Advertisers and algorithms

The types of advertisements you get online can differ wildly from what you actually see compared to what you actually should be seeing based on your online activity, the decision between these two is completely at the mercy of the algorithms and data brokers. Most of the internet is dominated by algorithms trying to figure out what you want to see, but it seems like creating a perfect algorithm is very hard since the targeted advertisements that people get are usually irrelevant and random, which can create a large divide between your advertising identity and your real identity. Your advertising identity is the identity that advertisers and algorithms see based off of your online searches, while your real identity is what you actually are interested in and want to see.

The main type of advertisements that I get, primarily on Reddit, are mostly tech and gaming focused which makes sense because I mainly browse in those parts of Reddit and am interested in gaming and technology outside of social media. From these targeted advertisements that I get I can tell that the advertisers think that I am interested in technology, which would be true, and is a good example of the algorithm working to show me relevant topics. The divide between the advertising identity and real identity begins to widen whenever the algorithm either fails to function properly or is not involved in the advertisements that people are shown, which brings me to the next topic.

Next, there are the more random advertisements that people sometimes get that aren’t related to them or their searches at all, I get a lot of these on random websites with the advertisements mainly being from Temu, which I have never used once. These types of advertisements do not reflect my interests at all and are a good example of the algorithm failing to show me things that are relevant, I find these types of advertisements very annoying which is why I always use an adblocker on those sites.

More recently I have been getting a lot more ads on reddit related to digital security which is likely due to me looking up more information about the cyber security competition for SkillsUSA, which was also the case last year with the same types of ads popping up at around the same time of year as I was preparing for the competition like I am now. This would indicate that the algorithm is working and is recommending me things that are relevant to my life and interests, which is particularly refreshing due to how many random ads I get on a daily basis.

Despite their unreliability, algorithms are very important to improving the experience of people on the internet, which is why people resort to things like advertisement blockers when the algorithm fails to show them relevant advertisements or services that help you get rid of data that data brokers have collected.

“the world wide web” by frankieleon is licensed under CC BY 2.0.