The ads are a window into a blatantly illegal underground economy that Meta is not only failing to moderate, but is actively profiting from and injecting into users’ feeds.
They are personalised by the “bucket” that data collection companies like Google or Facebook placed you into based on profiling. Browsing and search history is only one of the factors that is taken into account when you are profiled, there are myriad more ways to collect data about you.
And then what ads you see is determined by what advertisers think your “bucket” wants. If you are male in your 20s living in rural USA and advertisers think that males in their 20s living in rural USA are interested in guns, then that’s what you will see - even if you never clicked on gun ad or searched for guns on Google.
Aren’t those ads personalised to your browsing history?
Should that be a reason to get adds for illegal things? … at all?
Tangently…you read one gay rights article and suddenly your ad feed is filled with hot single dads in my area…
Nice 👍
Do you have a link to the article?
They are personalised by the “bucket” that data collection companies like Google or Facebook placed you into based on profiling. Browsing and search history is only one of the factors that is taken into account when you are profiled, there are myriad more ways to collect data about you.
And then what ads you see is determined by what advertisers think your “bucket” wants. If you are male in your 20s living in rural USA and advertisers think that males in their 20s living in rural USA are interested in guns, then that’s what you will see - even if you never clicked on gun ad or searched for guns on Google.
I thought that was pretty obvious from the framing of the article but yes that is the conclusion