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Little Things That Irk You VII: Seething Pains

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    It's likely just plain cynicism but I can't help but be wary when it all hinges on unsubstantiated claims made by him in an effort to profiteer off their daughters abduction and likely murder. I know such things are fairly common but immediately the figures sound odd even before the slightly grating coincidence that the possible payment might match the available fund. From what I can gather he lost the original case and was made to pay them around £394,000 in damages, the case was later overturned and we end up here.

    One thing I'm not sure of, if the case is overturned have they had to already return the original cases money they received in damages? Even then, that's a hell of an inflation to reach the numbers being knocked around that they may need to pay him.

    Also, for him to win by proving they provided false statements and information surely he'd have to effectively prove they were guilty?

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      It's probably worth remembering also that I know a lot less about the whole McCann thing than most people, because I was in the far-east at the time and kinda missed out on the media storm. When I read the summary, months after the fact, I wanted to know why the two of them weren't charged with some form of negligence.

      Originally posted by Superman Falls View Post
      Also, for him to win by proving they provided false statements and information surely he'd have to effectively prove they were guilty?
      No; he just has to prove that they committed libel against him. I assume.

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        Originally posted by Asura View Post
        Just wanted to mention, as it might interest [MENTION=3220]endo[/MENTION] , [MENTION=3144]Dogg Thang[/MENTION] and [MENTION=2561]fishbowlhead[/MENTION]
        [MENTION=16665]Blobcat[/MENTION] and I just got home from a day in town, and on our third YouTube video, there was an ad for Dettol washing machine cleaner. We have never bought this before, but we bought some literally today while we were at the shop, as we happened to see it in the supermarket and thought it might be a good idea.
        Okay, just had another one of these. Here at home, we have YouTube on the TV a lot. I tend to have music videos on when I'm doing particular types of work and they have recently increased the amount of ads you get when you let music videos run, to the point where I know every ad they serve up. I notice when a new ad pops up.

        At the weekend, we were back from a trip and decided to go out for a burger with the kids. My wife searched two local burger places to see if they have gf options (coeliac kid). One did so we went to that. She searched on her iPad - where she only ever logs into four things (outlook, apple, facebook and google) with presumably google being the one that counts here because it's where she would have searched and also owns YouTube.

        Today, two days later, a new ad popped up on YouTube for the burger place we didn't go to.

        And here's the thing: the YouTube on the television is through the smart TV and has never been connected in any way with a single account on my wife's iPad. I created a separate account ages ago for that (mainly because I didn't want YouTube recommendations based on what I had been watching to keep it cleaner for the kids - that hasn't worked but that's another topic). I can't think of a single device in the house that links those accounts except that it would have originally been created on my computer, which would have my own account details. So it's possible that their account has been filed with mine and somehow linked with my wife's but even that would seem like overstepping how that information is used.

        However it was done, searching on one device and one account led to us being served up a very clearly targeted ad on a different device and separate account. So either all our accounts are linked by google in which case they know more about us than we have ever told them or some device is listening. I don't think it can be the TV because I don't think it has a mic so it's likely the former scenario.

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          Originally posted by Dogg Thang View Post
          And here's the thing: the YouTube on the television is through the smart TV and has never been connected in any way with a single account on my wife's iPad. I created a separate account ages ago for that (mainly because I didn't want YouTube recommendations based on what I had been watching to keep it cleaner for the kids - that hasn't worked but that's another topic). I can't think of a single device in the house that links those accounts except that it would have originally been created on my computer, which would have my own account details. So it's possible that their account has been filed with mine and somehow linked with my wife's but even that would seem like overstepping how that information is used.
          But they're both connected to your wifi, through your house's internet connection, right? Gotta assume that's the common factor.

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              Originally posted by Asura View Post
              But they're both connected to your wifi, through your house's internet connection, right? Gotta assume that's the common factor.
              Yeah, you're right. That would seem like an overstepping of that profiling. I shouldn't have to get my kids a separate VPN to remove them from this.

