Listen to Pandora, and It Listens Back

[tppc]

Interesting, from the New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/05/t...to-better-target-ads.html?ref=technology&_r=0

 

[chicks]

Yep, Google scans the text of pages you visit, and tailors ads in a similar fashion. It's cheap to avoid Pandora's ads altogether, and get higher quality audio, to boot. $29 / year. Well worth it, IMO.

 

[motorstereo]

Makes me even more glad that I stopped listening to pandora a couple years ago.

 

[deeezy]

This isn't exactly news. Anything you do online is being observed and quantified for all kinds of reasons. That's why I don't go online much other than to post my worthless opinions on audio issues. Long live analog, the technology that leaves you the hell alone.

 

[TheX]

Gave it up for Spotify.

 

[ReliefAshama]

Long live analog, the technology that leaves you the hell alone.

That reason right there is one of the biggest determining factors when deciding upon what device or tech to bring into the house, and how to employ said tech. For example our systems all run Debian and our fridge is off line. WTF did I just write? Our fridge is off line.

My kids have devices and they get sucked in....one of them even used our real name to sign up for an account...WHAT?! What they don't understand are correlations and how really clever and/or nefarious people can use data. It's all about the correlations.

Android this or Apple that; the methodology is to entice you, keep you, and sell you out along the way. To get an app for an ipod touch (a portable music player and...wtf?) one must sign up at Apple and provide a credit card. To use this service or that you must divulge.....

Not so analog, GNU/Linux, classic cars, tv antenna, etc., etc., etc. We have shoutcast and pandora and something else for music on umpteen devices in our house. We also have fine-ass FM, rehcids, tapes, dvds, mp3s, cds, stereos all over the place..... Shoutcast doesn't require one to divulge but the device it's on likely does. Say your TV, iphone, dvd player, etc.

Every time I use Amazon or Netflix I wince a little knowing each service is sucking as much as they can out of me and using it as they see fit. I feel like our mortgage is being sold to a trunker in Delaware and we may be on the hook for some bullshit because of some bullshit. 2008 anyone?

In grade school data floated my boat, though. I saw myriad applications and was excited for the future. Being 10 and still a decent Human I didn't anticipate or even think of shady uses of exploiting data. Hell, ads? Ha ha ha, don't be ridiculous.

It's getting so you can't wipe your ass without wondering if some miscreant snuck the sphincter-cam in your toilet bowl and your taco bonanza just went viral. Google is probably looking for a way.....

 

[trhee]

No Pandora, Spotify or MOG here in Korea. I do miss them from time to time.

 

[JoeESP9]

Haven't any of you noticed the personalized adverts right here on AK? Unless you take heroic measures all web sites collect data for those adverts. The idea of privacy on the internet is a joke.

The same sort of thing applies to cell phone calls. When you broadcast an RF signal to the open air there is no reasonable expectation of privacy. Hello NSA! One of the carriers used to encrypt every call (Sprint?). They don't do that anymore.

 

[ofajen]

Long live analog, the technology that leaves you the hell alone.

When I record music, I still do a fair amount of tracking and mixing on analog tape, and one reason is that, left to its own devices, it doesn't make any effort to keep track of beat, measure or tempo. It just lets me play and record what I/we do. Sometimes that is better.

Otto

 

[tnmike1]

I also find it interesting that even if you delete a post on Facebook before posting it, the deleted message never goes away. You may think it's gone, but it really isn't

None of this really bothers me, though. If people, whoever they are, want to see my posts or records of my purchases have at it. I lead a rather run-of-the-mill life anyway so my posts and purchase records online would put most people to sleep. And I do no banking or bill-paying online so they can't look at those either.

 

[deeezy]

That reason right there is one of the biggest determining factors when deciding upon what device or tech to bring into the house, and how to employ said tech. For example our systems all run Debian and our fridge is off line. WTF did I just write? Our fridge is off line.

My kids have devices and they get sucked in....one of them even used our real name to sign up for an account...WHAT?! What they don't understand are correlations and how really clever and/or nefarious people can use data. It's all about the correlations.

Android this or Apple that; the methodology is to entice you, keep you, and sell you out along the way. To get an app for an ipod touch (a portable music player and...wtf?) one must sign up at Apple and provide a credit card. To use this service or that you must divulge.....

