[kalleboo]

I would have loved to get properly targeted ads, but even with all of Google and Facebook's data, my ads are all complete and utter crap. Right now Facebook is showing me ads in Thai language selling me a visa to visit Japan as a tourist. I don't speak Thai and I already live in Japan. Facebook knows this. Why am I getting these horrible ads?

The online ad business is just complete and utter bullshit. They have all this data and have utterly failed at using even the most basic data points ("where does he live?" "what language does he speak?"). And all they can think of is "hmm probably need more data"

[zaarn]

I think the most basic and simple solution is to target ads not on the user but on the webpage and it's contents.

If the webpage is written in french (or visible as such) that reviews computer hardware, pick hardware ads first and if available in french. That is IMO a reasonable assumption to make and I don't believe that a lot of users will be mistargeted that hard.

Bigger publishers like newspapers could run ads depending on section, ie the politics section shows political ads and the weather section shows a raincoat ad.

The only downside I see is that localized ads don't work as well (ie, "local restaurant has cheap burgers" and "99+ women in <your area> want to talk to you on tinder!!!!"). Such places could put their ads on relevant pages though, ie the internet page of a local newspaper or the local communities' internet presence.