You must log in or # to comment.
ICE is using Palantir data to target neighborhoods, which is purchased directly from “advertising” data brokers. So “advertising” is only part of the story. It’s always been about creating a surveillance state, it’s just not evenly distributed.
It’s absolutely working. About 50% of the population is susceptible to these ads
I work in this space and I’m appalled at how much targeted ads make my company.
Every smart person I know is using adblocking too. So is there’s like a percentage of people who eats ads all day and open their wallets up?
Yes, most people. Adblockers are used by a minority.
An unfortunate truth.
Some people justify it by stating that they keep ads because they want to support the websites, but don’t know that at the very least they should be blocking trackers and 3rd party cookies
Most people access ‘the web’ via phone apps. There’s no adblocker for those.
There’s plenty, with a bit of doing. Definitely not as easy as installing ublock through a browser extension store but very doable
On iPhone? And on android without rooting?
-
uBlock Origin Lite on Apple App Store (pretty new): https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ublock-origin-lite/id6745342698
-
uBlock Origin for Firefox on Android: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/android/addon/ublock-origin/
I know about this and already have it on Firefox. I specifically mentioned phone apps. That means apps or games with ads.
Oop yeah! Limited success with AdGuard (paid), or self-hosted PiHole. Should be less than less effective as time goes on because apps can serve ads from first party domains, I imagine.
Does work for some apps though; might require manual filter list updating (open AdGuard & tap refresh) given advertiser cat-and-mouse.
(Edit: speaking at least to iOS^)
Edit: Apple protecting their business interests by locking the platform down for sure. Also a few fewer grandma iPhones in botnets, but at great cost to us nerds.
-
I showed my sister ad block and she was like why would i want to block ads. She said she has her algo dialed in and the ads just show her products she probably wants to buy.
as i have commented on another thing:
💀
“compliant consumer” is a mental illness
Understand that we in the minority position here and the “compliant consumers” are intelligent humans making just as many choices and trade offs with different values, skills and priorities just as we are doing.
I think there is a solid argument to make for both sides since the issue is morally relative and only one side has a working solution. I could never support it but i can see why others do.
The “algorithms” are also dumb as fuck. For example on a large retailer site you spend a couple of hours browsing for a particular kind of item. You are comparing different kinds, looking up reviews and issues, watching YouTube videos about them. And finally you pull the trigger and but the thing. Then for the next 3 months that site (and others that picked up on the research) will go: Hey here are some more of that thing you like, you really liked it right? Would you like to compare some more items? Uhm no, I actually bought said thing, you made the sale. All of that “targeted” advertisement is just wasted, I have zero interest anymore since the need has been filled.
It’s either that or stuff I can’t afford (like memory or graphic cards) or really weird stuff I have no idea why it’s being shown to me. Sometimes very alarmingly so. Just recently I got an ad that said “Popular in your region” and it was for illegal Nazi dogwhistle flags, “self defense knifes”, baseball bats and tracksuits. That’s a bit scary. On the other hand the same site gave me an ad for an “easy to conceal” blowjob machine sex toy. Like holy shit what kind of people are living in my region?
Targeted ads have been terrible for as long as I can remember. I don’t think I ever bought anything through an ad or hardly ever even clicked on them. Only time I click on them is because the site and my adblocker are fighting and when I try to click somewhere on the page, it inserts an ad the last millisecond, shifts the entire page so I accidentally click on it.
Amazon thought I was a toilet seat collector for 3-6 months after I bought a 3-pack. No amount of not clicking on those promoted items could convince them otherwise.
It thought I was a transvestite for lime a year after a Christmas where I bought my my mom a sweater, and my girlfriend jewelery.
Like full on recommending me panties and lingerie in my mens size 32 waist.
FWIW, a good chunk of lingerie ads are meant to target men (assuming they’re heterosexual and in a relationship).
Sure, but they were showing them in my size, lol
Do they make them in size 38? Asking for a friend.
A targeted ad consists of showing you what you just bought from the same exact website you just got it from.
Like, it’s just a scam towards the businesses at this point and a waste of my time and bandwidth.
Amazon: I see you just bought one coat rack; would you like to start your coat rack collection with these other coat racks?
Facebook is the same : “Oh I see you’re married! Do you want to befriend other hot women? Let us introduce you!”
