[privacy] Is this all about relevant Ads?

[Vincent]

« anybody who tries to market me a shinagawa plate because I search for it is overlooking the fact that if I'm using a search engine for that »

I think that you are missing my point. In your example the target is 
actually the car and the ad is supposed to be targeted. But imagine that 
Mercedes wants to send its car only to young healthy white men (this is 
just an example), they have the possibilities to target their customers 
offering very low prices to this category.

But this is not very relevant with cars; just imagine that it is a job 
offer.

« Question: Do my search patterns accurately reflect my lifestyle? »

We should stop thinking that they only know our search patterns. If we accept this because we think they do not have the capabilities to know users, any opposition will be illegitimate when they’ll aquire the capabilities.

Furthermore, some users installed Google Desktop and Google stores their entire browsing histories. 
In the examples I mentioned (i.e. bank loans and insurances) the information required is in the health record which is the next target of Google and Microsoft.

 

"My data, my rules. What business has government in how I run my business?"

What about the regulation? Isn’t useless to focus only on the raw data if they keep our entire profile ?  


« In the case of the Nanny State^W^WUK, Big Brother _IS_ watching you. »

Most people do not really care about Big Brother because they’re just doing « legal things ». But tell them that their insurance charge could increase and they’ll certainly adopt another point of view.



IValdis.Kletnieks at vt.edu a écrit :
> On Tue, 18 Mar 2008 08:08:07 +0900, Peter Evans said:
>   
>> 	You have to wonder about the accuracy of data gathered by 
>> 	circumlocution like this. 
>>
>> 	Question: Do my search patterns accurately reflect my lifestyle?
>>
>> 	If I search for say, "Mercedes" a lot, does that make me white middle class
>> 	trash trying to look rich, or the local Yak shopping for yet another merc
>> 	with dark tinted windows and shinagawa plates?
>>     
>
> shinagawa??!?  Wazzat? ;)
>
> Which exactly demonstrates why it's a broken concept - anybody who tries to
> market me a shinagawa plate because I search for it is overlooking the fact
> that if I'm using a search engine for that, it's because I have no flipping
> *clue* what it is.  Meanwhile, the guys who are hoping to flip me targeted ads
> for guitars or books are going to be missing out, because I already *know* my
> favorite sites for those, so a search engine isn't going to get its grubby
> little paws on it...
>
>
>   
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