The unknown depth of customer profiling
Internet privacy has always been a question to the world, today’s technology powered by artificial intelligence has more complex algorithms to work together and create a better output compared to manual developments.
The fact that you see your favourite product or something that you’re strongly looking for on social media isn’t just a coincidence. There’s a lot to it and we’re here to learn a few.
Foot Prints
Advertisers get to show you their ads depending on your social footprints. If you’re curious about the new BMW, Google has the power to differentiate you from a BMW enthusiast and a serious customer who’s looking to buy one.
They understand this with the help of a complex algorithm run by machine learning which takes all your search history and combine it to make a useful, more precise information about you.
The same data is passed anonymously to advertisers through the ad platform, where they won’t get to see the data, but they’re most likely to show you an ad.
Location
Your location is an important factor, if you’re in London, you should probably start seeing an ad within your location that is attractive to you. This happens because Google or Facebook already know who you are and they now know where you are.
The combo helps in showing useful ads which is closer to you and being around that area makes it more comfortable for you and affordable for the advertiser to get the business going with the revenue that he generates from the ad.
You’ll also see some location based ads on Google Maps which are very helpful at times to find out a good place to dine.
Voice Recording
No, it’s official that Google or Facebook products does not listen to your conversations via the microphone to show you ads. It doesn’t work that way and most interestingly, they don’t need that.
Facebook and Google tracks you even when you’re not using them. It’s pretty clear that our actions on the Facebook app or Google Search can be tracked, but can you imagine that these giants are tracking you while you read an article on your favorite blog ?
Yep they do! and they do that with a smart analytics technology which they use to help advertisers find the users who are interacting with their businesses.
Imagine you’re running an online store and suddenly someone recommend you to run an ad on facebook. Within like 7 days your sales started growing and your profits are increasing.
All of a sudden, Facebook is recommending you to add a code to your website so that Facebook can tell you more details of the sales via Facebook and at the same time track and give discounts to your potential customers who are roaming around your website.
Well this is helpful for a businessman, but the same code will track all the users who’re coming to your website.
In General
These ads are good and they do a great job for the advertisers and mostly for the users to find new and worthwhile products available on the market matching with their interests.
The interest based ads is what makes all this more sustainable and interesting for users. But there are some oppositions to this, which is a topic for another article.
Stay safe on the Internet and always keep in mind that they know everything you do.
