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A question that I haven't found a conclusive answer to:With digital transmission, are cable television companies able to substitute ads on demand by side loading on set-tops using the internet, or are they still subject to mixing in adverts for particular distribution regions?

Are people being listened to by their phones?https://t.co/t3qXxzrtfQ

Or are people being conditioned to think about products so well that we think we thought of it randomly, and seeing ads for it is actually a reverse of cause and effect?https://t.co/KdpSWgPtZG

My suspicion is that if we are being listened to, any such targeting data is being filtered through a realtime network of insight generation and ad-targeting re-sellers.I don't think any of the big names would listen in to our conversations so overtly.

But they do contribute to a world-wide network of ad targeting data.Stuff like Credit card purchasing habits, which are easy to harvesthttps://t.co/uvKuhZwhpIAnd frankly, old news.https://t.co/mlnSQGqZQ9

Many of these ad-tracking systems are often repurposed and rebundled as user tracking for law enforcement.https://t.co/7OWLfMYv41But what's more fascinating is that big name chains have been using cellphone tracking as part of theri analytics for ages.https://t.co/Mr5hwXg8LI

Using a network of audio devices around the store, tied to deep learning systems to infer statistics about people in the store? Of course they are.https://t.co/WQAOL0LCpJIn fact, this is also old news.https://t.co/kiWlFTIz86

To me stuff like GDPR is a joke. It doesn't go far enough. So what if they can't track you on a website if they can just correlate telemetry metadata? At best this stuff coming out of the E.U. is a sort of security theater.https://t.co/aBx2ZfvyKd https://t.co/pnR89wR7l2


Wooo, you are notified if a site uses cookies? Easy to circumvent afaict.https://t.co/NIYrbwRGLB

WARNING: This website may contain a mechanism known to the E.U. to facilitate tracking, or birth defects or other reproductive harm. https://t.co/eRzmyTamI0

If all of this is really a sort of ecosystem effect, we are going to need better tools to deal with this stuff. Even in fields where I'd expect to have them, don't.We're flying blind.https://t.co/F0tw6HHwcc https://t.co/YUBiuLtsJg


The zeitgiest of all of this can be seen in the "coffee shop gives free coffee for your personal data" story that is spreading like wildfire.1) sentiments expressed in this article and2) how quickly this is spreading among auxiliary channels.https://t.co/DH7Sxumtr8 https://t.co/2C48fPqD35


I think about this almost daily. How so much of this is putting people in a sort of mental state of learned helplessness. For every person who has the skillset to deal with this are newbies with a cellphone unable to do anything about it.https://t.co/LTBGT86HpL

On a personal level, I can at least talk about this stuff with my mom - she knows a 'cookie' is on some level even if actual mechanism behind them eludes her. I have no idea how to describe to my dad why I deleted my Facebook. Both regularly confuse apps with the browser version.

I've been in tech support roles long enough to know that these sorts of things are NOT just a generational divide. Its more like a difference between those who know how to change an oil filter and someone who has to call AAA to get someone to change their tire.

I'm not the only one seeing this trend. This article is talking about the same sort of phenomena (even down to the car repair analogy) way back in 2013.I use car analogy because my uncle runs a car repair shop, and my mum knows how to change her own oil.https://t.co/qGOSfEgYzP https://t.co/OZuAvQfakR


"FreeWheel, A Comcast Company, empowers all segments of The New TV Ecosystem. We are structured to provide the full breadth of solutions the advertising industry needs to achieve their goals." 🤔https://t.co/5m1eTNz6IY

"By creating unique destinations for brands within the X1 experience, Effectv’s advertisers will have the ability to reach millions of TV viewers across the U.S. with video and brand content."https://t.co/LQ167tjBUX

"Learn how Xfinity is working hard to protect your privacy and keep your information secure. ... Manage and control your data." https://t.co/ql9kuWxOSKhttps://t.co/21TacmqOvj

"IoT vulnerabilities turned the remote into a listening device, researchers found, which impacted 18 million Xfinity customers."https://t.co/6YR8f5O19Chttps://t.co/ZtfOvGcI7e

No major ad driven company sells your data. They don't make money selling your data. They make money acting as a gatekeeper.This is why they can say "we don't sell your data" with a straight face. They surveil you, and then sell *access* to you.https://t.co/mfWOKRLBuM

Apple isn't killing advertising, Apple is positioning themselves as a middleman between you and the advertisers by using the current zeitgeist as an excuse to lock down their customers data so that they can be the ones making money off of ads being shown to you.

"While several ISPs in our study tell consumers they will not sell their data, they fail to reveal to consumers the myriad of ways that their data can be used, transferred, or monetized outside of selling it, often burying [it] in the fine print"https://t.co/1Qy7dfYY50

"The findings are striking, and the staff report is worth reading in full. In short, internet service providers are surveilling users across a broad swath of activities, enabling hyper-granular targeting in the serving of ads and other services." https://t.co/lXAeWj6fRQ

"Already in 10 million homes across the country, customers in the Hershey area have begun seeing commercials featuring pop-up screens that allow them to click their remotes to get coupons." [2010]https://t.co/sqyc42uL4y

"It’s a big step forward from the days of relying solely on ratings to evaluate the success of a campaign. Now advertisers can understand, day by day, how a specific offer is resonating with their target audience and make adjustments along the way." https://t.co/O6jVaPoCQq

I remember when comcast was just rolling this out - having grown up on dish at my dad's and Adelphia at my moms https://t.co/L1CeeFLERx

Adelphia was sold to comcast in 2006 after the founder committed fraud and tanked the company.https://t.co/tdlt5yr75h