They collect our personal data so they can show contents relevant to us, so you remember "Oh right, I need to get that!" And then we have people who don't like them, another portion just didn't care about it that much.

So why is that? What is your thought about it?

Personalized content is not inherently bad. That said, it is conducive to creating personal little echo chambers that can polarize folks. I think the biggest issue is the abuse of data collected purportedly for the sake of convenience/personalization.

I think personalized content is fine, in the sense that an algorithm takes what you consume most of, assumes this is what you like, and gives you more content relevant to it, much like what the YouTube algorithm does. What I find creepy is the amount of ads I get for something that I didn't search for on my device, yet is still eerily relevant to a conversation I had moments prior...

How about not searching or talking and still get personalized ads just for thinking of something like they know when you think of things and push things at those times and things you might have forgotten but information collected together and trends and when those trends were relevant making you wonder how they got in your head things from a year or over ect XD

I would say where personalized content becomes dangerous is the TikTok argument. So, for the unaware, there are actually two TikTok applications: the "China only" application and the international one which most of you are using. Both are operated by the same company (Bytedance) yet produce very different results according to researchers who have examined the app.

This idea that we flock to things that disengage us while affirming our world view without challenging us sets a dangerous precedent. It reinforces the "dunning-kruger effect" wherein we know a lot of things but very little about any one of them, leading us to make really stupid assumptions about the world we live in.

As to how that information is curated to begin with, it's been a known fact that everything you do is timestamped and geolocated - even if you aren't signed into any particular service. The reason for this is because you are not alone when you browse. Your workstation or terminal has its own ID (as in, its IP address), so as your workstation accesses websites, it has to ping multiple third-party servers to do so. This creates a digital trail and is why VPNs became popular. (That's its own complex topic that I refuse to go into.)

The bottom line: Personalized targeting should be an assistive tool, but it shouldn't be used to run your life.

Okay, that link apparently didn't work...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0j0xzuh-6rY

Hey MKOLLER! Long time, no see! I don't have anything to add to this convo, but I didn't want to make a whole thread just to say hi.