#CreepAlert: Tech companies earn using your 'voodoo doll', says ex-Googler
A number of conglomerates, including Google and Facebook, follow an advertising-based revenue model; they sell your information to brands serving ads through their web-based products. However, several people have noticed cases of hyper-targeted ads - when advertisements pop-up the moment you speak about some product/service. Now, an ex-Googler has explained this, saying it's your 'Voodoo doll' that shares this information. Here's what it means.
Is your phone mic spying?
Over the years, users witnessing hyper-targeted ads have blamed tech companies for mining information through their phones' microphone. However, the companies, on their part, have refuted this claim, saying and swearing they don't listen to users' microphone to collect information. But, if that is not the case, how do companies know and promote what you want to buy?
It's a 'little voodoo doll' simulating your preferences
Speaking at a conference in California, Tristan Harris, a former Google design ethicist, claimed that companies predict your preferences using a little 'voodoo doll' or a simulated avatar-like profile of you. They have collected so much data about your likes and web activity that their models (voodoo dolls) can mimic your conversations, telling what you might want to buy, he said, according to ABC.
Conversation simulated from your information-based avatar
"I've accumulated all the ...clicks and likes you've ever made, and it makes this voodoo doll act more and more like you," Harris said. "All I have to do is simulate what conversation voodoo doll is having, and I know the conversation you just had."
Now, this is extremely creepy
While we all know companies use our online behavior to serve ads aimed at selling products, this is just another level of creepy. They are constructing your entire personality and preferences from the ground up using everything you have done online, starting from the links you have clicked on and posts you've liked to your demographic information and other elements of your digital trail.
Companies hack time, attention with 'voodoo dolls'
Harris further emphasized that companies with an active user-base - not just Google and Facebook - use their 'voodoo dolls' to hack peoples' time and attention. They predict the content users would want to watch or explore, thereby keeping them engaged for hours and generating billions of ad dollars. Essentially, they're sustaining their business models on the cost of time and data of users.
