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mostlysignssomeportents · 7 months

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The surveillance advertising to financial fraud pipeline

Monday (October 2), I'll be in Boise to host an event with VE Schwab. On October 7–8, I'm in Milan to keynote Wired Nextfest.

Being watched sucks. Of all the parenting mistakes I've made, none haunt me more than the times my daughter caught me watching her while she was learning to do something, discovered she was being observed in a vulnerable moment, and abandoned her attempt:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2014/may/09/cybersecurity-begins-with-integrity-not-surveillance

It's hard to be your authentic self while you're under surveillance. For that reason alone, the rise and rise of the surveillance industry – an unholy public-private partnership between cops, spooks, and ad-tech scum – is a plague on humanity and a scourge on the Earth:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/16/the-second-best-time-is-now/#the-point-of-a-system-is-what-it-does

But beyond the psychic damage surveillance metes out, there are immediate, concrete ways in which surveillance brings us to harm. Ad-tech follows us into abortion clinics and then sells the info to the cops back home in the forced birth states run by Handmaid's Tale LARPers:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/29/no-i-in-uter-us/#egged-on

And even if you have the good fortune to live in a state whose motto isn't "There's no 'I" in uter-US," ad-tech also lets anti-abortion propagandists trick you into visiting fake "clinics" who defraud you into giving birth by running out the clock on terminating your pregnancy:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/15/paid-medical-disinformation/#crisis-pregnancy-centers

The commercial surveillance industry fuels SWATting, where sociopaths who don't like your internet opinions or are steamed because you beat them at Call of Duty trick the cops into thinking that there's an "active shooter" at your house, provoking the kind of American policing autoimmune reaction that can get you killed:

https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/14/us/swatting-sentence-casey-viner/index.html

There's just a lot of ways that compiling deep, nonconsensual, population-scale surveillance dossiers can bring safety and financial harm to the unwilling subjects of our experiment in digital spying. The wave of "business email compromises" (the infosec term for impersonating your boss to you and tricking you into cleaning out the company bank accounts)? They start with spear phishing, a phishing attack that uses personal information – bought from commercial sources or ganked from leaks – to craft a virtual Big Store con:

https://www.fbi.gov/how-we-can-help-you/safety-resources/scams-and-safety/common-scams-and-crimes/business-email-compromise

It's not just spear-phishers. There are plenty of financial predators who run petty grifts – stock swindles, identity theft, and other petty cons. These scams depend on commercial surveillance, both to target victims (e.g. buying Facebook ads targeting people struggling with medical debt and worried about losing their homes) and to run the con itself (by getting the information needed to pull of a successful identity theft).

In "Consumer Surveillance and Financial Fraud," a new National Bureau of Academic Research paper, a trio of business-school profs – Bo Bian (UBC), Michaela Pagel (WUSTL) and Huan Tang (Wharton) quantify the commercial surveillance industry's relationship to finance crimes:

https://www.nber.org/papers/w31692

The authors take advantage of a time-series of ZIP-code-accurate fraud complaint data from the Consumer Finance Protection Board, supplemented by complaints from the FTC, along with Apple's rollout of App Tracking Transparency, a change to app-based tracking on Apple mobile devices that turned of third-party commercial surveillance unless users explicitly opted into being spied on. More than 96% of Apple users blocked spying:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/05/96-of-us-users-opt-out-of-app-tracking-in-ios-14-5-analytics-find/

In other words, they were able to see, neighborhood by neighborhood, what happened to financial fraud when users were able to block commercial surveillance.

What happened is, fraud plunged. Deprived of the raw material for committing fraud, criminals were substantially hampered in their ability to steal from internet users.

While this is something that security professionals have understood for years, this study puts some empirical spine into the large corpus of qualitative accounts of the surveillance-to-fraud pipeline.

As the authors note in their conclusion, this analysis is timely. Google has just rolled out a new surveillance system, the deceptively named "Privacy Sandbox," that every Chrome user is being opted in to unless they find and untick three separate preference tickboxes. You should find and untick these boxes:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/09/how-turn-googles-privacy-sandbox-ad-tracking-and-why-you-should

Google has spun, lied and bullied Privacy Sandbox into existence; whenever this program draws enough fire, they rename it (it used to be called FLoC). But as the Apple example showed, no one wants to be spied on – that's why Google makes you find and untick three boxes to opt out of this new form of surveillance.

