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Yikes.
this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2023
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I've said it here before and I will say it again: Facebook and Google's entire approach to ads from data is based on an incorrect assumption of using enough data to build a profile on a person to predict what they are going to be interested in, when if you stop and think about it, it doesn't make any sense: people's needs will always change with circumstances at the time, ex. no amount of data in the world will help you predict whether I'll want a burger or Thai food for lunch tomorrow even if you do the digital equivalent of creeping on me outside my window and digging through my trash can. If you want to know what people want to buy, why not ask them?
Unfortunately, they've deluded themselves for more than a decade with the lie, so now the rest of the world also think that internet ads by them actually works.
I'm not going to rag too hard on Facebook here because most thing has been said by others already, but I will say that since literally every single one of their social media product took the same approach of maximize data to sell things, why is it that they are all losing people and their most successful place at selling things is actually Facebook Marketplace?
They do their best to get your money. They monitor your past behavior to know what you're likely to listen to in the future. For example, if you eat basic burger/fry foods, they'll send you more ads for those types of places, but if you tend towards Mediterranean, then they will send you those places instead. As another example, dog food ads aren't worth sending to people who don't have dogs.
What I worry about is Alexa and the other voice boxes. Every time we talk about getting food around it, I open my phone and have ads for the places we were talking about. That's literally creeping on someone.