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Digital Ads Are Starting To Feel Psychic (theoutline.com)
It seems like everyone these days has had a paranoiac moment where a website advertises something to you that you recently purchased or was gifted without a digital trail. According to a new website called New Organs, which collects first-hand accounts of these moments, "the feeling of being listened to is among the most common experiences, along with seeing the same ads on different websites, and being tracked via geo-location," reports The Outline. The website was created by Tega Brain and Sam Lavigne, two Brooklyn-based artists whose work explores the intersections of technology and society. From the report: "We are stuck in this 20th century idea of spying, of wiretapping and hidden microphones," said Brain. "But really there is this whole new sensory apparatus, a complicated entanglement of online trackers and algorithms that are watching over us." It is this new sensory apparatus that Brain and Lavigne metaphorically refer to as "new organs," as if the online surveillance framework used by social media platforms like Facebook has somehow transfigured into a semi-living organism. "These new organs don't actually need to listen to your voice to know that you like Japanese knives," Lavigne told me. "They actually have ways of coming to know things about you that we don't fully understand yet." In other words, these new methods of data collection have become so uncannily accurate in their knowledge of you as to occasionally feel indistinguishable from actual ears listening in on and understanding intimate conversations.
There are a few things that we do already know about these new "organs" of data processing, as defined by Brain and Lavigne. We know, for instance, that they have an insatiable appetite for personal data. They gather this by first tracking online activity, which is enough to tell them what people like, what they search for, what they listen to, what they read, where they're walking for dinner, and also, worryingly, who their friends are and what they like, read, purchase -- data that is gathered without their awareness. But, then, the organs also gather information purchased from commercial data brokers about people's offline lives, like how many credit cards they own, what their income is, and what they purchase when they go grocery shopping. And all of this information is triangulated with friends' data, because if they know what those dear to you are buying -- a Japanese knife, for instance -- there is a good chance that that person will be interested in that very same thing. The new organs process this enormous amount of information to break you down into categories, which are sometimes innocuous like, "Listens to Spotify" or "Trendy Moms," but can also be more sensitive, identifying ethnicity and religious affiliation, or invasively personal, like "Lives away from family." More than this, the new organs are being integrated with increasingly sophisticated algorithms, so they can generate predictive portraits of you, which they then sell to advertisers who can target products that you don't even know you want yet.
There are a few things that we do already know about these new "organs" of data processing, as defined by Brain and Lavigne. We know, for instance, that they have an insatiable appetite for personal data. They gather this by first tracking online activity, which is enough to tell them what people like, what they search for, what they listen to, what they read, where they're walking for dinner, and also, worryingly, who their friends are and what they like, read, purchase -- data that is gathered without their awareness. But, then, the organs also gather information purchased from commercial data brokers about people's offline lives, like how many credit cards they own, what their income is, and what they purchase when they go grocery shopping. And all of this information is triangulated with friends' data, because if they know what those dear to you are buying -- a Japanese knife, for instance -- there is a good chance that that person will be interested in that very same thing. The new organs process this enormous amount of information to break you down into categories, which are sometimes innocuous like, "Listens to Spotify" or "Trendy Moms," but can also be more sensitive, identifying ethnicity and religious affiliation, or invasively personal, like "Lives away from family." More than this, the new organs are being integrated with increasingly sophisticated algorithms, so they can generate predictive portraits of you, which they then sell to advertisers who can target products that you don't even know you want yet.
And don't have this problem.
Advertising stopped working on me about 25 years ago. The internet CURED me of being able to watch advertising. My computers have Every form of ad blocker known to man on them. And any adds that DO get through, go on the "Do not buy" list. because they "Annoyed" me. GOOD LUCK ADVERTISERS ;-P
It seems like everyone these days has had a paranoiac moment where a website advertises something to you that you recently purchased or was gifted without a digital trail
That doesn't feel like someone reading my mind at all. To me it feels more like someone peering in my windows and following constantly.
I'm pretty sure most people find it just as creepy as I do, even non-technical people I know have mentioned this un-prompted and also that they found it creepy.