There is no consensual basis for mass commercial surveillance. The story that "people don't mind ads so long as they're relevant" is a lie. But even if it was true, it wouldn't be enough, because beyond the harms to being our authentic selves that come from the knowledge that we're being observed, surveillance data is a crucial ingredient for all kinds of crime, harassment, and deception.

We can't rely on companies to spy on us responsibly. Apple may have blocked third-party app spying, but they effect nonconsensual, continuous surveillance of every Apple mobile device user, and lie about it:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/14/luxury-surveillance/#liar-liar

That's why we should ban commercial surveillance. We should outlaw surveillance advertising. Period:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/03/ban-online-behavioral-advertising

Contrary to the claims of surveillance profiteers, this wouldn't reduce the income to ad-supported news and other media – it would increase their revenues, by letting them place ads without relying on the surveillance troves assembled by the Google/Meta ad-tech duopoly, who take the majority of ad-revenue:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/05/save-news-we-must-ban-surveillance-advertising

We're 30 years into the commercial surveillance pandemic and Congress still hasn't passed a federal privacy law with a private right of action. But other agencies aren't waiting for Congress. The FTC and DoJ Antitrust Divsision have proposed new merger guidelines that allow regulators to consider privacy harms when companies merge:

https://www.regulations.gov/comment/FTC-2023-0043-1569

Think here of how Google devoured Fitbit and claimed massive troves of extremely personal data, much of which was collected because employers required workers to wear biometric trackers to get the best deal on health care:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/04/google-fitbit-merger-would-cement-googles-data-empire

Companies can't be trusted to collect, retain or use our personal data wisely. The right "balance" here is to simply ban that collection, without an explicit opt-in. The way this should work is that companies can't collect private data unless users hunt down and untick three "don't spy on me" boxes. After all, that's the standard that Google has set.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/29/ban-surveillance-ads/#sucker-funnel

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

#pluralistic #commercial surveillance #surveillance #surveillance advertising #ad-tech #behavioral advertising #ads #privacy #fraud #targeting #ad targeting #scams #scholarship #nber #merger guidelines #ftc #doj

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marketingtechblogs · 5 months

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Benefits of Contextual Advertising for Businesses

Contextual advertising is an intelligent approach that matches ads to the web page's content where they appear. The main aim of contextual advertising is to enhance the user experience by displaying ads more pertinent to the user's interests.

Powered by artificial intelligence (AI), contextual ads can precisely target internet users with content that aligns with the host website's subject matter. As third-party cookies are being phased out, contextual advertising will become increasingly important in the coming years.

In fact, according to the report by Statista, global contextual ad spending is projected to grow by an impressive 13.8% annually between 2022 and 2030.

Contextual advertising remains a relevant and effective method of reaching potential customers. It allows you to connect with people in a meaningful way by displaying ads that are relevant to their interests and browsing behavior.

This approach is more likely to resonate with viewers as it doesn't rely on their data. Combining contextual relevance and positive brand association can increase the likelihood of converting ads into sales.

#behavioral advertising #Contextual advertising #contextual advertising benefits

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projectcatzo · 8 days

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Those people in Abigail should've realized something was wrong with that girl the minute she, without hesitation, jumped on her bed with her shoes on

#abigail movie #movies #IMMEDIATE red flag behavior she's practically advertising that she's a monster those dirty fucking sneakers on that nice-ass bed please

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tibli · 6 months

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say what you want, but the single most fatefully-intertwined characters in homestuck are dirk and caliborn

#homestuck #dirk strider #caliborn #dirkuu #yeah im fucking tagging it that what about it #anyway they would find each other in any universe #whether that be the lil cal puppet likely being responsible for bro's batshit behavior #dirk and caliborn's whole Thing in the alpha universe #or the fact that j*ke (censoring so this doesnt show up in his tag)#the one dirk has a crush on #is like a walking lord english advertisement #i would also venture to say that ult!dirk's fight with alt!calliope for narrative control #smacks of this in a way. bc she would still contain traces of caliborn since they share a body

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cosmicjoke · 27 days

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See, this is what I mean when I talk about the shitbags in the Saezuru fandom blaming Yashiro for having trauma. What a disgusting bunch of pigs these people are. Completely missing the entire point of the story they claim to be fans of. I’ve got some advice for these assholes. Maybe don’t read a story intended to engender empathy for victims of abuse if you’re incapable of empathy to begin with. You’ll just be wasting your time. Fucking sociopaths.