Not so analog, GNU/Linux, classic cars, tv antenna, etc., etc., etc. We have shoutcast and pandora and something else for music on umpteen devices in our house. We also have fine-ass FM, rehcids, tapes, dvds, mp3s, cds, stereos all over the place..... Shoutcast doesn't require one to divulge but the device it's on likely does. Say your TV, iphone, dvd player, etc.

Every time I use Amazon or Netflix I wince a little knowing each service is sucking as much as they can out of me and using it as they see fit. I feel like our mortgage is being sold to a trunker in Delaware and we may be on the hook for some bullshit because of some bullshit. 2008 anyone?

In grade school data floated my boat, though. I saw myriad applications and was excited for the future. Being 10 and still a decent Human I didn't anticipate or even think of shady uses of exploiting data. Hell, ads? Ha ha ha, don't be ridiculous.

It's getting so you can't wipe your ass without wondering if some miscreant snuck the sphincter-cam in your toilet bowl and your taco bonanza just went viral. Google is probably looking for a way.....

People make fun of me because I still use things like books (you know, those old paper things) and radio to get my information, as opposed to the internet or cable TV (which we don't have). One of my reasons is that I am interested in more RAW, if you will, less censored news and history, which can still be accessed in books or from shortwave radio broadcasts without any logarithmic snooping. Like, if you wanted to research a certain important historical event which 1 1/2 months ago marked it's 50th anniversary, the last thing you should do is research it online, as you will undoubtedly be marked as a subversive, or whatever they call it nowadays. I don't want to go into detail here, as I am online, but you can read between the lines. Kids today take digital technology for granted, but I am old enough to remember the time when one had a reasonable expectation to some degree of privacy.

 

[portnoy]

I got a Safeway bonus card back in lets say.... 1999 I think. I was in line at Safeway and the cashier asked the gentleman in line ahead of me if he had a bonus card. He said "No". She asked him would he like one. He said "No, thanks". And he promptly paid his bill with $249.00 in cash.

It's as if he was never there. Well that was 15 years ago, and he was probably 65, so odds are he's no longer here, but in the meantime I'll bet he guarded his privacy with his life.

The NSA collects, and parses more data than we can ever imagine, and probably uses some word proximity algorithms to flag data / communications that it defines and subversive / suspicious. And I'm sure they have some criteria for what gets stored and for how long.

That's one job I'd hate to have.

Cheers,
1A6777BW00!z#

 

[tppc]

This isn't exactly news. Anything you do online is being observed and quantified for all kinds of reasons. That's why I don't go online much other than to post my worthless opinions on audio issues. Long live analog, the technology that leaves you the hell alone.

Except if your analog thing is a 5 mo old kitten. He never leaves us alone, but thats a good thing

 

[jefrodigital]

My wife noticed Pandora not only tailors your ads based off what you listen to but off the GPS in your phone. When she drives through parts of Newark where there is a large Spanish speaking population the voice ads between songs are in Spanish.

It's funny, I remember in the 90's and early 2000's people were talking about them one day lining us up and implanting tracking devices in us. Just goes to show how smart these folks are, they instead found a way to sell them to us. These phones have cameras, mics and GPS systems in them all tied to our name and bank accounts. Scary stuff.

 

[fredgarvin]

Adblock.

 

[StimpyWan]

Prog Rock must confuse them! With stuff like Liquid Tension Experiment, Ozric Tentacles, and Dead Can Dance, I hardly ever even get commercials! Let alone something targeted specifically to me!

 

[Tamarillo]

Gave it up for Spotify.

Agree, spotify beats pandora hands down. New car has pandora so tried it again but not enough music I like.

 

[dr*audio]

I say, more power to them! They are providing a worthwhile service and I don't mind the ads. I hope they take it further and start providing the data of what people REALLY want to listen to, to the record companies and radio stations. Maybe then FM radio would become relevant again.
I did a really good job of training my Classic Rock station. It plays deep tracks you don't usually hear on the radio. Check it out!
http://www.pandora.com/station/play/128952218361445415

 

[cubdog]

Makes me even more glad that I stopped listening to pandora a couple years ago.

No offense but if you use the internet for anything, and I know you do, your actions are being monitored and recorded. It has become part of the world we live in. Unless you, or me, or anyone else, decides to chuck it all and become some sort of survivalist this is our new reality. Personally it doesn't bother me. I can't do anything to change it and I enjoy too many aspects of the internet to go without it.

cubdog

 

[TheX]

Haven't any of you noticed the personalized adverts right here on AK?

I don't see ads anywhere.