Companies have to be really careful using techniques like this, because they often fail in horrible ways that paints the company with a brush they would not want if they knew.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
then that's bad AI.
Hmm, seems like a really badly targeted ad to me.
After all, if I just bought one, I'm not terribly likely to buy another right away....
Unless we're talking consumables. Ads trying to sell me consumables is neither surprising nor especially annoying. Because I have mastered the secret to happiness - I ignore ALL ads....
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
You get really bizzare effects when people become aware of random facts about one another. I used to work in a small company in a small room, and could jump in any time it was helpful. We fixes some subtle bugs that way. Alas, this doesn't work for larger incarnations, even of the same company. Some kind of communications hierarchy is needed.
Now, if I were communicating with an AI (or just artificially stupid) agent of the advertiser, we might have a more useful discussion. The classic one might be "I just bought a Subaru, don't tell me about why I want an Outback, talk to me about trailer hitches for the Outback".
--dave
davecb@spamcop.net
I keep hearing Amazon and Google and all of these companies bragging about how incredible their AI are and all of these places telling us how unbelievably accurate their ad tracking and advertising methods are for targeting an individual.
Then I go online (to Amazon or anywhere else) and the ads I get are for the thing I *just* fucking bought yesterday.
Hey, dipshit... how many 65" widescreen HDTVs do you think I'm in the market for this week? The time to try and sell me one was *before* I bought one yesterday. Not after.
Sorry, but AI has yet to be more than a bunch of "if then else" loops. I don't give a fuck. Bots aren't taking over jack shit in this century when they can't even figure out when I'm less likely to buy a $5k tv.
The closest I see for "targeted advertising" is when Amazon shows me ads for something I already bought. Must be that amazing AI stuff I keep hearing about.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Google Analytics is what makes things look "psychic".
I was wondering why my iPad, which doesn't have any blockers, always shows ads for the last things I shopped for from companies I shopped at.
Common denominator that made the ads look "psychic"?
Google Analytics.
Ghostery and uBlock are pretty good.
These days, 1% is good
In a previous life (Xanaro), we were doing bound-in ads in a print pub, and knew we would have succeeded sy a 3% response rate.
These days, advertisers struggle for 1%, which means they're doing something rather badly
davecb@spamcop.net
This is from a digital marketer trying to convince you that your life will be better through digital marketing, until you think about the dangers of it. First off, more than 50% of americans think its wrong for the government to monitor others, and the 2nd most thing that people try to avoid while online are advertisers at 30% (and all bet that the rest of them don't know that their every move online is being monitored. If you were talking to your friend on the street, and a third person started listening in on your conversation, how many of us would tolerate that? Most of us do this every day on line.
The organs word in the article also stems from a book called 'Gulag Archipelago' by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the word organs refers to the intelligence network setup by the Soviets which they used to throw 66 million people into jail. Why you would use this word in a marketing article is sheer stupidity. We are only scratching the surface on abuse of what should be private digital information, and someday the axe could come down hard on us.
If the marketers really 'knew' who I was they would quickly realize that I've only clicked on under 10 ads a year. They wouldn't even display them on websites because they would know that I find ads unappealing. They would realize that it is no use to show me digital ads. I guess they don't know me well enough yet, and that's a good thing.
Wait, you want to tell me there are still people who don't use adblockers and privacy browsers or at least privacy extensions?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Around Christmas I wore my PS3 controller out, and bought one from Amazon. It's a perfectly cromulent controller (hard to find with all the astroturf reviews), and I gave it a 5 star review.
:)
Got email today implying I'm getting a free PS3 controller Any Time Now (tm), and asking me to review it.
I think I could learn to like this new economy
.. they would be better
Yeah, after I buy something, I often see a lot of ads for the same thing from different sellers, or a similar product from different manufacturers
This is a stupid waste of ad spending. I already made my decision
"Psychic" ads would give me interesting alternatives for products I'm researching
I use cash for anything up into the $200-$300 range, maybe higher than that if I plan ahead. That way they don't get any tracking information from me. I recently had to break down and order a dryer door switch on-line after not being able to find it locally. After that I kept getting advertisements for dry door switches. How many of them do they think I need?