#saezuru tori wa habatakanai #twittering birds never fly #Yashiro #disgusting behavior #and these people actually advertise it like they’re proud of how shitty they are #sociopath is right

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greatmotivation · 12 days

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You are the architect of your destiny, sculpting a masterpiece with each decision you make. Embrace the power within you to create the life you desire. With passion as your compass and perseverance as your guide, every obstacle becomes a stepping stone to your success. Keep pushing forward with unwavering belief.

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clintbartoncore · 7 months

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I’m starting a rumor that Clint originally gave Coulson a chance as his handler because he was the first senior officer he got assigned to who was also queer. Clint wasn’t being recalcitrant when he was acting like a rebellious little shit for all his other handlers, he was being heterophobic.

#jokes on Clint though because he wouldn’t have fallen in love with any of his straight handlers #.txt #in this scenario in my mind Coulson is gay and Clint has been a freewheeling bisexual since before he realized that #not all people were attracted to other kinds of people than the opposite sex #he had no awareness of homophobia bc nobody took the time to teach it to him :(#the group home was like one of those mythical boarding schools where puppy piles were a regular thing #At first his behavior strikes Phil as macho posturing and so Phil puts his sexuality front and center ('Barton most people #don’t care enough to know this and I don’t tend to advertise it but I’m gay. Tell me now if that’s going to be a problem for you.’)#thinking that it will get Clint off his hands and stop Phil from having to deal with his misbehavior #jokes on Phil though because Clint just gets excited and doubles down. ('Hey! another queer person in this stodgy gvt org!')#Also in my heart of hearts I believe that SHIELD is predominantly a place for weirdos and outcasts for one reason or another so #it’s chock full of queer people. but in this scenario I like the idea of it being 50/50 paramilitary (and therefore v straitlaced and #heteronormative) and half discreet queer people with their own established in-organization subculture #obviously Phil introduces Clint to the rest of the subculture. he starts with just a few people who are okay with being outed until he’s #sure that Clint isn’t pranking him #clintcoulson #phlint #the joke is on both of them actually for thinking that homophobia in any direction could shield them from anything at all

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pseudospectre · 9 months

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I thought Tumblr would love to know that the Ronald Reagan monument in Branson is basically just an empty lot now except for the bust up on a pallet, and is currently being used to advertise the Slime Factory next door.

#ronald reagan's grave is a gender neutral bathroom #and now also a slime factory billboard #a+ advertising behavior from the slime staff honestly

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babycharmander · 11 months

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Once again, for anyone who is new here: GIVE YOURSELF AN ICON, A BLOG TITLE, AND A BLOG DESC, AND ACTUALLY MAKE POSTS. If you have a blank blog and just go around following random people and liking random posts, you will be assumed to be a spambot and get blocked. If you want to actually enjoy the website, you need to actually USE the website in some way that does not emulate spambot behavior.

This is not Twitter and this is not Reddit. This is Tumblr. If you do not want to be assumed to be a spambot, do not act like one.

#some nonsense #a blank account just spam-liked just about every single post on my artblog #which has happened before! and guess what?#those turned out to be SPAMBOTS who later used their blogs to advertise games and products!!#mass-liking and following with NO OTHER INTERACTION is spambot behavior #do not act like a spambot

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anonymousad · 9 months

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are you aware of malevolent or the fandom at all? i stopped following harlan a while ago bc the way he interacted with fans gave me the ick and i forgot about it for a while but. now i'm seeing *dozens* of comments from people who say he treats his fans like shit on the official discord and like. i guess im just wondering if you or anyone else has some insight on this? it just sucks bc the fandom is really getting huge and it seems like harlan is really parasocially involved in it and i feel like i can't even post about it on my own blog bc i'm worried about the reaction.

