| > A cashier at the corner store can deduce as much by paying attention to their customers. Yes, you've just explained why people may go to a different store, where they are a stranger, when they want to buy something they don't want the local cashier to know about. The classic example is a 16 year old who buys condoms at a store where no one is likely to recognize him, but others include buying adult diapers, buying a single plunger, and buying hard liquor. The cashier at the new store might figure out what's going on, but does not know who "you" are. Which is why the example you quoted is called contextual marketing - it's based on a very small context of the things you are currently buying. That link, however, expands beyond that to user profiling with 'So Target started sending coupons for baby items to customers according to their pregnancy scores'. > targeted ads are actually a lot less annoying to most people because they're relevant. "Targeted ads' includes targeted based on context advertising and targeted based on user profiling. The g'g'parent comment was specifically about advertising 'without personal information', which is only one type of targeted ads. Please do not use language which confuses the two as it makes it seem like you don't understand the relevant issues. |