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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

#91

Post by lizardmancan »

littlecranky67 wrote: post #20
sydthrowaway wrote: post #13

Has anyone noticed 2-3 ads per YouTube video (especially midstream)? It’s getting ridiculous. There’s got to be a stop to this madness.

That was absolutely predictable. Just my own anectodal evidence: through my life, ads always became more present, never less. No matter if i.e. ad-financed TV (they started with a single block of 4-5 ads in the late 80s in a standard 90 minute film) to sports (just check a video of a soccer game of the 80s to the how much white space was left on their shirts) the internet etc.

in the 80s an american tourist watched a full movie on bbc and was confused as hell by it running start to finish without a single ad. "If i buy the video or go to the cinema i still have to see 1000 adverts"

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

#93

Post by metb »

oytis wrote: post #23
sydthrowaway wrote: post #13

Has anyone noticed 2-3 ads per YouTube video (especially midstream)? It’s getting ridiculous. There’s got to be a stop to this madness.

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)

Is there any App that can do the same on Smart TV? Getting tired of ads on Youtube's ads.

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

#94

Post by rubatuga »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #78
rubatuga wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah it's called YouTube Premium. Think like a Netflix subscription but for YouTube. Google probably A/B tested different versions of YouTube to see which one generated more YouTube Premium subscribers. It turns out that the higher $$$-generating code (i.e. driving Premium subscriptions) is the one that bypasses Safari's adblocking engine.

Is there guaranteed no ads with Premium or do they still put ads in there? I mean some streaming services and of course the old paid cable TV did.

No ads at all. Now, wanna know what antitrust means? It means changing your YouTube policy so that instead of competing with just some random hobo PeerTube, they now compete in the same space as Netflix, HBO, and Amazon Prime. It means an entrant to compete with YouTube must now be a mega corporation.

Of course all above is just my opinion.

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

#96

Post by bartread »

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…

> If it succeeds even a little, though, they'll bake it into our TVs and phones that are plugged in at night. Those are much harder for people to give up.

Well, yeah, but having a TV in your bedroom isn't necessarily the best idea for quality sleep anyway so get rid of that.

Then you can always plug your phone in to charge somewhere else in the house, or stick it inside a Faraday box[0] with just enough of a hole to fit the charger cable in.

I've recently switched to a dumb AF clock radio alarm because I got tired of my iPhone alarm going off silently at random (one of the most annoying and long-standing bugs in a device I've ever encountered).

It gets annoying having to do all this stuff just to avoid ads but it also becomes just part of your daily routine.

[0] Faraday boxes are pretty cheap. I recently picked up a nice looking one for about £15 from Argos, though not specifically for my phone. It'd be pretty easy to drill a slot big enough to fit a lightning cable through if I wanted to though.

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

#97

Post by aerique »

streamofdigits wrote: post #90

We have gotten to the point where the simple (and arguably essential) task of individuals learning about what the economy is producing is degenerating into a societal gangrene. No, this is not all the handywork of Zuck and the "don't be evil" company. All the conditions for their "success" have been engineered in the previous decades of the adoption and scaling of TV tech: The captive population of couch potato, over…

"Economic growth is not the solution: it is the problem."

-- one single political party in the Netherlands that does not get enough votes

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

#98

Post by bloak »

Tycho wrote: post #87
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…

Advertisers pay for a moment of your attention and get a lifetime of brand presence in your memory.

My experience is that people remember advertisements but they don't remember even what category of product was being advertised let alone the brand. But my social circles might not be typical.

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

#100

Post by enigami »

foxes wrote: post #67

Horrific. If anyone on HN uses or works with adtech you should think about the consequences of what you are building. It's only ever gotten worse. You have a social obligation to stop.

Aren't we all part of some problem one way or the other. You could make the same point to a Programmer in the Banking Industry who is unaware that he is literally creating a predatory interest calculation for a debt scheme by writing code.
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