You mis-spelled "Psychotic"
if you buy something and text someone about it on an android phone google will know. one time my wife texted me a picture of something for the kids and within the hour i start getting ads about it.
personally i don't care. most of the ads i get is stuff i looked at just for info with little intention of buying RIGHT NOW. or stuff i just bought. Like why the fuck would i need two SSD drives right after I bought one? if i needed a second one i would have bought two of them. or why would i need a second $150 bike helmet after i bought my first one?
Dont place a live mic in your work and dwelling. Enjoy communications with people you enjoy to talk to.
Dont have gps track you. Use a map.
Cover that web cam. Use a cam with people you want to cam with.
Dont use a free OS from an ad company. Ensure a real OS can block ads and tracking.
Dont use a free OS from a brand that supported the NSA and GCHQ. Stop supporting brands that wont secure their own products, services, networks.
Dont use a free OS from a brand that never had the skill to detect the NSA and GCQH deep in its products. Stop supporting brands don't have the staff skills to secure their own products.
Dont use a free browser from an ad company. Look into the ad blocking of different browsers.
Dont use a free map product from an ad company. Use a map.
Dont buy VR hardware from an ad company. Look into who is making the VR product.
When buying product with a CC online try and buy locally with cash first.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Buy a jewel that actually looks nice, like a sapphire or emerald. Diamonds are worthless -- their value is basically the product of the DeBeers Cartel's slick advert campaign in the 1930s. DeBeers are scum -- they did a lot to prop up the apartheid regime in South Africa until the late 80ies.
I can't remember the last time I saw an ad on my computer, and the majority of spam automatically gets permanently deleted, and anything that doesn't gets flagged by me so the next time I likewise won't see it. I don't use Facebook or Twitter or any other social media (pre-emptive strike: this place is NOT social media, damnit, it's a news site with commenting!) nor will I ever in the future, I don't even use my real name online anywhere I can get away with it (did you really think my name was Rick? LOL!) and I don't buy a whole lot of anything to start with, so there's precious little I buy online and it's few and far between. I pay cash for in-person purchases of pretty much everything for more important reasons than privacy, but that's a side benefit. These so-called 'organs' they're talking about would die of starvation on a diet of Me. You can starve them out too if you're willing to do what it takes.
(More pre-emptive strike: IDGAF what anyone says about how much 'publicly available information' can be purchased about the Real Me. That boat sailed a long time before the Internet and there's no reason to even concern myself with it, so go troll someone else.)
Was in Target with the wife and kids. Wife was grabbing a few things off one aisle while I turned down the coffee maker aisle and waited on her. I was killing time and talking to the kids in our cart. Wasn't looking at coffee makers. Had not shopped for them on the web either. We don't talk about coffee makers, because we have one. That night on my Facebook feed: coffee makers! Oodles and oodles of the fucking things!
A few weeks later, a buddy is over visiting and we are in the garage having a beer. I told him my wife wants me to get a shed for the yard equipment. Conversation ends there. Here comes Facebook with tool sheds!
My wife was talking to her cousin about how her brother rented a bounce house for his kid's birthday. Bounce houses in her facebook feed!
I then realized my phone's microphone was enabled for Facebook, so I turned it off. Facebook denies they do this citing the demands of data, but I think their denial highly dubious given they can easily look for keywords to make ads relevant.
I guess Target could uniquely identify me and track my position in the store via wifi and, since I likely it isn't unreasonable I opened the Facebook app in the store, I was waiting to have that data linked to my profile.
On some other spying notes, my company has banned Alexa in all corporate offices since she records and stores everything and that data can be subpoenaed. Also, I recently heard Alexa maybe serving your hotel room! Next time you're in a hotel, just start talking to Alexa and see if she answers. You may get a sneak peak at the new service they're planning on rolling out!
Chewbacon
The Bible is like Wikipedia: written by a bunch of people and verifiable by questionable sources.
