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