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this post was submitted on 05 Apr 2024
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Asklemmy
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Pick up habits, profiling so they can know what you are interested in and the areas you frequent to target you more efficiently. More likely for directed advertising but can also be for influencing.
The influencing aspect here is almost certainly tied into the drop of search engine efficacy recently. Big tech finally collected enough data from you and everyone you know to now be able to alter what answer you find for the question you asked. Wildly, this same question now generates different results depending on the profile they've assigned you. MullVads Total Surveillance paper published last October highlights this explicitly. This is why data collection matters, not due to ads, but the ability of Big Tech to change how you view the world. Your data impacts the search results you see, as well as everyone similar to you...
Edit: Here's the link to the MullVad paper https://mullvad.net/pdfs/Total_surveillance.pdf
Couldn't they just like, ask?
@Daft_ish Why go through the trouble of asking you when they can ask your browser who will tell them everything instantly and also knows you better than you ever will?
@ninjaturtle
Pretty much this. Nothing is really holding them back from collecting data so its easier for them to do this in bulk. They do buy data as well from information brokers. Bigger companies usually have wider reachers to collect more. They have pretty much free range when we agree to use their products, forced or otherwise.
I assume because they have to pay for that shit
@Daft_ish If they are the ones who supplied your browser, they don't have to pay shit.
Some one has to pay. Facebook ain't making money selling me facebook.
@Daft_ish Facebook's making money selling *you* on Facebook. You are the raw material.
But like I'm saying. If you're buying me on Facebook you're going to be way disappointed.
Yea, it's a matter of statistics. Users are interested in different things and some are vastly more valuable than others. Do you impulse buy and have a trust fund that let's you burn tens of thousands of dollars a day? Well, much like a whale in Genshin Impact you're the one they're trying to hook... the rest of us just get swept up in case one of our niche interests is worth monetizing. When someone builds a Mage The Ascension video game with a script written by Terry Pratchett I will throw my wallet at them. Until that day I'm just an unprofitable data point.
No. You'll tell them what you like, but you might not tell them what you can't look away from.
The latter is more useful for manipulating you into buying stuff or just spending more time on their platforms.