It's a high area of local utility attack via the social layer. In other words, only showing me the things I care about already limits my aspirations and serves to further separate me from the rest of humanity. Indeed, if you have a good enough read on me, you can tell whether I'll be vulnerable to having one specific thing advertised to me excessively that's going to exclude other longer term higher value to £ ratio payoffs.
The most obvious examples of this sort of behaviour are people who spend all their time in front of the TV rather than developing deeper interests, or people who are vulnerable to drugs, but you can hook people on almost anything provided you make it look desirable and people don't have much contradicting data. So, if my algorithm decides that the people behind your IP address have no interest in formal education, and so doesn't market anything to do with learning to you, is that really good for you? Is it really good for your daughter or son?
It's like being search bubbled, only from the push end of things rather than the pull end.
Edit: Freshhawk's phrasing of it as extracting maximum value from the user is a good way of putting it, I think. Getting the most for the least doesn't necessarily work out in your favour unless you have a very good degree of self control and foresight.
"It's like being search bubbled, only from the push end of things rather than the pull end."
That is a good way of putting it.
I also like that you identified "you can tell whether I'll be vulnerable to having one specific thing advertised to me excessively". I got into that in a follow up comment because that's really what targeted ads are about, finding people's irrational purchase triggers because "hey, i'm well informed and this product is great value!" is an expensive trigger to target.
Comments
It's a high area of local utility attack via the social layer. In other words, only showing me the things I care about already limits my aspirations and serves to further separate me from the rest of humanity. Indeed, if you have a good enough read on me, you can tell whether I'll be vulnerable to having one specific thing advertised to me excessively that's going to exclude other longer term higher value to £ ratio payoffs.
The most obvious examples of this sort of behaviour are people who spend all their time in front of the TV rather than developing deeper interests, or people who are vulnerable to drugs, but you can hook people on almost anything provided you make it look desirable and people don't have much contradicting data. So, if my algorithm decides that the people behind your IP address have no interest in formal education, and so doesn't market anything to do with learning to you, is that really good for you? Is it really good for your daughter or son?
It's like being search bubbled, only from the push end of things rather than the pull end.
Edit: Freshhawk's phrasing of it as extracting maximum value from the user is a good way of putting it, I think. Getting the most for the least doesn't necessarily work out in your favour unless you have a very good degree of self control and foresight.
"It's like being search bubbled, only from the push end of things rather than the pull end."
That is a good way of putting it.
I also like that you identified "you can tell whether I'll be vulnerable to having one specific thing advertised to me excessively". I got into that in a follow up comment because that's really what targeted ads are about, finding people's irrational purchase triggers because "hey, i'm well informed and this product is great value!" is an expensive trigger to target.