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Targeted advertising

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vrdiver
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Targeted advertising

#146716

Postby vrdiver » June 19th, 2018, 4:05 pm

I've recently noticed web sites requesting my permission to place tracking cookies on my PC so that they can deliver more relevant advertising. If I say "no", apparently I will get more general adverts that aren't tailored for me.

On the one hand, I don't want any advertising, but on the other hand, if I do have to have it, then it might as well be relevant to me. On the other hand (as Milton Jones might say) "targeted" usually means trying to sell me more of what I've just gone and bought, which is rather tedious when it's a one-off purchase.

Generally, if a marketing company can figure out what I might like to buy and present that sort of stuff, I'm happy: it's like walking down the High Street with all the irrelevant shops replaced with interesting stuff, making a much better stroll. Since I tend not to buy stuff at random, I'm not worried about waking up at the computer after a night at the pub, only to discover I've been on a shopping spree!

When I listen to Spotify, I tend to mark songs I like. Now, my auto-generated selections tend to be pretty pleasing to my ear, as Spotify seems to take into account my feedback. I assume the advertisers want to hit a similar sweet spot of similar-but-not-the-same material.

Does anybody else think targeted advertising could be a good thing?

VRD

Slarti
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Re: Targeted advertising

#146720

Postby Slarti » June 19th, 2018, 4:23 pm

I don't think any advertising is a good thing, for me, which is why I ad-block.

1) Pages load MUCH faster
2) I can't stand random flickering flashing things, especially not ones that are noisy
3) They never advertise things that I may want
4) And most important of all, in the last 10 years I've only had 2 instances of malware, both provided by advertising


I also have Ccleaner installed which removes nearly all cookies from my machine on startup, or during a manual scan, so they can't track me that much.

Slarti

eepee
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Re: Targeted advertising

#146721

Postby eepee » June 19th, 2018, 4:34 pm

Yes I know what you mean.

You research washing machines onlne, maybe even buy one onlne then for the next three months you get ads encouraging you to buy another one!

I think the reason is that the business model used by Google, who after all, rule the ads world, is to grab what they can rather than discriminate. So if you allow targetted ads, you get the washing machines.

I personally am blind to advertising. Which is why I find it extremely intrusive when the ads move in some way. Particularly annoying is when you click on a news video, the advert runs and then the actual video hangs.

I remember about a year ago, there was an advertiser's convention. This spokesperson got herself in the news to complain that advertisers wanted the ability to switch off ads removed from browsers/helper apps!

Regards,
ep

supremetwo
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Re: Targeted advertising

#146730

Postby supremetwo » June 19th, 2018, 5:02 pm

eepee wrote:I remember about a year ago, there was an advertiser's convention. This spokesperson got herself in the news to complain that advertisers wanted the ability to switch off ads removed from browsers/helper apps!
Regards, ep

That aspect is discussed here: Chrome - Proper Adblock no More?
viewtopic.php?f=39&t=12240&p=146346#p146346

vrdiver
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Re: Targeted advertising

#146755

Postby vrdiver » June 19th, 2018, 7:57 pm

Slarti wrote:I don't think any advertising is a good thing, for me, which is why I ad-block.

I also have Ccleaner installed
Slarti

Yes. I have a hosts file (courtesy of MVPS Hosts), uBlock Origin and CCleaner, so most of my web pages run cleanly, but a few pages I want to view object to adblockers, so I have them white listed / commented out of the hosts file if needed.

As in any arms race, I'm sure the advertisers will get past the adblockers more frequently, and then we'll need another line of defence.

VRD

Slarti
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Re: Targeted advertising

#146840

Postby Slarti » June 20th, 2018, 10:01 am

vrdiver wrote:Yes. I have a hosts file (courtesy of MVPS Hosts), uBlock Origin and CCleaner, so most of my web pages run cleanly, but a few pages I want to view object to adblockers, so I have them white listed / commented out of the hosts file if needed.

As in any arms race, I'm sure the advertisers will get past the adblockers more frequently, and then we'll need another line of defence.

VRD


Any European website that objects to adblockers is breaking EU law by invading your machine to see that you have one.

I would go elsewhere for whatever they offer. Very few sites are unique

Slarti

chas49
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Re: Targeted advertising

#146843

Postby chas49 » June 20th, 2018, 10:21 am

Slarti wrote:
vrdiver wrote:Yes. I have a hosts file (courtesy of MVPS Hosts), uBlock Origin and CCleaner, so most of my web pages run cleanly, but a few pages I want to view object to adblockers, so I have them white listed / commented out of the hosts file if needed.

As in any arms race, I'm sure the advertisers will get past the adblockers more frequently, and then we'll need another line of defence.

VRD


Any European website that objects to adblockers is breaking EU law by invading your machine to see that you have one.
Slarti


Really? Can you provide a source for that please? (Genuine question not a demand for *proof*). The All4 website (Channel 4 on Demand) requires no adblockers.

Apparently a common way to detect adblockers is for the page you're loading to run a Javascript script which creates a named element within the page - using a name which Adblocker would block, and then checking if the element has been created. I'm not sure this counts as invading your machine though.

Gengulphus
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Re: Targeted advertising

#146856

Postby Gengulphus » June 20th, 2018, 11:00 am

chas49 wrote:Apparently a common way to detect adblockers is for the page you're loading to run a Javascript script which creates a named element within the page - using a name which Adblocker would block, and then checking if the element has been created. I'm not sure this counts as invading your machine though.

I'd have thought that if that counts as invading your machine, all sorts of other things advertisements do would also count as invading your machine!

Gengulphus

Slarti
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Re: Targeted advertising

#146879

Postby Slarti » June 20th, 2018, 12:13 pm

chas49 wrote:
Slarti wrote:Any European website that objects to adblockers is breaking EU law by invading your machine to see that you have one.
Slarti


Really? Can you provide a source for that please? (Genuine question not a demand for *proof*). The All4 website (Channel 4 on Demand) requires no adblockers.

Apparently a common way to detect adblockers is for the page you're loading to run a Javascript script which creates a named element within the page - using a name which Adblocker would block, and then checking if the element has been created. I'm not sure this counts as invading your machine though.


https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/04/2 ... hallenges/ and follow the link to the pictures of the letter from the EU privacy commissioner.

I've just been on All4 and had no problems re adblockers, though it would need me to install Flash to use it, which is worse, to me.

Slarti

UncleEbenezer
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Re: Targeted advertising

#146882

Postby UncleEbenezer » June 20th, 2018, 12:30 pm

That myth has been seen among comments on El Reg more recently than that.

You'll note the correspondence refers to the cookie rules. That is, persistent clientside storage of information placed by a website. The EU cookie laws have long required a user's permission for that.

The letter pictured says yes, that would also apply to an adblock detector being stored persistently clientside. As far as I know, that's a purely hypothetical question: real-life adblockers and anti-adblockers don't and can't work like that (& if they could it would look like a nasty browser bug). Though perhaps you might also interpret it as a "yes of course" to a question over storage of a cookie used by ad-flinging software.

chas49
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Re: Targeted advertising

#146886

Postby chas49 » June 20th, 2018, 12:39 pm

Slarti wrote:I've just been on All4 and had no problems re adblockers, though it would need me to install Flash to use it, which is worse, to me.

Slarti


I've just tried again. Enabled ABP for the channel4.com website, tried to play a programme.

Advert error.

We're entirely funded by adverts. You may be running an adblocker. You can see where we're going here....

See ad blocker FAQs

[Continue button]


Pressing Continue just displays the same message again with a 5sec delay on enabling the button.

If I disable blocking for the site, and press Continue, it plays.


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