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such that many businesses are no longer viable because customer acquisition costs are too high
Speaking as a person who’ve bought most of my products via articles written about the product, this seems both right and appropriate. If you can tell 50 people about your business and it’s not compelling enough for them, on their own, to go and tell 50 more then 50 more, and so on... if you DEPEND on personalized advertising... then could be it’s not a viable business. Additionally, if your “market” consists solely of “Folks who visit Facebook” then there’s a very large number of folks that’s not seeing your message.

It puts me in the mind of folks that KNOW they have an amazing app, and they can’t figure out why it gets lots in the weeds with all the other apps.

I guess I’m thinking... does targeted advertising allow businesses that shouldn’t exist to exist?
 
I've never understood "personalized advertising". It seems like they always show one of the following 1) something I was just looking at and already purchased, 2) something I was looking at for someone else but not interested in it for myself, or 3) something I've already determined I don't want. How about just showing me something random that I've never seen before and might not know about...you know, like the good ol' days on TV.
I am not supporting a lack of privacy. Just getting that out of the way. But the reason why they don't want to show you something random is because they have a decade of data showing it is more effective to do personalized advertising. Are the specific examples you listed above working for you? No. But that doesn't mean personalized advertising doesn't work.

I am actually VERY much in favor of personalized advertising. I believe it would benefit me like specifying my music tastes to Spotify or Apple Music. I have little enough time in my day and anything that can adapt itself more to my brain, the less time I waste engaging irrelevant things. If I am looking for "new", I would rather have that be an intentional choice to engage in things that are outside of my preferences.

However, I want to be in control of what information gets put into their systems. Taking information about me subversively is what I believe is the problem. If I purchase something it would be great to get a dialogue asking if it can be added to the system. If I visit a webpage, it would be great if I was asked if it could be added to the system.

I don't believe Facebook started out thinking they were going to turn into this massive info collecting engine that will threaten privacy to its core. But somewhere along the way they must have fed themselves enough lies to make the company they are today in 2021 somehow ok in their minds. Given that level of self justification it is really scary to think about all the things they are already or might allow to happen.
 
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Alright, that’s it I’m getting rid of the final bit of FB I was holding on to for this one. Bye bye Insta! Suckerberg go away!
I deleted FB ... I deleted my IG .... it felt weird at first and then so liberating!!! WhatsApp is my final Zuck product(just waiting for stubborn friends to leave it too)
 
I am not supporting a lack of privacy. Just getting that out of the way. But the reason why they don't want to show you something random is because they have a decade of data showing it is more effective to do personalized advertising. Are the specific examples you listed above working for you? No. But that doesn't mean personalized advertising doesn't work.

I am actually VERY much in favor of personalized advertising. I believe it would benefit me like specifying my music tastes to Spotify or Apple Music. I have little enough time in my day and anything that can adapt itself more to my brain, the less time I waste engaging irrelevant things. If I am looking for "new", I would rather have that be an intentional choice to engage in things that are outside of my preferences.

However, I want to be in control of what information gets put into their systems. Taking information about me subversively is what I believe is the problem. If I purchase something it would be great to get a dialogue asking if it can be added to the system. If I visit a webpage, it would be great if I was asked if it could be added to the system.

I don't believe Facebook started out thinking they were going to turn into this massive info collecting engine that will threaten privacy to its core. But somewhere along the way they must have fed themselves enough lies to make the company they are today in 2021 somehow ok in their minds. Given that level of self justification it is really scary to think about all the things they are already or might allow to happen.
well said. Ask for our data --- some will and some won't. Just stop the crying FB... I already get enough of that with my new born.
 
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This is really the best this billion dollar company can come up with? I mean their NYT ads were absolutely desperate but this is just so pathetic.
 
I would be excited if there were NO ads.
Or, as others pointed out, I was paid for watching ads. At least this would make me reconsider not blocking ads on my network gear.
 
I dont want tracked. I dont want "personalized" ads. I want that choice, Zuck, you robot nerd.
 
they have a decade of data showing it is more effective to do personalized advertising.
I think the effectivity of personalized advertising just never ran up against needed resistance. There’s LOTS of things that are WAY more effective than the way that certain industries (military, medicine, etc.) have settled upon doing them. Maybe this is the opportunity for the advertising industry to say that, even though it may be more effective, we’re not doing it anymore.
 
The world, and small businesses, did just fine before this privacy invasive tracking was made available by internet data aggregators and marketers. Sure, there has always been some sort of targeted advertising but it was far more generic and less detailed.

What is particularly worrisome is how governments simply buy this data on the market and can avoid a lot of subpoenas and bypass legal controls on government investigations.
 