I am definitely aware of Malevolent and Harlan, at this point I would be surprised to meet someone who isn't at least a little.

this however is new to me as someone who only has interacted in passing and only engaged with his content the way I would most audio dramas I listen to. which is to say I've listened to some and chatted offhand with others.

I haven't seen very much from the discord, but I think I like a lot of people only frequent a few servers and mostly ignore the rest so that stuff wouldn't ever cross my path unless it affected someone I know personally.

that isn't to say it isn't happening, and honestly I would be interested to dig into it more because a lot of content creators and their communities have collapsed from this type of behavior (maybe not in our space, but plenty on YouTube and Twitch and beyond).

there is definitely an important conversation to be had around the parasocial relationships that our community fosters, every creator is MUCH more accessible than any other type of media I have experienced. and while that can be a good thing it can also be a really really bad thing, especially if someone with power abuses it.

I know that Malevolent and Harlan's other projects do have quite a following and it keeps growing, so this is genuinely concerning to hear and I personally want to take it very seriously if it is happening.

if anyone has stories that they want to tell in an anonymous forum, they are welcome to send them and I will put it out there.

we can also just as a group try to start a larger conversation about the ways that creator accessibility might be dangerous (for BOTH sides) and how we can think about putting safety rails in place to make sure that things cannot get out of hand.

#anonymous ad #parasocial relationships #parasocial behavior #I would like to say that I personally am not the type of person who would advertise to fans such life events as having a baby #that level of intimacy and sharing my personal life does make me a bit uncomfortable and puts me on edge #especially given how readily accessible he is in comparison to other types of content creators who have a more obvious barrier #discord has definitely facilitated a little too much access in my opinion #which is great at small levels where we can network and bond #but really dangerous when someone starts to become a tent pole in a community

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mattodore · 1 year

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so posts have reactions now...?

#river dipping #is this why tumblr's been soooo weird with replies and the activity feed? they were adding this?#i'm not mad abt it i'm just like... okay facebook behavior #like sjfnkdjnh okay! tiktok lives facebook reactions instagram advertising and product pushing twitter checkmarks #what's next........... are ppl gonna be able to give little medals to posts that're funny to them à la reddit

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applejongho · 2 months

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SHHSHHSHS ANNIE WE DONT TALK ABT WHATS HAPPENING ON THE ALBUM HIGHLIGHT DAY

but also 🪇 turn your sadness into power with ✨ arriba ✨🪇 cant see into the future? ✨ arriba! ✨ performing better than your boss? ✨ arriba! ✨ quarter life crisis? ✨ arriba! ✨ ahahahaha 🪇 ahahahaha 🪇 🫴 live laugh arriba! 🫴🪇

miss 3/4 time signature song truly is the queen. The best. I'm also afraid of the power that u when thinking about arriba and me thinking about guerrilla would do to the world economy or perhaps the stock market

#reading your ask again i feel like I'm being advertised. this is bot behavior ann. the power of arriba. i support it #ann 🌶️

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cozmicdog · 5 months

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so trans women cant post basic pictures of themselves without being taken down for "lewd content" but this shit can be advertised to me? tumblr is such a shithole

#the fetishization of trans and esp transfem bodies is so fucking disgusting to me and im sick of seeing this shit advertised #but trans bodies censored #and ik its bc staff are transphobic but still. theyd really rather have this shit than a slightly suggestive photo of a woman #?#weird behavior #tumblr ads

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daddymymouthisfullofstars · 10 months

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just saw a big fuck off truck with the plate LND LRD

#like why you advertising that shit bro #clown behavior

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isdalinarhot · 10 months

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have i ever made a post about dalinar nipples. well i should do that. dalinar nipples. sucking on those thangs like its going out of style. and he loves it. i just know he loves it

#perhaps i should reblog dalinar big naturals a couple dozen times #luke.txt #drunkposting #i know i just made a post advertising that you can send me money so i should be on my best posting behavior but like.its important.#dalinar nipz are important!!!!!!!!!!

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greatmotivation · 12 days

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Today, choose to fuel your spirit with positivity. Your journey is a testament to your resilience and strength. Embrace challenges as opportunities for growth, and let your passion drive you forward. With perseverance and belief in yourself, you can achieve anything you set your mind to.

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