can phones read your mind? On more than one occasion an ad or something on my phone has aligned with a previous thoughts I’ve had. Explain?
In: Technology
Online companies track *everything*. Even if you didn’t explicitly search for something, AI can learn that an ad is a good fit for someone with certain behaviors. Target famously sent a girl coupons for baby products before she herself knew she was pregnant just based on her recent purchases.
It’s called [Confirmation Bias](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias). You don’t even think about the thousands and thousands of times that you’ve seen stuff on your phone that had nothing to do with anything you’ve been thinking about. But when there’s a random match-up, you’re amazed.
Plus there are targeted ads. Stuff that you’ve been browsing on your phone or similar to stuff you’ve been browsing is going to show up. Because they are spying on you, for real.
My wife is a data analyst in advertising. This is literally her job and profession.
First, your life is is awash in spyware. It’s literally hopeless, you can’t interact with technology and not get tracked. Your phone is reporting your location to your service provider and a host of other participants. They know where you are at all times. Even if you have tracking turned off (because that setting only applies to certain 3rd party apps). They know if you’re near a McDonalds and start showing you ads because it’s either on your route, if you’re using directions, or on your deduced route, because you drive around here frequently enough. They know if you go inside or through the drive-through.
So the thing is you’ve done something that keys off the advertisers data model. And their data model, about you, is so well trained that it can accurately predict what you’re thinking and when. And you trained it, unknowingly, with every interaction with technology you do.
Ever wonder how you can sit down at a brand new computer, one you’ve never touched before, one you haven’t logged into any of your sites or email before, and in a few minutes, you start seeing the same old advertising you always do? That’s because advertisers are tracking upwards of 150 data points on any given computer. They need only 15 to differentiate you from anyone else. Incognito mode? Doesn’t matter.
You would be terrified to know how much they can CORRECTLY deduce about you from astonishingly little information, never mind if they do a data scrape for you. They can determine age, race, gender, habits, health, political alignment, etc. I’m not exaggerating, this isn’t fake, this stuff really happens. You can imagine how paranoid my wife is.
To give an example, Target correctly deduced a teenage girl was pregnant, after she found out, before she ever told anyone, based on her tracked behavior. They began sending her ads for baby products. The father was furious with Target until she admitted her pregnancy. That’s how the family found out. It’s a famous case.
So there it is, Bob’s your uncle. Either you did something to key off an advertiser, or you trained the advertisers data model about you so well it accurately predicts what you’re thinking. Now honestly, this isn’t mind reading power, it doesn’t know what you’re thinking before you do, but the thing you’re seeing advertising for is something you not only think about, but act on. Either you’re in the market for a washing machine, or you looked up how to fix your washing machine, or you just bought a house, and now you’re seeing ads for washing machines. For example.
Latest Answers