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Researchers fear a scenario in which smart speakers feed sleepers subliminal ads

sciencemag.org

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Re: Researchers fear a scenario in which smart speakers feed sleepers subliminal ads

#61

Post by amelius »

kzrdude wrote: post #46
Red_Tarsius wrote: post #17

They are kind of doing it already e.g. I hate when ads exploit classical music for trivial purposes. Whenever I hear Libiamo ne' lieti calici now my mind instantly fills with pizza ads. And once an association is made, it doesn't go away. Ads attach themselves to positive memories like parasites. Whenever you think back to your first kiss, a nice family moment, a cherished memory of going out with friends – here they…

That is just a good rationale for minimizing your ad exposure overall. Don't listen to ad-filled media, block ads and try to get away from it. All to save our mind's focus.

Even better is to join one of the movements against ads, which exist around the world.

Re: Researchers fear a scenario in which smart speakers feed sleepers subliminal ads

#62

Post by newsbinator »

Is there an amount of money I can pay monthly, which gets put into a pot and distributed to various companies?

That way they get my money without needing to advertise to me and without needing to produce any products or pay salaries, and I get to live a calmer life.

Re: Researchers fear a scenario in which smart speakers feed sleepers subliminal ads

#63

Post by ThalesX »

vkk8 wrote: post #33
fogihujy wrote: post #4

Another data point confirming that the advertising industry is actively hostile towards consumers.

Isn't it what it's supposed to be? I mean, their purpose is to persuade me do something that I otherwise wouldn't want to do (usually, to buy some product). How is this not hostile to begin with?

I'm a big critic of marketing, but marketing is supposed to do a lot of stuff. Perhaps persuasion of the form you have experienced is the worst they could do. First of all it should understand a market in order to help build a fitting product, and afterwards it should educate people that might stand to benefit from it, about the existence of said product and the benefits.

Somewhere along the line I think marketing people found themselves singing to the choir of intrusive ads, just as devs find ourselves singing to the choir of Agile (with a capital A) and whatever else might fancy those on top.

Re: Researchers fear a scenario in which smart speakers feed sleepers subliminal ads

#64

Post by pamat »

sydthrowaway wrote: post #49
fogihujy wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why aren't you using an ad-blocker?

Nothing works on Safari

Perhaps some alternative front-end for youtube might be useful to you - for example invidious. It has no ads and has several other improvements over official youtube front-end.

Re: Researchers fear a scenario in which smart speakers feed sleepers subliminal ads

#65

Post by amelius »

namenotrequired wrote: post #44
vkk8 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't it what it's supposed to be? I mean, their purpose is to persuade me do something that I otherwise wouldn't want to do (usually, to buy some product). How is this not hostile to begin with?

In a perfect world, the purpose might be something like, to inform us about things we would already want if only we knew about them.

The human mind is more subtle.

It's like why most people in real life don't say "hey, I'm open to sexual intercourse, just in case you were wondering".

Some kinds of information are simply not desired at all times.

Re: Researchers fear a scenario in which smart speakers feed sleepers subliminal ads

#66

Post by Magodo »

filchermcurr wrote: post #59

On the bright side, smart speakers aren't even a little bit essential, so it's easy enough to just not buy them if this starts happening. I don't think the value proposition of an always-on device connected to a vast advertising network is very high to begin with. Throw in subliminal advertising and you'd have to be very... dedicated... to want such a device. If it succeeds even a little, though, they'll bake it into…

> I don't think the value proposition of an always-on device connected to a vast advertising network is very high to begin with

This is more of a hacker perspective though. All my non technical friends have been seduced by offers of either Alexa or Google Home. Because in my region, they are commonly sold at a huge price discount with almost any medium to large purchase. EX: Buy a laptop - Google Home at 50% off

> If it succeeds even a little, though, they'll bake it into our TVs

My mom LOVES being able to search for content using Alexa on the Firestick remote, so this is the most terrifying and likely possibility by far

Re: Researchers fear a scenario in which smart speakers feed sleepers subliminal ads

#68

Post by taurath »

Magodo wrote: post #66
filchermcurr wrote: post #59

On the bright side, smart speakers aren't even a little bit essential, so it's easy enough to just not buy them if this starts happening. I don't think the value proposition of an always-on device connected to a vast advertising network is very high to begin with. Throw in subliminal advertising and you'd have to be very... dedicated... to want such a device. If it succeeds even a little, though, they'll bake it into…

> I don't think the value proposition of an always-on device connected to a vast advertising network is very high to begin with This is more of a hacker perspective though. All my non technical friends have been seduced by offers of either Alexa or Google Home. Because in my region, they are commonly sold at a huge price discount with almost any medium to large purchase. EX: Buy a laptop - Google Home at 50% off > If…

They would literally give the devices away for free if they thought people would trust it as much as if they paid for it.

Re: Researchers fear a scenario in which smart speakers feed sleepers subliminal ads

#69

Post by foxes »

newsbinator wrote: post #62

Is there an amount of money I can pay monthly, which gets put into a pot and distributed to various companies? That way they get my money without needing to advertise to me and without needing to produce any products or pay salaries, and I get to live a calmer life.

That is a shocking solution. If they can't survive without intrusive manipulative ads then no one is worse off for it.

Re: Researchers fear a scenario in which smart speakers feed sleepers subliminal ads

#70

Post by rapnie »

kzrdude wrote: post #48
oytis wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On an Android phone you can use NewPipe app from FDroid repository, it gives you YT without ads (and you can use it in background for free too)

On an Android phone you can use firefox, ublock origin and youtube in the browser, too. It also supports playing in a floating window (fullscreen the video and then switch app from firefox to something else).

I noticed this is starting to be less effective. Now and then an ad creeps through the protection barrier. First time it happened to me was exactly at the moment I was demonstrating someone that I really do have an ad-free internet experience :/
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