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                Originally posted by Asura View Post
                But they're both connected to your wifi, through your house's internet connection, right? Gotta assume that's the common factor.
                How that’s in anyway legal I don’t know.
                Last edited by fishbowlhead; 18-09-2018, 14:46.

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                  Originally posted by Dogg Thang View Post
                  That would seem like an overstepping of that profiling.
                  It used to be interesting, back when Tor was big (maybe it still is?). When you browsed the internet with it, you got a feeling for how much of this goes on. All of the ads would be for random things, in different currencies, because your IP was being masked and the endpoint was shared with people from all over the world, so the profiling algorithms used to get confused.

                  That being said, in terms of "overstepping", you could take that either way. From your IP, Google has no idea who you are, or really where you're from (IPs can only be resolved to locations in a limited manner; your ISP could do it, but generally this is only done when searching for criminals). It doesn't know if you're an adult or a child, your gender, anything - it just knows what you're looking at. This was done long before there were things like social networks to allow for more targeted profiling.

                  The other thing to remember with all this targeting stuff; these algorithms are getting smarter. Remember that they measure their success rate by trying different things, and therefore will be programmed in a way that gets them to maximise that success. So if something works, great, it'll do more - and if it doesn't, it'll do that less.

                  This is what I used to say about "Big Data" back in 2007, and people used to find it ridiculous.

                  One day you're in London visiting Trafalgar Square or something. There's a protest nearby; you're not in the protest, but you pass near it. A security photo has pictures of you near it. Software connected to that camera is made by a private contractor which supplies its data to the security services of various nations. That software scans through the thousands of faces on the footage and tries to connect those to social media profiles. However you don't know about any of this until in 2020, you touch down in Florida to go to Disneyworld and immigration turns you around and sends you back home. You don't know why, the guy at the gate doesn't know why...

                  It sounds like science fiction but really it isn't. It's quite possible.

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                    Yeah it is. And that illustrates a big problem with it.

                    In terms of where targeted ads get it wrong, in the last couple of weeks I have had a couple of Twitter ads in Japanese and YouTube on my desktop regularly serves up ads for Vimeo in Korean. And yet interestingly, given the burgergate that just happened, I have never been shown those ads on any other system or account.

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                      If you use any Google service on a device then Google know the IP you are using and can tie that up with what you're browsing, shopping for etc. Do they use this data? I believe they do.

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                        Yep but the Korean Vimeo ads really have me wondering how this works. In one example (burgergate), google tracks a search on one account via IP (we presume) and YouTube serves up a related ad on a different account and different device, seemingly making an assumption that it’s going to the right person. In the other example, YouTube regularly serves up a specific ad in the wrong language but only ever serves it up on a single device. It doesn’t ever appear on any other device even when logged in on the same account. That just seems weird. One seems invasive and smart and the other seems just wrong.

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                          Originally posted by Dogg Thang View Post
                          Yep but the Korean Vimeo ads really have me wondering how this works. In one example (burgergate), google tracks a search on one account via IP (we presume) and YouTube serves up a related ad on a different account and different device, seemingly making an assumption that it’s going to the right person. In the other example, YouTube regularly serves up a specific ad in the wrong language but only ever serves it up on a single device. It doesn’t ever appear on any other device even when logged in on the same account. That just seems weird. One seems invasive and smart and the other seems just wrong.
                          Either way is invasive and wrong, full stop.

                          I wonder how google would feel if everyone just turns up at their headquarters and starts rummaging around every draw in the building, then every file on every computer.

                          Hey we’re just gathering data to better focus our ads to you google. I’m sure it would be a whole different story then.

                          Here’s a good example of how much the big boys trust their own products , during the Facebook congress hearings Mark Zuckerberg used a laptop with all the wireless coms ripped out, camera & mics removed, complete black box that’s totally offline.

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                            Drawer.

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                              Lie with passion and be forever damned...

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                                When you express your sadness at the PlayAsia logo update & your GF says "Well it looks better now because it has a controller, I mean what has a key in a hill got to do with it?"

                                It's a good thing she cooks...

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