Student Project Could Kill Digital Ad Targeting

An anonymous reader sends this quote from Ad Age: "[Rachel Law's] creation, called 'Vortex,' is a browser extension that's part game, part ad-targeting disrupter that helps people turn their user profiles and the browsing information into alternate fake identities that have nothing to do with reality. People who use the browser tool, which works with Firefox and Chrome, effectively confuse the technologies that categorize web audiences into likely running shoe buyers, in-market auto buyers, or moms interested in cooking and football. ... It's a bit like the ad blocker extensions of yore, except it scrambles information to trick ad targeters, all in service of an addictive game deemed 'Site Miner,' which allows players to fish for cookies visualized as sea creatures. Players can gobble up cookies Pac-Man style, creating a pool of profile information that has nothing to do with their actual web behavior. ... Vortex features a profile switcher that people can use and share to take on a new identity while browsing the web. 'It's a way of masking your identity across networks,' she said."

Comments

Re:I fully support this!

[jellomizer]

Then you will not have as many websites.
Making and supporting a web site takes time and money.
To support a website you need to be able to do the following.
1. Have the site support or extend a product or service you are paying for. This is most corporate web sites. Their features are about the company and extras are there to keep you on it so you remember the name.
2. Some sort or grant (IE Begging for money). This will work as long as you have enough supporters.
3. Pay to use the service (Pay Wall). Your product really needs to be special enough for this.
4. Use some space to advertise.

I am not sure if you remembered how horrable adds were in the late 1990's early 2000. Adds and adds cluttering your system all about irrelevant stuff. Today for most reputable sites You have a couple adds, more or less about stuff you are interested in, they are not often a lot more subdued and out of the way. However because they are targeted towards your profile they are more useful and don't need to be so much in your face.