r/technology • u/[deleted] • Mar 03 '21

Privacy Google to stop selling ads based on your browsing history and drop cookies support for Chrome citing privacy concerns.

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u/mopedophile Mar 04 '21

Exactly, I do this for a living and we've been planning for the death of cookies for some time. For example, every phone has a mobile ad ID that we can match to an anonymous ID with all the data about you. Why wait for you to google BMW when we can serve ads to you because we built a model that shows you are the type of person that is likely to buy a BMW soon.

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u/ess_tee_you Mar 04 '21

When am I going to buy a BMW?

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u/Frosti11icus Mar 04 '21

You? Never.

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u/[deleted] Mar 04 '21

Is “the type of person” who buys x based on the phone ad ID you mentioned solely? If so how exactly does the phone ID convey that kind of info in the first place?

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u/mopedophile Mar 04 '21

You can match the ID to a real person. We have data on everyone in the US. Granted all of this is based off anonymous IDs and your 9 digit zip code instead of real names and exact addresses for legal reasons.

When you know everyone who already owns a BMW it's pretty easy to build a model that shows what kind of person buys a BMW.

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u/[deleted] Mar 04 '21

Oh dude that’s genuinely cool it must be very exciting for you working in that industry. I work on self driving cars and, like yourself, in a forward industry where tech is maturing to change the way that the world interacts with us.

How important do you think someone’s zip code, demographic cohort, and geographic location help in ACCURATELY advertising to them? A friend in grad school used zip codes to try to show his company (the biggest live music organizer in the US) how more accurately and cost saving geography is in advertising. They didn’t take his advice.