionally see ads in Facebook feeds.
Facebook puts a lot of time and effort into obfuscation of course code. They generate random classes and IDs and interweave containers (divs, spans, custom HTML elements) on each page load so that software can't tell what is content and what is an ad. It's actually a really neat trick.
It is definitely impressive. But it's something that I think could be defeated pretty easily with a pretty simple machine learning model. Could be a fun project!
Re: I left the ad industry because of data tracking
#134Good, as software engineers, machine learning researchers, etc. we have the real power here. Just stop working for these companies. There are jobs and good incomes to be had in other industries. Tell recruiters you are not interested in ad industry.
Somebody else will work for them though. While I'm not saying "so it might as well be you" (unless you're going undercover), "not doing it" might not be enough. Actively undermining their efforts may be necessary.
This is literally what collective action is for.
Re: I left the ad industry because of data tracking
#135Hedge funds and intelligence agencies are fingerprinting all groups within our society by monitoring the responses of various target audiences to engineered stimuli. This comes in the form of observing the response to selective dissemination of content with a known effect on observers (you). A few years ago we heard about some outrage nobody did anything about when it became clear Facebook was manipulating reader emo…
> One that comes to mind is a motif you will see in advertisements once you are more aware of it: strong healthy black man rescues white woman from a bumbling and pathetic white male.
Ads are generally tailored to the user's preferences.
Re: I left the ad industry because of data tracking
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I setup Google Analytics event tracking to trigger on every page click. Thank you, I now feel as good as I'll ever feel about using uBO.
As someone who never uses any blockers, what's the benefit to you? I imagine you have some role in building the internet since you're on HN. As far as I'm aware, by not blocking ads I am experiencing the internet that the majority of people also experience. And I think that's how I can better understand the people I build things for. Maybe if more tech workers took off their tin-foil ad-blocking hats then the ad indu…
I used to work for an ad company, ad blockers really dont stop the tracking. They just make the internet usable :)
Re: I left the ad industry because of data tracking
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
This comes from discussions and lectures from people working on engineering in some ad aggregstors - at least one said that in the end, they have a table with 300 million IDs for each person in the country and they key all the data they can link to that person with this id. In principle this data is annonymized. But does that make a difference? At least in health care people worry about hipaa and do audits to minimiz…
It's basically impossible to anonymize data. There a numerous papers about how little data is enough to uniquely identify people. Things like the zipcode where you start your commute and the zipcode where your commute ends are enough to identify the vast majority of people.
It's impossible to anonymize some data. If you're including demographics and locations then yeah, it's going to be hard or impossible to anonymize. If you're using surveys on emotional state or perhaps newsgroup comments? That's not so hard.
Re: I left the ad industry because of data tracking
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
Good point on mobile. I use Adguard Pro on mobile after reading about it on HN. Yet to test Pi-hole. The work part is unavoidable, I guess.
Adguard is getting discontinued due to app store policy changes: https://www.macobserver.com/news/adguard-pro-discontinued/ For Android there's a FOSS alternative (no root needed) - DNS66, alternatively if one has root there's always AdAway. The only thing that stops working are monetization schemes in games - "watch this ad to double coins!", etc. Browser-wise - Firefox on Android has working desktop extensions and…
Regarding AdGuard being discontinued, this might have just changed: https://twitter.com/AdGuard/status/1135660616679645185
Re: I left the ad industry because of data tracking
#139Hedge funds and intelligence agencies are fingerprinting all groups within our society by monitoring the responses of various target audiences to engineered stimuli. This comes in the form of observing the response to selective dissemination of content with a known effect on observers (you). A few years ago we heard about some outrage nobody did anything about when it became clear Facebook was manipulating reader emo…
> One that comes to mind is a motif you will see in advertisements once you are more aware of it: strong healthy black man rescues white woman from a bumbling and pathetic white male. Ads are generally tailored to the user's preferences.
Good joke but I think this applies mostly to TV advertising
Re: I left the ad industry because of data tracking
#140Hedge funds and intelligence agencies are fingerprinting all groups within our society by monitoring the responses of various target audiences to engineered stimuli. This comes in the form of observing the response to selective dissemination of content with a known effect on observers (you). A few years ago we heard about some outrage nobody did anything about when it became clear Facebook was manipulating reader emo…
"strong healthy black man rescues white woman from a bumbling and pathetic white male." Yeah, that… really doesn't sound as common a theme as you imply
Maybe not the black male part. But the "competent woman" and "bumbling helpless male" is an extremely common TV commercial trope once you're paying attention.