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Have you ever looked at the interface for buying ads on Google/Facebook/other? They don't use an algorithm to decide who to show ads to. The ad buyer decides who they want to show the ad to.

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I click systematically, and it almost always says they picked a broad category, like “Men between 25 and 75 in [country].” There’s usually some phrasing that is meant to be ambiguous or unclear but that I have to interpret as “based on your other behavior.” I can only assume neither I nor the gay commentator earlier have ever done anything that expressed an interest in either underage pornography or AI-generated female honeypots, and so that “smart” implicit targeting really needs some serious scrutiny.

I get the joke that it reveals what I do in private. I’ve made it myself when people are complaining about Twitter—usually after confirming the rest of their activity matches the prejudice that I’m lobbing at them. What I can assure you is not happening, in public or in private, is me speaking Finnish or Cantonese.

Yes, and that's why I conclude that Google must have terrible targeting and wastes advertisers money.

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