custom ads?

[soundgarden]

Anyone notice on websites that the ads are eerily more geared to you; that they actually have ads for past websites you visited?

How are they doing this?  reading my cookies?  Isn't this illegal?....

edit..please move to GD; didnt mean this in PR.

[theseoafs]

Some websites keep track of your browsing history on those sites (Amazon, Google, Facebook, etc.), and then those same websites gear their advertisements toward you, because that makes them more money.

It's not illegal; it just comes with the territory.  If you want to browse the web, be prepared to have everybody know everything you do on it.  Forever.

[Adami]

I don't think they're THAT personal, are they?


I mean, don't all you guys get ads that say "Hey Adami, click on this already you damn Jew"?

[Scheavo]

Some websites keep track of your browsing history on those sites (Amazon, Google, Facebook, etc.), and then those same websites gear their advertisements toward you, because that makes them more money.

It's not illegal; it just comes with the territory.  If you want to browse the web, be prepared to have everybody know everything you do on it.  Forever.

The Obama Administration has been trying to get the internet industry to agree to a "do not track" option for web browsing. This would give the consumer the option of opting out of all of this data from being collected and used.

The internet industry is against this. They want, at the bare minimum, to be able to keep this information "sans" personal identity so that they can continue to mine data, cause as you point out, that's how they get their money.

[soundgarden]

Ah, I see.

(and...I meant this for GD.  Sorry folks.  Force of habit led me here)


edit... It doesn't make sense from a marketing perspective to me.  Every ad I got was from the sites I just visited, showing products I bought already.  I just bought a laptop; now I am bombarded with laptop ads (from Newegg and Amazon; my two tech go to's).  I signed up for a charity and now I am getting ads from that charity trying to get me to sign up.

I don't think they thought this through...


edit 2... If anything they should track habits, much like a proposed idea from Target to track individual woman's purchases over several months.  They would make best guesses (such as a developing pregnancy) and put ads geared to that.  I have been reading up on the new Nvidia mobile GPUs for several months.  A good algorithm would "sense" my interest in some higher end use (such as gaming or 3d) and then suggest ads based on that.

[BlobVanDam]

I don't think they're THAT personal, are they?


I mean, don't all you guys get ads that say "Hey Adami, click on this already you damn Jew"?

Mine say that.

[hefdaddy42]

I don't think they're THAT personal, are they?


I mean, don't all you guys get ads that say "Hey Adami, click on this already you damn Jew"?

Mine say that.

[theseoafs]

This reminds me of something I read the other day:  a journalist called Facebook's user base the largest unpaid workforce in the world (since users spend their leisure time dumping money into Facebook's pockets by way of extremely valuable personal information).

[lonestar]

I like it when the custom ads are for where I work.


I get shit like this....


And all I can think is"aw fuck man, I come to the internet to ESCAPE work!!!!!

[robwebster]

I tend to be fairly privacy-liberal - of course I am, I live in the UK. As long as they're not watching me shower I'm generally fine with my face being on CCTV, my browsing habits being on my ISP's database. It's not like there's someone on the other end poring over it and going "Ooh, he spent eighteen hours searching Karen Gillan in Google Images! SafeSearch off, too - mucky boy." I'm just a statistic, protected by god knows how many laws, and the more statistics they have, the better they can meet their customers' needs. They're welcome to it.

But I signed into gmail the other day, and received an ad trying to sell me tickets to a Jason Manford gig. Next to it, in tiny blue letters - Why this ad?

Turned out, it was based on the emails in my inbox. As I said, I'd say I have a fairly high privacy threshold, but that really infuriated me. It dressed it up, with how I was 50% more likely to click an ad that was personalised for my inbox, but that's still a level of eeriness past what I'm happy to tolerate. So I opted out. Immediately.

And - within the last ten minutes, I've been infuriated again! A little bar, at the top of my inbox:

     Courier to India - www.interparcel.com - Discount parcel delivery to India. Cheap rates & fast online booking! Why this ad?

Why, indeed? Turns out, and I quote:

"This ad was based on the email you were viewing. Visit Google's Ad Preferences Manager to learn more, block specific advertisers, or opt out of personalised ads."

The Ad Preferences Manager puts it far more concisely. It contains a list of all the ads I've enjoyed, and why they were given to me. Courier to India?

"This ad was based on emails from your mailbox."

Great. Cheers, Google, glad you got the message.

Not five years ago I'd have trusted them to the hilt. Loads of great ideas, innovations - great company. But between their constant delving, their multi-million pound buyouts, their increasingly tetchy software, and their attempts to condense my net identities into One Account to Rule them All, they're very quickly losing a lot of brownie points with me. I know nobody's looking at my emails, but I don't even want their squadron robots looking at them. I don't want them scanning my emails and telling me which websites I might like. It's not that there's anything sensitive in there, nothing embarrassing. I just find it all a little creepy.

[kirksnosehair]

That's one of the biggest downfalls of browser-based email.    But if you read Google's TOS, you agreed to allow them to deliver targeted advertising....I'm on the fence about it myself.  The thing I don't like is the fact that they bury the true consequences of what you're actually agreeing to in those TOS agreements among so much lawyer-mumbo-jumbo that no one is ever going to fully comprehend what they're agreeing to.

[alirocker08]

I dislike custom ads, because they never target me right. I wouldn't mind if it advertised new game or music releases (especially on Facebook) but no, I just get bombarded with ads for Mormonism because I listened to a few songs from the Book of Mormon and did a search to find out if it's coming to the West End (it is)

[Adami]

I dislike custom ads, because they never target me right. I wouldn't mind if it advertised new game or music releases (especially on Facebook) but no, I just get bombarded with ads for Mormonism because I listened to a few songs from the Book of Mormon and did a search to find out if it's coming to the West End (it is)

**knock knock**

[alirocker08]

I dislike custom ads, because they never target me right. I wouldn't mind if it advertised new game or music releases (especially on Facebook) but no, I just get bombarded with ads for Mormonism because I listened to a few songs from the Book of Mormon and did a search to find out if it's coming to the West End (it is)

**knock knock**

Hello! My name is Elder Price, and I would like to share with you the most amazing book!