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by hakfoo 1830 days ago
I'd posit that the biggest risk for advertisers is "plausible bullshit". Their ability to say "look at our huge tracking profiles" is dependent on both quantity and quality of data. If ad networks can't accurately sanitize their data, advertisers are going to balk at spending $6 per click for misprofiled audiences, when they can spray-and-pray "good enough" contextual ads for 30 cents a click.

Give me a VPN that regularly geolocates me at a Starbucks 30km out of town. Give me plugins that stuff my search history with a fixation on the Cincinnati Bengals and replacement parts for a 2013 Hyundai Accent. Yeah, they might see my actual traffic patterns, but the goal is to make it expensive and hard to filter the real use from the elaborate story.