Althouse: "Facebook has so much data on its users, 'you could actually target a premium credit card to a businessman you know is traveling all the time'..."

April 30, 2015

"Facebook has so much data on its users, 'you could actually target a premium credit card to a businessman you know is traveling all the time'..."

"... said Bryan Wiener, chairman of 360i, a digital marketing agency that works with brands like Capital One, NBCUniversal, Spotify, Oreo and Oscar Mayer. 'That’s the kind of information that’s missing from Twitter... There’s not this rich history of your holistic life.' As a result, he said, many brands are unwilling to commit big money to Twitter ad campaigns."

From a NYT article titled "Twitter Troubles Lie in Marketers’ Reluctance to Buy New Kind of Ad."

This rich history of your holistic life... I don't know if that phrase is ludicrous or horribly disturbing. Neither... I guess... because I'm not laughing or quaking. I have a distanced amusement and vague dread. I'll put it that way.

22 comments:

rhhardin said...: You could actually target a premium credit card to a businesman you know is traveling all the time.

Or shoes to women.; 4/30/15, 10:15 AM
Lyle said...: My feelings exactly.; 4/30/15, 10:17 AM
Nonapod said...: So it turns out that most people value their desire to be recognized, acknowledged and validated far more than their desire for privacy.; 4/30/15, 10:24 AM
Jimmy said...: This rich history of your holistic life...
Translation-we know what you have for lunch,dinner,where you travel,who you know, what your politics are.
but don't worry, we would NEVER use that information to try to tell you what to think or how to act. Just fit in, or be left out.
Oh, and thanks for willingly giving us all your private information. Controlling people is so much easier when they cooperate.; 4/30/15, 10:26 AM
Etienne said...: When I joined facebook, it was based on a friend wanting me to go there.

Later, all these people from my high school of 30 years earlier wanted me to be their friend. So I let them in. Big mistake. I guess I'm not that nostalgic.

I remember asking one of them "how is your sister doing?" no reply. A few days later, "You never told me how your sister was doing?"

It's like I had to drag any information out of those fuckers, meanwhile I had to suffer four pictures a week of their fucking grand-kids.

Fuck your grand-kids! I want to see your sister...

Anyway, I'm back to coffee with my hot rod buddies and we talk about real shit, like why my welder is acting up, etc.

I recognized all those myspace, facebook, and google plus sites for what they were. A place for retards to congregate.; 4/30/15, 10:28 AM
rhhardin said...: I'm passing up this one:

The film is a powerful, touching and darkly comic story of a woman struggling to find her place in a volatile family dynamic and features an outstanding ensemble cast led by Ellen Barkin. A family weekend is fraught with emotional landmines for mercurial and sensitive Lynn as she arrives at her parents Annapolis estate for the marriage of her estranged eldest son Dylan, accompanied by her three younger children. Lynn s hopes for a joyful reunion are crushed as her wry but troubled middle son Elliot lobs verbal grenades at his mother and her relatives while daughter Alice, a fragile young woman, fights valiantly to keep her longtime demons under control. The weekend quickly unravels as Lynn demands to be heard by her aloof, disdainful mother, ailing, distant father and ever-judgmental sisters, but most especially by her ex-husband Paul and his hot-tempered second wife Patty. Confronted, oftentimes hilariously, with the deeply painful, half-buried truths that have given rise to the familys primal web of resentments and recriminations, Lynn struggles to maintain her equilibrium as her best attempts at reconciliation veer quickly off-course.

It does suggest a facebook page, though, to see what's marketed to it.; 4/30/15, 10:28 AM
rehajm said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/30/15, 10:39 AM
Kyzer SoSay said...: People who obsess over Facebook are likely dimmer than most. But I reject the characterization of the site as a place for retards to congregate.

I replaced all four struts in my Pontiac this weekend. It was a bear, first time I'd done it, and harder than I expected (for the front pair at least). I got on FB and sought out a friend who repaired cars for a living. I got some advice that I didn't find anywhere else online, and though it only worked for the driver side strut, it still helped. If I'd had other problems, he could have helped me too. FB made it easy to send a picture of my problem and converse fluidly, share links and so forth.

