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Comment by maxfurman | Hacker News Reader

This is fucked up. At first I thought, of course this exists but no one would really fall for it. Scrolling through the offerings, I felt a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. Psychological warfare on-demand, only $50!

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Having someone see more articles on the benefits of quiting smoking is messed up?

Involuntary psychological manipulation is messed up regardless of the intent.

Ads we see can already be increasingly targeted to a very narrow group of people, which is spun as "making the adds more relevant to you". Is it different when it's a slightly larger group size than one?

You're speaking in generalities. This site is dealing with real people, such as a man who wants more sex from his girlfriend (apparently the most requested "ad") and so secretly signs his girlfriend's phone up for a system where she is shown ads designed to manipulate her into giving her boyfriend what she wants.

You don't see how there's an ethical difference, between that and a corporation advertising its products towards a general demographic?

I'm not clear here: are you using this as an argument in favor of spinner and their service or as an argument against targeted ads because they're basically just this spinner on a larger scale?

If the latter, I'm with you.

I am against targeted ads at all scales because we have a lot of fallacies that we cannot really control all the time even if we are aware of them.

But the reactions to this service is slight proof that an organisation evokes lesser negative reactions than an individual

I think the greater reactions are due to the targetting of individuals rather than the entity acting.

Very interesting response! So marketing by large companies does not evoke such strong reactions but marketing by an individual does.

The service is fucked up. If a store sells machine guns and lollipops, the lollipops do not make it child-safe.

Like Wal-Mart?

I assume you’re engaging in hyperbole, but just in case you aren’t - machine guns have been strictly regulated in the US for nearly a century.

To speak directly to your point, yes, actually, because now people who want to rationalize smoking can do so by being suspicious of a conspiracy to feed them slanted information.

Not if you are doing it for yourself, but manipulating a loved one in this way is messed up - even with good intentions.

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