Predictive Behavioral Ads Take Away Our Uniqueness
You are talking about something with a friend and not five minutes later you see an ad about that niche thing you were saying. Is your phone listening to you? No, it's more likely to be predictive advertising.
Predictive advertising uses advanced algorithms and all the data they've collected on you to predict what you will say, think, and want so accurately that it appears to know you better than you.
It's a very scary thing indeed to feel like we are not unique individuals and that is what this does. It takes away our feelings of uniqueness by quantifying it down to 1s and 0s. I don't have a solution, but I want to start the conversation.
Are we okay with this? Will this change? How will this go on to affect more than just the ads we see? Could this set a precedent for predeterminism and later used to predict criminal activity?
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Don't buy online and get rid of Alexia, better yet don't install it at all...especially if you are that paranoid.
In all reality who really knows, they claim these things can't be used to spy on you then you turn around and read warnings about how easy it is for hackers to hack into your computer web cams and watch you, even if you shut the web cam down they can also hack into your audio and listen to what's going on. Just like if you google for it you'll see where law enforcement can hack wireless technology in your home and listen to what you are saying. All these utilities smart meters?...same thing. There was a fuss here about downtown businesses putting up camera's that ran a feed to the police department to monitor. People didn't like being on a camera feed to police department computers. Right now facial recognition technology can't be used by law enforcement but that doesn't mean we won't see a future where that's possible. People faces could be matched to those going into businesses who come back as having unpaid traffic tickets, go out for a bit of Italian and fine yourself dining on baloney at the local county lock up. It's not just what they collect online about you anymore as now the big issue is private businesses using facial technology to let people in and out of their housing complexes....and you hear nothing from congress about this so far. Maybe that's because of the out cry against law enforcement being able to use this technology and being banned from it the government will let it proceed through the private sector....once it has grown or allowed to be acceptable use everywhere else it won't seem to produce the same outcry when law enforcement moves to make it a routine thing. So I'd say yeah we are slowly losing our ability to feel confident in ourselves, our whereabouts unhindered and our peace of mind.
Many people may believe it's their phone etc. The point is that it's really predictive algorithms and that they could easily be used for more malicious purposes. Yeah, you'd think they'd have the same laws as they do for facial recognition. I agree with you
#NumberOneHame - This is the logical next step in the way that advertising and marketing is done. It's only possible because of the large amounts of data we just hand over on a daily basis through other means, such as shopping habits, location, and even our activity. Everything about us can be a part of a pattern that we follow in our life, even if not intentionally. We've given our data away for years and they're just now truly capitalizing on it.
The onset of Machine Learning will only continue to accelerate this process as more companies learn how to maximize its functionality and how to process data. It will only become more complex as we progress and give even more data to businesses.
Yeah my concern is how it will be used
The optimist in me really wants to say it can only be used for good and to improve our efficiency as a society by getting the things that we really need faster. However, I'm not that naive and in the world we live in there will always be forces of evil and those that wish to use it maliciously.
In the end, I think we still need to safe guard our personal data as best we can. One day that might mean going completely off the grid, but let's hope we don't reach that point.
Do ads serve you the things that you "need" though? Have they ever? If an ad said you should buy groceries, is that why you buy groceries or is it because you need to eat? In my opinion, 99.99% of ads you'll see are actually what you don't need but might simply just want. I hope it doesn't become more malicious :/
At that point we're getting into impulse control. I don't fault the companies for putting ads out there. They want to sell their products and make a profit to stay in business. Some are pretty aggressive about it and others are much more subtle.
We're in control of whether we act on the ads we are served. And on the flip side, the companies should take care in how they promote ads or the people they advertise to will be turned off to their products.
Yes while right now it may be just ads, but who knows where this leads :/
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I'll put it like this. Consciousness/individuality is ot about being unpredictable. It is about being able to opt out of your behavior patterns. It's your ability to choose!
Yeah this is a great way to explain it