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Re:The Fantasy of Opting Out by sandworm101 on Thursday February 18, 2021 @11:58AM (#26182299)
>> of course Amazon is going to keep that and use it to personalize my results. Frankly that's part of their value add

You think it is value add because you assume they are using the data to send you more relevant content. That's just not how data is always used. A google customer (eg an advertiser) might want to hit you with deliberately non-relevant ads, ads to divert you away from a competitor product. You might want to book a trip to visit family in Hawaii, but the Florida resort advertiser doesn't much care what you want actually. They will hit you with Florida ads in hopes that they can divert a potential traveler to a different destination. You will miss out on relevant Hawaii content simply because Florida has paid more to put content in front of you.

Re:The Fantasy of Opting Out by zeta0134 on Thursday February 18, 2021 @12:35PM (#26182851)
Don't misunderstand: this is a bad advertising practice. I don't like most advertising, relevant or otherwise, so if this happens as you describe then yes, the value add is negative. That doesn't make the data usage surprising though, and that was my point. It's okay if Amazon uses data I entered into search directly to advertise to me, even if they're not very good at it. Ethically, no line was crossed here.

What would be surprising (to most consumers) is if the Florida resort advertiser, instead of bidding on some broad target demographic, has access to enough data to target me individually. However that comes about, that is the line that is crossed. Why does the third party have direct(ish) access to this data? Why wasn't I informed? Etc. Whether that is direct sale of the data, or indirect targeting through unusually specific ad campaign targeting, the effect is the same: it's creepy.

Re:The Fantasy of Opting Out by gumby on Thursday February 18, 2021 @04:39PM (#26186015)
Also they can use this to change the price they offer you