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Re: [Link Posting] Your Smartphone Apps Are Filled With Trackers You Know Nothing About

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In comp.misc, Bruce Horrocks  <07.013@scorecrow.com> wrote:
> Most companies, and McDonalds is a good example, have a very limited 
> product range, with no real choice for the customer. Basically the 
> customer takes it or leaves it. And that's great - McDonalds are not 
> impoverished and customers seem to like it.

(four lines moved below for separate commenting)

> Your choices are limited to what the manufacturer provides. So why do 
> online advertisers feel the need to sub-divide the public into ever 
> smaller, more 'precise' categories?

Because the customer for McDonalds is not always the customer for Burger
King and vice versa. The smaller categories can possibly catch that.

A person might vastly prefer one or the other for some product that
isn't at the reciprocal. If the advertiser knows you really, really like
the McRib (eg), then when Jack-in-the-Box wants to launch a rib
sandwich, they know which eyeballs to target. Similarly, if a person
only goes to Burger King because it's the rare fast food chain with a
veggie burger, then maybe Wendy's introducing a veggie offering would be
a tempting ad.

The categories are there because advertisers for the *niche* products
want the niche targetting, the broadly popular products need much less
help in targetting.

One of the biggies, I learned during my nine month stint working for a
mobile ad company, is installed apps. Many ads are targetted towards
people who have app Foo installed because they think that Foo is in the
same market category for Bar who wants to you to download their app.

The ad middle men get paid on conditions like "installed and launched
the app" or "installed and took a ride" (for Uber-type stuff). The
launch an app situation probably pays a lot less than the ride hail
situation. They collect data about the users to get an idea about which 
ad to show you. If you've previously installed and used Uber and
Sidecar, but don't have Lyft installed then an ad for Lyft is a good
idea. If you have never had any ride hail app installed (that they know
of), they're more likely to a different spot.

They also like to judge how involved you are at the moment. If the app
can access the motion sensors, the app can get an idea of "is this
person watching this video, or listening to it while jogging" and use
that to decide what ad to play.

> Car manufacturers are similar. You might be able to choose your paint 
> colour but you can't choose for example, to take the performance braking 
> system from the performance model of any given car but with the 
> non-performance engine, because you favour safety.

You might be the perfect target for after-market safety modification
sales in that case.

> Which product is it that will sell to 5th generation first-nation 
> heritage Pontiac driving males that won't sell to 5th generation, 
> first-nation heritage Ford driving males?

Pontiac window decals?

> Eventually advertisers will recognise this lunacy and in 20 years time 
> will glibly explain to future marketing students "Ah, well, the Internet 
> and Social Media were new then and we didn't fully understand them - 
> /not like we do now/" as though that makes all the difference. Well, 
> we're living the consequences of your "we didn't fully understand" and 
> it sucks.

I'm not sure that I agree with you a hundred percent on your policework
there, Lou. The trend in marketing has been "know the customer" for
increasing values of "know" for at least as long as marketing as been
separate service company.

That job certianly increased my paranoia about app permissions.

Elijah
------
never wants another app with ads

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Thread

[Link Posting] Your Smartphone Apps Are Filled With Trackers You Know Nothing About Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2019-05-11 16:12 +0000
  Re: [Link Posting] Your Smartphone Apps Are Filled With Trackers You Know Nothing About Batchman <batchman@dosville.foo> - 2019-05-11 21:13 +0000
    Re: [Link Posting] Your Smartphone Apps Are Filled With Trackers You Know Nothing About RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2019-05-11 21:06 -0400
      Re: [Link Posting] Your Smartphone Apps Are Filled With Trackers You Know Nothing About ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) - 2019-05-11 22:55 -0500
  Re: [Link Posting] Your Smartphone Apps Are Filled With Trackers You Know Nothing About Sylvia Else <sylvia@email.invalid> - 2019-05-12 15:17 +1000
    Re: [Link Posting] Your Smartphone Apps Are Filled With Trackers You  Know Nothing About Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> - 2019-05-13 03:14 -0300
      Re: [Link Posting] Your Smartphone Apps Are Filled With Trackers You Know Nothing About Sylvia Else <sylvia@email.invalid> - 2019-05-13 17:25 +1000
      Re: [Link Posting] Your Smartphone Apps Are Filled With Trackers You Know Nothing About Bruce Horrocks <07.013@scorecrow.com> - 2019-05-13 12:35 +0100
        Re: [Link Posting] Your Smartphone Apps Are Filled With Trackers You Know Nothing About Huge <Huge@nowhere.much.invalid> - 2019-05-13 14:15 +0000
        Re: [Link Posting] Your Smartphone Apps Are Filled With Trackers You Know Nothing About Eli the Bearded <*@eli.users.panix.com> - 2019-05-13 22:58 +0000
    Re: [Link Posting] Your Smartphone Apps Are Filled With Trackers You Know Nothing About not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) - 2019-05-13 22:56 +0000
      Re: [Link Posting] Your Smartphone Apps Are Filled With Trackers You Know Nothing About Huge <Huge@nowhere.much.invalid> - 2019-05-14 00:23 +0000
      Re: [Link Posting] Your Smartphone Apps Are Filled With Trackers You Know Nothing About Dan Purgert <dan@djph.net> - 2019-05-14 00:24 +0000
      Re: [Link Posting] Your Smartphone Apps Are Filled With Trackers You Know Nothing About RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2019-05-14 18:46 -0400

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