TagliatelliMonster
Veteran Member
One could argue that data collection is useful, because the algorithm gears ads toward things one might actually use.
The problem is that that is far from what it only does.
It is also used to serve you with playlists, "recommended" content, search results...
All based on what the service decides for you "what you meant" or what you will enjoy.
This creates extreme information bubbles and it becomes progressively more dificult overtime to break out of that bubble.
If you google "big bang theory", the results are going to be extremely influenced depending on which device you use. Not even considering the logins active. Just the devices. On my computer, you might get a mix of science and sitcom resources. On a creationist's phone you'll get a bunch of conspiracy sites. Etc.
In the subforum "evo vs creationism", people are sometimes told to google evolution and "read up". The problem is that the first 5 pages of results they get will NOT be science articles. They will rather be pseudo-science sites from the discovery institute, answers in genesis, etc.
This is how fake news and conspiracies propagate on cyberspace. Once your mac / ip address or user login is linked to such sources, that's where these services will push you into even deeper.
This is very very very bad.
It creates an information bubble and it achieves the exact opposite of the interwebs were supposed to be.
Then there are also the vast abuses that are possible like what Cambridge Analytica did, and what many others still do. They use these "psychological profiles" of users and even anonymous ip addresses to literally manipulate public opinion.
It is even so bad that in the case of people who use facebook extensively, they can literally be manipulated in eating what you want them to eat.
If facebook decides that you should have mac and cheese tonight... believe you me, you WILL have mac and cheese tonight. They have so much data on you that the algorithms know EXACTLY which "buttons" to press to make you "decide" to have mac and cheese tonight.
People don't believe me when I tell them that. It's true though.
This is also how you get +80 million people to blindly support a narcistic pathological liar like Trump. He would have never succeeded in that 30 years ago. He just wouldn't have. No chance.
I know the thread is about advertisement, but it's all the same thing. "social media" and big data is the wet dream of any marketing / advertisement company. And it became a reality today.
Governments, like the EU, demand the facebooks of this world to "take steps" against the spread of fake news. The truth is that they can't do it. It's an automated monster of their own creation. The only way to stop it, is to shut down the auto-algorithms. And that's their very business model. They can created a 25.000 moderator team and still they wouldn't be able to catch up. It's the data collection and the algorithms that run on it that does it all. It's unstoppable as long as it keeps running. The process itself needs to be shut down.
It all ties together. If they shut it down, their revenue from advertisement will be slashed by more then 50%.
(sorry... long posts, but once I get going on this subject.... pet peeve of mine)