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The scam YouTube ads are getting better

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Re: The scam YouTube ads are getting better

#61

Post by wruza »

dylan604 wrote: post #39
peebeebee wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep anything that can copy your identity from the open web, especially socials. Only use services that have privacy in mind. Educate your family on how to check for these things, like asking personal questions, or having a safe phrase.

If only this advice had been available 20 years ago. Instead, everyone volunteered that information up taking quizzes asking the name of the street you grew up on, the name of your first pet, and the details about your first car. Oh, wait, that advice had been around for years before the internet even, but for whatever reason people collectively lost all reason when social media came around and just did the dumbest t…

“Nah, man, you’re just paranoid!”

My buddy recently learned about AI, something clicked in his mind (not sure what) and he absolutely seriously asked me to delete his everything from the internet. Who’s paranoid now.

Re: The scam YouTube ads are getting better

#62

Post by pixl97 »

echelon_musk wrote: post #27
madeofpalk wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are celebrity endorsements actually useful for building trust? Usually i view them in a negative light, thinking that they just paid someone to promote the product, rather that a genuine and organic endorsement.

I think in exactly the same way as you do but if it didn't work at scale then corporations wouldn't do it. Most people are falling for it.

Even if 'most' people aren't falling for it, enough people are falling for it that it's very profitable.

Re: The scam YouTube ads are getting better

#63

Post by ahmedfromtunis »

If you think this is bad (and it is), know that Facebook kept showing me, for months, ads from scammers pretending to be... Facebook!

This only shows how bad the processes (including algorithms) developed by these companies aiming at fighting these ads.

Is this by design? After all, it was clear these campaigns were pouring good money at the operation as they were showing non-stop for a long period.

Even more troubling, reporting the offending ads multiple times didn't help either.

Re: The scam YouTube ads are getting better

#65

Post by pixl97 »

coldpie wrote: post #25
hannes0 wrote: post #10

Everyone focuses on how scamming and AI is evolving. I'm rather curious how this will affect marketing. Celebrity endorsements is useful for building trust. I wonder if we see more or less of that in the future.

I wonder if the rise of deepfakes will finally be the moment that gives us all sufficient incentive to adopt a real, cross-platform authentication infrastructure of some sort (public key auth, etc). There's real value in, say, the NYT being able to authenticate that a reporter's social media presence is legit, and for that reporter to be able to sign and take responsibility for their photographs. Or using your exampl…

You have to look at the incentives versus counter incentives.

Who is going to be in control of this authentication infrastructure? Private companies? Where do they get the information that is trusted? Other private companies? Governments? Why won't these social media companies try to make their own private infrastructure so they can remain in control rather than potentially allow people to leave to other platforms? How will revocation work? Will the browser have to implement support?

Also: How long before authoritarians demand we sign our stuff?

Re: The scam YouTube ads are getting better

#66

Post by carlosjobim »

BuyMyBitcoins wrote: post #37
carlosjobim wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're making it out to be a decision, but it's not. Creators can upload their content on several platforms and collect revenue from all.

Just because they can collect revenue from other platforms doesn’t mean it will be sufficient or anywhere near what they were getting at YouTube.

Of course not, but it is a hedge against any decrease in revenue from YouTube, as speculated here. A hedge that doesn't cost anything.

Re: The scam YouTube ads are getting better

#67

Post by bastard_op »

As far as I see it, all advertisements are scams of some form, intending to persuade (or con) you into doing or buying something you probably don't want to. By nature their sole intent is to extract dollars from you in whatever way they can, so how is that ever going to end well on the receiving end?

Just use an adblocker, ublock origin and sponsorblock work great for me, I never see an ad, like anywhere on either desktop or android with firefox extensions. If you insist on using iphone/ipad, well thank apple for giving you no options but to let the world to cram ads down your throat.

Re: The scam YouTube ads are getting better

#68

Post by pixl97 »

micromacrofoot wrote: post #56

This is going to get worse (better) outside of YouTube too... Imagine a scammer calling grandma and recording a few minutes of her voice, and then using that to generate a fake voice to scam you in realtime. I imagine that we'll need to come up with safe words or security questions to verify we're talking to our own families at some point. People in high risk scenarios already do this sometimes... they'll have a dist…

Any particularly good scammers will scam grandma out of her safe words pretty quickly. Issues like this don't scale well, at least for people that have not grown up with it.

Re: The scam YouTube ads are getting better

#69

Post by l41n »

madeofpalk wrote: post #13
hannes0 wrote: post #10

Everyone focuses on how scamming and AI is evolving. I'm rather curious how this will affect marketing. Celebrity endorsements is useful for building trust. I wonder if we see more or less of that in the future.

Are celebrity endorsements actually useful for building trust? Usually i view them in a negative light, thinking that they just paid someone to promote the product, rather that a genuine and organic endorsement.

Personally, I don't know specifically about building trust, but your average person seems to be more likely to buy a product if a celebrity they like is endorsing it. At the very least, a lot more people are going to /hear/ about whatever product some celebrity is endorsing.

Re: The scam YouTube ads are getting better

#70

Post by dspillett »

FergusArgyll wrote: post #28

[0] embeds a youtube video on a local html file, AFAICT there are no ads on locally embedded videos [0] https://github.com/luvchurchill/NoAds

Not tested extensively, but that seems to work. It can be wrapped in a bookmarklet too, so you are ctrl+shift+b-then-click away from a standard youtube page into a simple page with the video embedded:

    javascript:(function newDocTest(){ src = 'https://www.youtube.com/embed/'+document.location.href.split('watch?v=')[1]; document.body.innerHTML = ''; })();
I might have to spend some time tinkering to improve it, make the default size match current view-port dimensions as closely as possible etc.
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