Kind: captions
Language: en
okay I know people say oh your phones
aren't listening to you but we were just
talking about retro video games and here
is an ad for home Mini Arcade machines
which looks kind of cool but how did it
know we were just talking about that is
my phone listening is it a psychic
what's happening people always say I was
talking about this product and then I
saw an ad for it Matt are they listening
through my phone and I'm like well they
didn't hear you they didn't listen to
anything the truth is actually more
frightening you talk about that thing
because they influenced you into having
this conversation it's because the
algorithm took you to this place and
that's the situation with our data there
have been some outlier examples of adte
companies listening without consent but
that's against the law for the most part
advertising algorithms know you so well
that they can predict what you would
find interesting they're so good because
they've studied all the data gathered
about you from the data brokers there's
this kind of dossier that's being
created about you as you're wandering
around the internet and it's being used
to you know decide what ads you
see advertising fuels the economics of
the internet and advertising is fueled
by You Me us our personal
data so how do the algorithms actually
work you land on a web page and that web
page gets your IP address a unique
identifier return to a data broker that
data broker looks up all the facts that
were ever gleaned about youth the
dossier that describes you and then
advertisers literally bid they bid on
you in a real-time auction based on the
only lesson I remember from econ 101
supply and demand the demand side
platform that the advertiser is on says
I have here an 18 to 34y Old Manchild
with an Xbox in Southern California who
wants to pay to cram something
non-consensually into his eyeballs and
that takes place in a Marketplace and
you have advertisers on the other side
who have standing orders they're like I
want to advertise to 18 to 34y Old Man
children in Southern California who own
Xboxes and the marketplace conducts an
automated high-speed auction where it's
just like I'll pay so many fractions of
a scent I'll pay that plus
10% the high bidder gets to show you an
ad all of this happens nearly instantly
and it's possible because data Brokers
sort and call personal data into super
detailed consumer groups this is the
process that delivers relevant
personalized ads for cute shoes or that
new tea Club if you're into that sort of
thing which all the ads seem to know
about you here we have for example
soccer mom okay I might be able to
identify with that a sporting good
retailer could then go and check out a
file on what a soccer mom's online
activity is like what are the things
that they tend to spend money on um do
they like to save are there certain
times of year where they might spend
more or less with all this data about
soccer mom's consumer habits retailers
can send personalized ads with uncanny
timing some people like the results
soccer moms get deals advertisers keep
websites we love in
business but some consumer categories
can be more
concerning sometimes they'll have
categories that are like this person has
erectile dysfunction this person has a
gambling problem this is a list of kind
of people that are likely to fall for
frauds so these can be really powerful
and damaging
list so this one for example diabetes oh
okay Healthcare
demographic the thing about that right
is like when you're thinking
particularly about Health Data that
indicates that you're probably in a
pretty sensitive situation I'm thinking
about all the patients I take care of
and I shudder to think at the targeted
ads that are deliberately targeting
these
individuals data Brokers have lists
about sexual assault victims they have
lists about dementia sufferers those are
some really concerning types of
categories and you could definitely see
how an advertising company could take
advantage of people on those lists