It’s information we’ve already known for some time but it’s still important to have someone comb through the data and empirically confirm how these advertisers work.

I feel like personally for me this weird automated ad targeting has an opposite effect to the old school more deliberate ad placing. In addition to being creepy when Im browsing the web on a computer that doesnt have adblock, I think they also make me less likely to turn it off even if they need to because instead of an ad placement being a deliberate transaction between website and advertiser or company it’s a blank box that cycles through a database that can show anything. The result can often include malware, and outright false websites/scams.

Facebook advertisement for example is full of websites posing as a legit retailers and scamming would be clickers out of money and sometimes even stealing credit card info. And get rid of one and they build a new website the next day. The websites dont really care and the people running these ads dont care either.

I feel like the end result of this is a decrease in value of page-space and an emphais on web design that tracks it’s users and keeps you eternally on and scrolling.