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Comment by dfdz | Hacker News Reader

“Last week, I posted about my breast cancer diagnosis on Facebook. Since then, my Facebook feed has featured ads for “alternative cancer care.””

In my experience, cookies and browsing history influences facebook ads more than the text in posts. For example any links sent via messenger or whatsapp or products on amazon.

Could it be the case that the authors browsing history is actually what is driving these ads? For example, if the author is an expert on pseudo science it seems natural that they would research fake cures at some point.

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I am unemployed for 6 months now, and I watch YouTube from time to time, and search for all kinds of things. From a human viewer perspective, the ads were more related to my YouTube watching behaviour than my browsing history. I use DuckDuckGo but let Google Analytics see me.

Recently I decide to start doing video essays. I searched for a ton of medieval history stuff and watched a ton of related clips. I notice that YouTube began to show ads of at least 2 "I get rich from millions in debt" self-help workshops/courses to me, which I've never shown any interest in.

I have watched audio equipment review videos as well, and that's the only possible connection I can establish between the ads and my online behaviour. Are a lot of unemployed people seeking to enter audio/video making? Or are the snake oil ads showing on many people's screens because of the dire economic situation many of us are in?

I'm sure someone will tell me why this isn't happening, but I perceive a correlation between anything I type into FB Messenger (or HN) and subsequent ads. And I mean quickly.

So, my question for you is have you been making comments or sending messages online about debt, money, wealth, etc? Then again, maybe Skynet just knows you're unemployed and that's what makes you a target for get-rich-quick.

I seldom talk about my financial status online. But I have been searching for jobs on Glassdoor and talked with people on WeChat and a few social networks in China regarding my job seeking.

Thinking that just that could make me a target of these crooks ... wow, just wow.

On large, generic platforms like Facebook and YouTube, I sense the possibility that these ads that are essentially spam can drive a much higher conversion than the legal businesses' ads, and eventually drive out other types of ads. Those are not nigeria princes asking you for "hlep", you can tell the guys behind it put in a lot of efforts and serious money, some made it like a trailer of _The Pursuit of Happyness_. There's no way Google or Facebook's AI could tell that they are suspicious schemes.

Could be that some pyramid scheme victims aren’t good at targeting the ads when they try to recruit people? So they just overbid for generic ad slots.

I think I've scraped the bottom of the barrel of YouTube content and ads, the worst are these Japanese weight loss commercials.

How's your situation, are you still learning and pursuing your own journey? I can totally relate to the feeling of being out of work but I believe strongly that our work is a calling and we must listen to our intuition on the journey to mastery of our art.

Yeah, those 5-min infomercials are nightmare.

I am learning to be an independent content producer if that's a thing. But I have family and there's constant self-imposed pressure to pursue a regularly paid job. I am juggling between job applications and making things at the moment. I guess I really need to talk to people and think it through.

Your kind words give me a lot of support I need. Thank you.

Hey! Welcome to reach out to me, let's have a virtual cup of tea or coffee -- my email is on my profile page

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