Google wants YOU, like it or not
p2pnet news view Freedom | Advertising:- If you’re among those who believe huge US advertising company Google has gone well beyond merely tarnishing its early, and very brief, Do No Evil claim, stay tuned.
It’s about to get a lot worse because Google is now going after you few, if any, holds barred.
Surfers haven’t been flocking to its ads so the company has been forced to spend millions of dollars trying to figure out new ways to get you to go where it wants you to go, whether you want to go there or not.
It hasn’t had much luck so now, “Google is to start targeting its internet advertisements according to what people look at on the web, a controversial technique that privacy groups fear will give the search engine group even greater access to personal information,” says the Financial Times, going on:
“The internet company will monitor the web pages that people visit and the YouTube videos they watch to create a profile of each user.
“The company will then use the information to show adverts to viewers based on those interests whenever they browse the web.”
A profile of each user? Does that mean what you think it means?
It does.
In the same way the FBI and other enforcement agencies profile killers in a bid to try to predict what they’re going to do next, Google plans to profile YOU with the same aim in mind.
And you’re part of the plan, even though you haven’ t been asked if you mind being included.
You’re being ‘opted in’ without any permission given on your part.
“If you prefer not to receive this type of interest-based advertising, you can always opt out by clicking the ‘Opt out’ button on the homepage of the Ads Preferences Manager,” says Google.
“After you opt out, Google will not collect interest category information and you will not receive interest-based ads. You will see the same number of ads as before, but they may not be as relevant.”
Not that they ever were, or ever will be. Any relevance will be purely confined to the advertiser.
Goodbye shotgun
Says The Times, New Zealand »»»
In a related move, the Online Publishers Association said it was debuting three new ad formats designed to overcome the growing propensity of web surfers to simply ignore the banner ads that are supposed to provide the lion`s share of online income.
Until now, Google`s ads have worked in two ways. The search-affiliated product ads work by serving up ads that are related to the search terms entered by users of Google`s ubiquitous search engine.
Google also offers ads through affiliated partners on its Adsense program, which automatically analyses the content of the websites and serves ads related to that content.
Google`s new system makes the ads more personal â which offers both advantages and disadvantages.
We believe there is real value to seeing ads about the things that interest you, Google`s VP of Product Management Susan Wojcicki wrote on the Official Google Blog.
In other words, the shotgun approach isn’t, and hasn’t been, working.
Privacy hijack schemes
Will Google now return the billions of dollars it’ s received from advertisers who have been acting on the premise it would be able to deliver the goods — ie, You?
No need to stay tuned there.
But apparently, Google is doing no more than plugging into privacy hijack schemes already employed by, “rivals such as Yahoo and AOL” who currently use ‘behavioural targeting’ of this kind, says the FT.
It won’t, though, “take long for Google executives to look at the stock price and then at the data its [sic] not using and argue that the company could make even more money by selling finer and finer slices of its user base to advertisers,” predicts Ryan Singel on Wired, ”
Soon, he says, “everything of Google’s that you touch will all become part of your profile — from its website analytics program, sneaky Big Brother-esque Web Hionstory program, checkout system, news subscription reader, image search, cellphone location reporting service, book digitization, news site and GMail e-mail and chats.”
But, “how hard would it be for Google to categorize you as a Libertarian, Democrat, Republican or Communist based on your Google behavior?” – wonders Wired, adding »»»
How profitable would that level of profiling be?
Simple and very.
Sure, Google is letting you opt out and even add and delete profile categories, if you like. And there’s a plug-in too. That’s fine and transparent, but no one will use either tool.
It’s not that the new advertising is evil; it’s just the ads are nothing like the Google search box you fell in love with.
But it is certainly is the Google you will live with.
Or Not.
Silence of the lambs led to slaughter, Google hopes.
Will the lambs stay silent?
Stay tuned.
Financial Times – Google to match online adverts with web users’ viewing habits, March 12, 2009
The Times - Online ads get in your face, March 12, 2009
Wired – Analysis: Google’s Ad Targeting Turns Algorithms on You, March 11, 2009
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March 12th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
I installed the plug-in a few days ago, and will be doing my own tests next week to see it is what it claims to be (and nothing more!).
I’m just going to give it a little time to make logs or create any unwanted files, if it’s going to do that. In the meantime, I’m watching to see if anything in the way of “targetted ads” starts. (So far, nothing to report.)
March 12th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
AdBlock
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865
March 12th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
@DA
Hey sounds good.
If you find anything interesting do a post on it. Sounds like it would be interesting.
hmmm a post on your profile?
Makes a catchy headline: My profile, needs and habits, according to google (or something like that).
March 12th, 2009 at 9:11 pm
I ran into this earlier today. I went to the Opt-out page. There it lists all the cookies you have in your browser for it’s system. Quite a list actually. Since I have my browser set not to accept third party cookies and to clean all the cookies out everytime I close the browser, I had no cookies listed in anything they hope for you to have. Just for grins and giggles, I tried to opt-out. They have that great “select all” button so you don’t have to check everything. Trouble is, once done you find out that most of them, it doesn’t work with. Instead, they want you to show up and each site and do it yourself. Since there are probably and additional twenty or better remaining, it appears to me that it is to make it as much of a headache as possible to get the Opt-out done.
March 13th, 2009 at 7:29 am
Your making it sound like that’s bad thing? like Big brother is trying to catch you out watching child porn so they can blackmail you? almost paranoid even, all it comes down to is this : At the end of the day you can’t sell what people aren’t buying, so find out what they want and give it to them the best way possible… I’d prefer to have an ad appear that offered me health drinks and discount sports gear rather than penis enlargement pills and pheromones for example…
March 13th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
“Iâd prefer to have an ad appear that offered me health drinks and discount sports gear rather than penis enlargement pills and pheromones…”
I personally don’t care what ads they post.
What I DO care about is that they post this on their own, without tracking me and/or creating any databases that contain my habits or even more explicit personal info.
I don’t care where they post ads, either, as long as they post them on the page I’ve called, and not insert a pop-up/pop-under (regardless of whether the ad contains anything I might be interested in). In most cases, that’s another browser connection I wouldn’t have asked for or approved of.
Since I can’t count on anyone not to do either of these things, very few sites get to have cookies on my drive.
These days, you shouldn’t allow cookies to be automatically accepted anyway, as it just leaves the door open to garbage like the “Antivirus XP” infestation that’s still out there in droves.
March 13th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/search?q=trackmenot&cat=all
June 1st, 2010 at 12:58 pm
Here you can chat, run your own page or blog, upload pictures and video, join thematic groups, and more…