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If I were on Facebook's evil board of , I'd buy a mobile manufacturer, make the best possible phones (Facebook is not lacking talent), sell them cheap, load them up with trackers and profit. No one to hold their hand back there.
Facebook tried a mobile phone in 2013 and it flopped big time.
 
Facebook tried a mobile phone in 2013 and it flopped big time.
And, I’d be willing to guess that one reason why it flopped was because it was WAAAAAY too focused on “targeted advertising” and not enough on being actually pleasant to use? Or was it just because it was Android?
 
Basically the point of the ad is "Sacrifice yourself on the altar of capitalism, and let us take a cut of the proceeds."

This really lays bare who Facebook's customers are. They aren't people, they're advertisers. The images are of people, but the message is aimed squarely at businesses. This isn't an ad for people to use Facebook, it's an ad to business to form a lobby.
 
I love the ad's "it's cool to have your privacy violated" vibe.

Seriously, the biggest fail is in FB's pr and strategy teams. Back when they first got in hot water they should have put in a switch allowing users to turn personalized ads off. That would have done more to normalize personalized adds letting rather than this unpopular war that is only painting them as an evil propaganda machine.
 
"good ideas deserve to be found"

You mean like misinformation and crazy conspiracy theories?? Or did they mean promoting fake wealth and envy?
 
At least Facebook is forced to show its hand and reveal that it's social media platforms are glorified web-portals and personal billboards.

BINGO!

Facebook started out as a way for PEOPLE connect. It's now become a way for BUSINESSES to generate money for Facebook.

Yes, they need to have revenue to operate. No qualms there. But the opposite has become true... the platform is now an unhealthy place where people waste their time. I get so frustrated seeing perfectly capable adults living off of social services and being on Facebook all day long. It's a disease.
 
As soon as "personalized ads" stops meaning getting nothing but ads for toasters for five weeks after I buy a toaster I will support their cause.

Exactly. I play a word game and it would always play the same ads over and over again. Then I started seeing the *same* ads in my News app. How many times do I need to see the same ads in ONE day???

The tracking needs to stop.
 
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Facebook is launching a new PR campaign that highlights how small businesses rely on personalized advertising to help their businesses grow from "an idea into a livelihood." The new campaign indirectly takes aim at App Tracking Transparency (ATT), an upcoming iOS 14 feature that will require apps to ask for a user's permission to opt into tracking for personalized advertising.


Starting with iOS and iPadOS 14.5, Facebook and other third-party apps will be required to show users a prompt that asks for their consent to be tracked across other apps and websites. If users opt in, the tracking helps Facebook, and other advertising providers gather information about a user's interest and habits in order to create and show them personalized ads.

The new campaign, called "Good Ideas Deserve To Be Found," launched today and will run for a total of 12 weeks across Facebook and appear in TV spots across the United States in cooperation with agency Droga5, according to CNBC. The video says that small businesses lack the tools to grow without the help of Facebook's personalized advertising, and that the ads help people find what they love and what they think is "cool."

Alongside the new campaign, Facebook is also rolling out a series of changes on the platform itself. Facebook says it will simplify its Ads Manager to make it easier for small businesses to utilize personalized marketing plans with an improved dashboard that can make viewing a campaign's performance easier, and allow for faster optimizations.

Facebook will also waive fees for small businesses using its Checkout on Shops feature through June 2021, and will keep in place its previously announced waiver of fees for paid online events until at least August of the year.

In the past few months, Facebook has ramped up its anti-Apple rhetoric and voiced strong disapproval for ATT. Facebook says it's concerned that once the change launches, it will severely impact small businesses that rely on personalized advertising. Facebook and others believe that the majority of users will opt out of tracking, make it significantly harder to show users personalized ads.

Earlier this month, Facebook released the prompt that it plans to show users once iOS and iPadOS 14.5 ships in the early spring. In the pop-up prompt, Facebook is asking users to consent to tracking in order to receive a "better ads experience." Facebook says that even if users don't consent to the tracking, they'll still receive ads, but that they'll be "less relevant."

Facebook is reportedly preparing an antitrust lawsuit against Apple, accusing the Cupertino tech giant of anticompetitive behavior with App Tracking Transparency, amongst other features such as iMessage.

Article Link: Facebook's New PR Campaign Promotes Personalized Advertising Ahead of Apple's App Tracking Transparency Launch
Of course Apple is not blocking first party content. Personalize the ads based on facebook content. Absolutely do not track people on other websites. Thats wrong.
 
I thought I saw the pixar ball, but the star has the wrong color - and it is a helmet.
 
Most annoying are persistent ads for something you just purchased or decided you didn’t want.

Anyway, is there anyone (ANYONE?) who trusts Facebook’s motivation? Anyone?
 
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