FWIW, cows don't like to be branded either.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
It's not about storage space, in this case. It's about searching through 20,000 lines several times each time you load a page. Suppose a page calls resources from five different domains. The system then has to go through those 20,000 lines five times before it can start loading the page.
With that many entries, it's about time to instead run named in a caching configuration (the default for some distributions), except add the blacklisted entries. Alternatively, put the blacklist in a browser extension so it never even asks the system to look up the name, and then try to connect to 127.0.0.2 or whatever you point it at.
Digital ads only feel "psychic" if your psychic can only see the recent past and thinks that they're looking at the future.
just a ghost in the machine.
I see a lot of targeted adds, but they seem very badly targeted. I get adds for things I've already bought. Recommendations for hotels in places I've just left. Adds for things that seem similar to things that I do, but which are not usually correlated. Meanwhile I don't get adds for things I am actively trying to find (either in my work life or in my personal life).
It feels very open-loop, as if they are not making any use of information on what is actually purchased as a result of the adds, as opposed to things that are correlated. Showing car adds to someone who just bought a car is really stupid.
So I'm not surprised that I'm being tracked, but I am surprised that advertisers don't do a better job with all the information that they have about me.
It sounds like we have a branding problem and should probably pull together a quick focus group.
When I turn the ad-blocker off, I just stop to want to surf the web anyways, so I do not even feel guilty...
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
So I click on watch ads all the time. As a result, I get almost exclusively watch, bracelet and ring ads. Some are for watches in the $250k range. Sorry, I am sticking with my $35 Timex watch. It tells time just as well, off by 10 seconds/month for you nerdy types.
Unfortunately now they know. You're a hermit. You live within your means in an estate off the grid. Your only interest is dry switches - so if humanity produced only that then we can welcome you back into the fold.
For the next few millennia all of humanity will devote their time to producing better dry switches.
I drove past a van for a small plumbing business with an unusual business name (can't remember now, but it stuck out at the time). Within 24 hours I was getting ads for them.
When they came for the communists, I said "He's next door. Take him away. Goddam commies."
... who uses google chrome browser here? And still you are surprised by those tracking ads?
Bach says it all.
Ack! You've got me figured out! I am a bit of a hermit, I'm retired and single living in a 3 bedroom house with 2 cats. I do live within my means but I'm not off the grid (Why would I need a dryer switch if I was off the grid? I'd be hanging my clothes out to dry.)
Facebook responded that users can discern the use of third-party data if they know where to look. Each time an ad appears using such data, Facebook says, users can click a button on the ad revealing that fact.
Not to mention, now their profile on you records that you are the type of person who clicks on buttons for more information about ads.
This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
For the most part, the ads I see tend to be the same largely irrelevant junk that I never buy. It's true that I use adblockers galore, and don't get to see so many ads anyway.
The comparison GP made was between a hosts file that's too long and one that's right-sized, containing the names that you'll actually encounter, with some frequency. A smaller list can be searched faster than a larger list.
It's the same as any caching scenario - you want the cache to be just big enough to hold the frequently accessed items. Too large makes the cache unnecessarily slow, too small means some frequently-used items aren't in it. There is an optimum size which is neither too small nor too large.
Re "how slow a DNS request is", DNS over the internet is fairly slow. DNS on your network is a lot faster, which is why routers have provide a DNS cache. Faster still is a local DNS caching server on the same machine. Faster than that is not looking up the name at all by blacklisting it in-browser, such as by using a browser extension.
Peering in your windows (or something like that) is how psychics work. Even Jim Jones knew to dig through his members' garbage in order to later impress them enough to drink the Kool-Aid.
If it seems like they're peering in your windows, that's probably the most authentic psychic experience you can have. How would you expect it to feel different?
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
The searches are all for unicorns, leprechauns, and UFOs. I use the 42nd displayed word, whatever it is, to pick the next search. I vary the depth of this recursion when I am whimsical.
I figure flooding the system is better than trying to block all the accesses.
It's called "chaff".
"There is no god but allah" - well, they got it half right.