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A comment on Only 17% of consumers believe personalized ads are ethical, survey says (2019). Parent comment

Re:Only 17% of consumers believe personalized ads are ethica... by everdrive on Monday November 16, 2020 @06:49AM (#25110598)
I wonder (and really have no proof of this one way or another) whether this actually is successful a good bit of the time. HN readers are generally pretty thoughtful with their purchases, but maybe a lot of Amazon customers really will buy two vacuums? Maybe they see there’s a nicer one, and just can’t help themselves?
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Re:Only 17% of consumers believe personalized ads are ethica... by imglorp on Monday November 16, 2020 @07:08AM (#25110702)
From these examples we should conclude it works sometimes for emotional or artistic items subject to impulse buys, because Amazon sells billions and knows their business, but maybe not for utility items.

The problem is, it's hard to distinguish for an algorithm. Vacuums no, but tools or kitchen gadgets, maybe

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Re:Only 17% of consumers believe personalized ads are ethica... by hiq on Monday November 16, 2020 @07:11AM (#25110714)
Exactly. Moreover, the ad about the second vacuum cleaner only has to be more effective than whatever random ad distribution was used previously, which would be a rather low bar.
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