https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/162743?hl=en
I thought it worth noting that Google does strip personal identifiers after 18 months which is in line with one of his proposed fixes.
The Internet With A Human Face
21–30 of 66 posts
Re: The Internet With A Human Face
#22The thesis the talk pivots around is this one, in my reading:
"Investor storytime only works if you can argue that advertising in the future is going to be effective and lucrative in ways it just isn't today. If the investors stop believing this, the money will dry up."
Re: The Internet With A Human Face
#23There's a rather hilarious portion (in an otherwise soul-crushing deck): the author is trying to figure out what this massive dragnet and mining of their information has actually gotten, and so they look at all of the ads they get served. This bring forth this gem: "There was an ad for the new Pixies album. This was the one ad that was well targeted; I love the Pixies. I got the torrent right away. "
The thing I wondered was whether that was deliberate or not. Charles Duhigg talks about this in his book on habits. Target has the data to identify expecting mothers. Rather than bombarding strictly baby related photos, they careful include seemingly other unrelevant ads so it doesnt come off as intrusive. Although I will say that in my own ad experience, the ads have generally been more related to my interests than…
I thought I read something recently stating that the Target anecdote had been somewhat overstated. Unfortunately, I could not find the article I had in mind -- but here's a similar one.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/21a6e7d8-b479-11e3-a09a-00144feabd...
Choice quote:
Hearing the anecdote, it’s easy to assume that Target’s algorithms are infallible – that everybody receiving coupons for onesies and wet wipes is pregnant. This is vanishingly unlikely. Indeed, it could be that pregnant women receive such offers merely because everybody on Target’s mailing list receives such offers. We should not buy the idea that Target employs mind-readers before considering how many misses attend each hit.
In Charles Duhigg’s account, Target mixes in random offers, such as coupons for wine glasses, because pregnant customers would feel spooked if they realised how intimately the company’s computers understood them.
Fung has another explanation: Target mixes up its offers not because it would be weird to send an all-baby coupon-book to a woman who was pregnant but because the company knows that many of those coupon books will be sent to women who aren’t pregnant after all.
None of this suggests that such data analysis is worthless: it may be highly profitable. Even a modest increase in the accuracy of targeted special offers would be a prize worth winning. But profitability should not be conflated with omniscience.
Re: The Internet With A Human Face
#24> America built 75,000 kilometers of interstate highways
Liked the of use of kilometers over miles
Re: The Internet With A Human Face
#25It's too bad that Maciej Ceglowski (the author) is banned on HN, over some infraction I never understood.
Re: The Internet With A Human Face
#26The formatting of this article itself is something worth studying. It's brilliantly seductive to read and read all of it. The pictures/slides by each paragraph were like rewards, continually luring me to the next paragraph. For the first time in a long time. I read every single word. Not skimmed. Although I disagree with the idea of regulating how long behavioral data is saved. Not all behavioral data is sensitive. R…
The formatting of this article itself is something worth studying. It's brilliantly seductive to read and read all of it.
I couldn't agree more. This had been exactly my thought as well, as soon as I finished reading. For some reason the presence of those photos on the side made me read absolutely every single word. And personally, I haven't paid attention to every single photo, but their mere presence persuaded me to read the paragraphs in their entirety.
It's very intriguing how the first part of your comment captured my thoughts so accurately. (:
Re: The Internet With A Human Face
#27It's too bad that Maciej Ceglowski (the author) is banned on HN, over some infraction I never understood.
Apparently he was banned for a short period of time, but not anymore.
Re: The Internet With A Human Face
#28https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/162743?hl=en I thought it worth noting that Google does strip personal identifiers after 18 months which is in line with one of his proposed fixes.
Not if you have a Google account, they don't.
> If you have Web History enabled, this data may also be stored in your Google Account until you delete the record of your search.
> When you create a Google Account, Google Web History is automatically turned on.[0]
So for everyone who has a Google account, and who hasn't taken specific steps to disable "web history" (read: 99.9% of users) they're storing that data indefinitely.
Re: The Internet With A Human Face
#29It's too bad that Maciej Ceglowski (the author) is banned on HN, over some infraction I never understood.
Too bad for us, yes, but I very much doubt Maciej gives a hoot :)
Re: The Internet With A Human Face
#30It's too bad that Maciej Ceglowski (the author) is banned on HN, over some infraction I never understood.
Apparently he was banned for a short period of time, but not anymore. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7617576 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4108205
Ok - I clearly hadn't followed it closely enough.
Maciej - please come back.