I think I am being targeted online.
Every time I check the New York Times, I confront an advertisement for animal rights. There are two rotating ads–one with a bear whose teeth have been ripped out and is attacked by vicious dogs for the excitement of the people who put bets on which animals will win. The other ad is of an emaciated dog tethered to a short chain.
The first time I saw this ad, I donated some money. Now it seems like all I ever see are these disturbing ads and they really make me queasy. I asked Billy and Josh to do a “New York Times advertisement test” and neither of the two get these ads on their NYT (strangely, they get credit score ads…got financial troubles, fellas?).
Am I being targeted for specific ads?
I know that Google has targeted ads based on words that appear in your google searches or in emails in gmail. I wonder if the NYTs has caught on to this strategy, too.
If it is true that I am somehow being targeted for ads based on my spending habits (donating) or any other source of information, I am extremely irritated by this. For me, these ads and seeing animals being tortured is incredibly disturbing. To illustrate, I once was out with Brenda in Vienna and we walked past an animal torture movie. I had to run down the street with my ears plugged because it hurts me emotionally to see and hear this sort of thing. She mentioned that she did not know how much that actually disturbed me before.
Is it right that these advertisers get to constantly throw items of pain in my face? Can we extrapolate what it means for me to see tortured animals to something other people are strongly concerned about…say…abortion? Would it be right to constantly bombard a pro-life person with grusome photos of abortions?
Do you think it is okay to have such targeted ads online? How are the advertising companies getting their information to target me in the first place? Does anyone know how targeting ads work and how I can guard against them? Is deleting my “cookies” good enough?
Comment by Joshua on 25 January 2009 at 8:23 pm:
Are you logged in? I wasn’t logged in.
Comment by John Bambenek on 26 January 2009 at 8:55 am:
Use AdBlock / AdBlock Pro. Web advertisers are trash. But Google does know everything about you and will target ads accordingly.
Comment by Billy Joe Mills on 27 January 2009 at 2:41 am:
Welcome my son, to the machine.