I want to know my score! The Internet is all about points!
This type of silent, targeted manipulation is worrisome. I’m glad that information about this kind of advertising is being published. I hope that people start to realize that the ads they see on the internet are not like the ads they see in paper newspapers or magazines. Internet advertising can be targeted directly at You and designed to effectively manipulate You based on a wide range of information. That’s “you” as a specific individual, not “you” as in “people in general”.
I’m pro-legalization, and I think legalization is an important issue. But I don’t like being targeted like this. And I really don’t like the idea that many, many people are targeted like this without knowing it’s even possible.
I “liked” your post so that I could bring my POT [Pot Online Tracking] score up by a point or two
This is good if it raises awareness of the issues with cookies (which still exist, even though they’re not making headlines the way they did 15 years ago), and even better if it prompts people to think in more depth abut their privacy settings, and take back some form of control over what gets loaded or stored on their machine.
Because it’s actually a fundamental issue of computing. You should be in charge of what code executes on your machine, and you should choose what you download.
This foolish scheme seems to be predicated upon the notion that having some idea what I may be “interested in” tells anybody “what I support”. I need to point out the obvious that even knowing with certainty a thing I am thinking about, does not in any way elucidate what I may or not think about it. A person can actually read about marijuana, and its legal status, and not have a position they can quantify.
But hey, they are convinced they have data, and that’s what counts.
Now you get the milk
and I’ll get the cookies
We’ll get high
and do the boogie
Granny Wontcha Smoke Some (John Hartford)
Self-destructing cookies is a great tool. Also, completely turning off 3rd party cookies. Also NoScript. You shouldn’t be expected to run any arbitrary, unexamined code from anyone anywhere just to look at a web page. You should only allow scripting if you trust the site, on a case-by case basis.
Not using a scripting whitelisting system is the computer equivalent of licking every doorknob and toilet seat you use, while refusing to get standard vaccinations.
I don’t think they’re interested in trying to figure out what someone definitely, currently supports. Not exactly. They’re trying to figure out who they will show advertising to, and which advertising to show. They’re looking for people that will be more susceptible to their message - not people that have already made up their minds.
If they know you’ve been reading about the subject, then maybe you’re more likely to act on the subject, and are a good candidate to advertise to. I don’t know if that’s their algorithm. It’s conceptually no different than advertising golf clubs in magazines that are read by golfers (like Golf Magazine). It’s just more sophisticated and less visible to the reader.
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