Got a message from YouTube today, saying they missed me terribly and wished I would *ahem* login *cough* now and then. So I did. I’m an agreeable sort of fellow.
Google, who now holds almost my entire music collection, whose business mandate is to use data about people to make money off them, suggested that I might enjoy watching the latest Beyoncé video. Or Lady Gaga, perhaps? Or maybe Justin Bieber.
Google, seriously. What the Fuck? You know all the songs I’ve listened to for the last month. Justin Bieber was notably absent. Ravonettes, 50 foot wave, Sex Pistols. Nothing remotely like the Beib came down the wire.
If you’re going to collect data about me and then try to sell me stuff, as least do it right.
I’ve been struck by the exact same disconnect of sidebar advertising or outright suggestions, including on iTunes and netflix. However, I am secretly pleased…errr…not secretly, but outright pleased they have me so wrong. Being a privacy advocate, I feel like I’m hidiing in plain sight with a disguise. (yipes, I hope I didn’t just make a Yogi Berra). Way back in the pleistocene when I got magazines, Newsweek would often survey me. I told them I was an executive making in excess of 500k a year. Why give the advertising machine the truth?
Maybe you like Bieber and just don’t know it yet.