from Hacker News

Article after article and post after post talk I read about how Facebook, Amazon and Google are collecting so much information me. These articles never tell you how this data is used against me or why should I care. The most they tell you is how this data is used to display targeted ads. OK.. is this a bad thing? First of all, I use ad blockers so I don't see any ads, whether they are targeted or not. I don't care.

Now there are sites that detect you're using an ad blocker and the most obnoxious ones of them won't show content unless I disable the ad blocker on their site. Fine. I will do that. So what kind of ads so I start seeing? The bicycle I was doing research on the web some weeks ago. I ALREADY BOUGHT the bike yet I still see these TARGETED ads where they are showing me where I can get the bike!

These big data companies collect so much information about me. They think they are clever by showing me targeted ads.

They are not smart because they do not know or can know I already purchased the bike. On top of that, I can't go and tell them I have the bike so please stop showing these 'targeted' ads. Bullshit big data and bullshit AI. There's a big disconnect between what they collect and how they can make my life better. As long this big data is only about displaying ads, it's junk as far as I am concerned. I can't remember the last time I purchased something because of an ad. I haven't seen a TV commercial since about 2000 when I got my first TiVo and stopped watching live TV.