[prepend]

> And yet, the ads have never been anywhere close to relevant to me, or my interests, or my purchases or plans or needs at all.

They’re not trying to do that. They are working to maximize revenue.

I think it’s a myth that their goal is “personalized ads” as that wouldn’t make them money. They make much more money off thousands of impressions with 4% conversion than dozens with 90% conversion.

These dark patterns don’t show lack of knowledge. They just demonstrate that they don’t care and know they will eventually grind you down if they keep asking “do you want fries with that” even though they know you hate fries and are on a diet.

[ravenstine]

The point of advertising is to convince you to buy things regardless if you actually need them. Why try to get people to only buy things they already think they need or want? Personalized ads have always been the Trojan horse for data mining.