With the change in TikTok ownership, TikTok users in the U.S. are collectively freaking out over the company’s updated privacy policy after being alerted to the changes through an in-app message.
The revised document details the U.S. joint venture’s conditions for using its service, including the specific location information it may collect.
Many users are also posting to social media about language found in the policy, which says that TikTok could collect sensitive information about its users, including their “sexual life or sexual orientation, status as transgender or nonbinary, citizenship or immigration status.”
Seeing if they use adblock is a big tell of whether someone is even meets the bare minimum of being tech literate from what I’ve seen. If they use internet without protection their minds are already mush after being bombarded with ads and being trained to tolerate it and even want it.
Yeah, I’m Gen X and have been trying to resist ads ever since I can remember.
Had two other roommates, and we’d be surfing the 53 channels or whatever on cable. Two of us had very similar watching patterns that we seemed to arrive at independently - we had a “primary” show and maybe a secondary one. When the primary went to ads, we’d either 1) slap that mute button ASAP and maybe chat a bit or 2) surf to the secondary show and watch a bit, use the last channel feature to snap back every little while to see if primary was back from ads or 3) go to the guide feature that scrolled current content.
Other roommate finally asked us one time why we do that. We said to avoid the ads because they are annoying AF.
He said: “why?”
When we paused and thought about how to answer this, he followed up with: “I love a lot of the ads, they can be really funny.” [1]
Year later, when Tivo came along, it was like it was something designed for the other roommate and I’s watching patterns and made it even better.
Anyway, these days I make copious use of streaming platforms and Plex and things like Invidious to avoid ads like the plague. I agree with you 100% - when I see someone employing all the tools to the best of their ability to not only restrict viruses and malware, but also putting up mental firewalls to the propaganda - I can usually assume that person is firing on all cylinders and we can probably talk as equals.
[1] To this day, I still just don’t understand this type of person. The people that don’t like football, but will watch the Superbowl “for the ads”. All I ever think of when I see ads is the stuff my hippie boomer parents taught me and that it’s probably all lies. Or that Chomsky said that programming execs consider the ads the content. Or, most effectively, the scene in The Trip where the protagonist played by Peter Fonda is thinking about what he does for a living - advertising - and at one point a woman says “lies” in part of his trip. I wish I could find a cut of that scene on YT…
It seems like the next generation is being trained to find ads endearing with sponsored ad segments delivered by content creators who can have a very big emotional attachment to. And is delivered by the people they may look up to or obssess over. And thats the new generation of finding ads fun.
In some ways I wonder if ads are even worse now with them now having a bigger capacity for stronger emotional manipulation with it not being a random segment, but being even more targetted than before.
And even people who use adblock defend sponsored segments, so its like the ad machine is finding ways to train and adjust their perception of ads by playing to emotional attachments of those they have a fondness for. It’s like no matter what its finding a way to worm its way back in through new tactics.
Heh, yeah, they always find a way. I think it was the book “The Conquest of Cool” that covers the concern that ad agencies had about the boomers and how they were too resistant to messaging.
I found it rather interesting as a read, since there seemed to be a bit of an echo for Gen X - the advertising execs seemed to be quite perplexed about trying to reach Gen X and sell them useless shit, too.
Well, spoiler alert - they figured out a way to reach both, at least in the aggregate, LOL.
In the mid 00s, I was reading that the new rage was trying to use “peer-to-peer marketing” and trying to find ways to exploit blogs, and possibly podcasts, if I recall correctly. These days I’m quite sure they’ve done a lot to try to refine things on many platforms so that someone’s guard tends to be down.
I do homelab stuff - I keep meaning to set up Pinchflat so I can further curate Youtube for the house…using SponsorBlock, it apparently can expunge even some of the creator-inserted endorsements. :)
Yeah, I’ve not liked most youtubers, streamers, and influencers and talking to you made me realize its probably because they feel so much like living ads. These ads as people even if they get hooked up with a $60 million contract are still trying to squeeze every last penny from their viewers who need the money more than their millionaire idol. All for the rush of thank you username for your donation.
Its like the whole past celebrity endorsement on steroids with people seeming to be more emotionally attached to what are really sales people with the perceived greater access to their idols so they “know them”.
New generations and older lonely generation is very susceptible to this type of marketing scheme, since it does a good job of not seeming like the entire product is itself an ad and more personal.
thats a strange addiction for the roomate, probably gets some kind of “high” of watching it or its a comfort thing.
I lost contact with him, but I later pictured him using things like Tivo/DVRs and NOT skipping over ads, LOL.
I’ve since been in the room with people using DVRs where they either jumped back to watch an ad or someone else asked the person fast-forwarding to go back. It’s not like that roommate was the only one.
Passively watching (linear) television was mostly the norm back then. I would know lots of people of all kinds of ages that would turn their TV on and mostly leave it on all day. Doing what I think of as more mindful/active watching required a fair bit of work and attention. Especially for college kids getting baked, LOL.
These days with all the options to chop things up with computers, do the homelab thing and rip/download and curate your own content with Jellyfish, Plex and Kodi, not to mention all the streaming services and platforms like YT, TikTok, etc.,…it’s definitely more the norm to take an active role in what you are watching and how you watch it. It’s definitely a lot easier. Although maybe today’s users that just endlessly scroll through things with very short formats served up by the algorithm are today’s version of those people that’d turn their TV on and leave it on all day, I don’t know.