True, you can do this in a lot of places, but FB lets you keep your circle known and updated with anything important going on in your life. I'm not posting pics of tasty sandwiches or oil changes - I post pics of the lower half of my Infiniti's oil recovery system exposed because I'm changing out internal components and some of my friends would find interest in that.

It's a tool, like any other. This tool has addictive potential for some, but it's easy enough to rise above that.; 4/30/15, 10:42 AM
rehajm said...: You could also actually target someone who meets one or more of hundreds of criteria as a persuadable fence sitting voter. If our had the data. If.; 4/30/15, 10:43 AM
Kyzer SoSay said...: You can also use your public voice to persuade friends who "didn't care about politics" but who lived their live in a conservative manner to start caring about politics, and voting according to what they already believe. That's productive.; 4/30/15, 10:45 AM
mccullough said...: It's facebook's fault we're consumers; 4/30/15, 11:46 AM
1775OGG said...: Your point is most apt and not just for the concerns you've directly stated. Our great new technology age might turn out to be more like the brave new world of Huxley or that of Orwell.

Your statement is very much in line with what we used to say about computers back in the 1960's: "We'll be reducing the amount of paper used in business or organizations!" Bah, humbug.; 4/30/15, 12:01 PM
MPH said...: That's what my company does. We bring Facebook-level targeting to Twitter audiences.

Long time Althouse reader here.

Michael Hussey - StatSocial, CEO; 4/30/15, 12:49 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: I don't think Facebook data is that great. I'm always getting ads for things I would never want. Right now, there's an ad for a low quality homeschool program I would never use and pasta, which I almost never eat. Last week there was an ad for something, I don't know what, that had women wearing only paint. I'm not male, not attracted to women, and have no interest in body paint, so that was another bust. (Lots of busts, actually.)

Amazon knows me pretty well, depending on whether or not the last thing I bought was a typical thing.; 4/30/15, 1:03 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Now the Facebook ads just changed. One is for a phone that I am about to buy, so I guess that's on target, but it's probably a general ad that goes to everyone. The other is for an extended stay hotel, something for which I have no need.; 4/30/15, 1:05 PM
sean said...: That seems highly unlikely. Most people only post on facebook sporadically.

Also, a lot of online targeting, including facebook, seems ill-conceived. First of all, the algorithms can't tell which family member is using the computer, so when my daughter is home, I get a lot of shoe ads. Second, some of it seems ignorant of basic shopping logic. Someone who bought a book on World War II might well be interested in another book on World War II, but someone who just bought a stereo receiver is not going to be interested in more stereo receivers.; 4/30/15, 3:21 PM
richardsson said...: I had facebook in 2012. I noticed that someone within the company was altering my posts. I thought about leaving it, and when I found out all the rigamarole involved in quitting, I knew I had to quit right away. There is something rotten at the core of that company. So I quit. My experience with facebook soured me on Twitter. People seem to vent without thinking on Twitter. That and the "Carlos Danger" episode led me to believe that the people on Twitter were a few bowling pins shy of a strike. Nevertheless, the "Carlos Danger" episode proves that Twitter is useful as a means of ridding us of dimwit politicians. Although, I think I'll remain on the sidelines.; 4/30/15, 3:31 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: I am the only person who uses my computer, so, in my case, there is no identity confusion in ad targeting; it's just poor targeting.; 4/30/15, 6:08 PM
Patrick said...: I have found that Google is excellent at sending me ads for things I purchased yesterday. I have no idea how Twitter makes its money.; 4/30/15, 6:38 PM
SteveR said...: Sometimes the ads are after the fact, the spiders only know you've looked, not that you may have bought. But its inexpensive and relatively targeted so its not a bad form of advertising. YMMV; 5/1/15, 12:16 AM
Etienne said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/1/15, 2:49 AM
mikee said...: I watched my teenage son explain to my wife that those semi-pornographic "meet sexy women in your area" ads that popped up every time he logged onto his computer had nothing whatsoever to do with his web browsing habits, but were sent randomly by the evil "internet advertisers" to every teenaged boy, and that all his friends were targeted by them, too.

She nodded thoughtfully and let it slide. She is a wise woman.; 5/1/15, 10:06 AM