Does Personalised Advertising Even Bother You?

I’ve got a question about advertising. Especially personalised advertising.

Does it even bother you?

If you’ve been following me for a while you’ll know I’m not a big fan of how technology companies have reshaped the way we all create, consume, share and discuss information about the world around us.

This is, in large part, through the design of products and platforms designed to hold our attention by making us emotional and converting that attention into revenue, by using all the data they acquire in order to sell personalised or targeted adverts. (Like newspapers used to do!)

Some people find the nature of advertising problematic. It’s too manipulative, contains false narratives and contributes to sustaining corporate practices that are not good for people and the planet.

When these adverts are combined with insane amounts of data about our individual behaviours, preferences and relationships this causes a whole new level of outrage. So much so that some people think targeted advertising is THE problem.

I don’t share that outrage. In fact I’m quite happy to see adverts that are tailored to me.

My suspicion is that most people feel the same.

They aren’t really bothered by adverts.

Maybe they quite like them. Sure, that feeling that your phone is listening is spooky but hey, ho.

Don’t get me wrong.

There are a lot of reasons to be concerned about tech power over 'the public sphere'.

We used to have proper regulation of publishers that most people looked to for news. Now in the places most people look for news there's very little regulation.
This is bad for competitive capitalism, it’s bad for democracy, it’s bad for our children and it’s bad for protecting each of our basic rights as humans.

AI will take all this to another level.

I think if most people understood the amount of data technology companies are able to access about us - and especially the amount of power that gives them when it is aggregated - then that would concern them.

These companies know if we’re having mental health challenges, expecting children, having an affair, considering a divorce, developing a chronic illness or grieving a loss.

I think if we stop and think about how much information power we are giving away when we let AI tools access our inboxes, shared drives, photos and archives then that might scare people.

Our personal inboxes and our phones contain our digital life stories. An all seeing, internal company AI can see every salary negotiation, disciplinary action and Slack message dissing the boss.

Perhaps understanding advertising models is the way to get this bigger picture across but I’m not convinced.

Am I right?