this post was submitted on 14 Sep 2024
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No Stupid Questions

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 2 months ago (4 children)

I was just wondering about a general privacy goal of having an LLM bot just flood the zone with random data to try and confound advertising models, simulating clicks and likes/engagement across the spectrum just to wreck any meaningful data correlations.

If you were aiming this concept at two specific targets, i.e., costing the Trump campaign money and screwing with their data, things could get really interesting. Like an open source bot that would coordinate bizarre trends across large cohorts of users to convince the data miners that, for example, a disproportionate number of voters in key regions are demographically or behaviorally skewed.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Take a look at this browser extension: https://adnauseam.io/

As online advertising becomes ever more ubiquitous and unsanctioned, AdNauseam works to complete the cycle by automating ad clicks universally and blindly on behalf of its users. Built atop uBlock Origin, AdNauseam quietly clicks on every blocked ad, registering a visit on ad networks' databases. As the collected data gathered shows an omnivorous click-stream, user tracking, targeting and surveillance become futile.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

AdNauseam quietly clicks on every blocked ad, registering a visit on ad networks' databases

Do those clicks appear to be coming from me, or from some random fake identity?

False floods of data or not, there are some things I'd rather not have any identifiable contact with at all.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

From my understanding, they appear to be coming from you- that's kinda the point.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

It should atleast poison any data they gather about you right? Since you're not ever going to realistically click on any of these ads, it would now look like anything and everything interests you

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

it would now look like anything and everything interests you

That could get you on some interesting lists.

Personally, I'd rather not have any database think I was interested in certain topics, no matter how false that data is.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

That's the point. You can't really build an advertising profile if they literally engage with every single thing all the time.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

Ooh, that’s nice. Now change “omnivorous” to “targeted” and things get interesting.

Thanks, friend!

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Personally, I’d just limit it to feeding them data that a large undecided segment believes a few provably false outlandish things, so that they publicly endorse said things when they could be spending time doing something socially destructive.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Can we get the politicians to shift from illegal aliens to Sasquatch? Build a wall across Washington state and make Canada pay for it?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

Holy shit..... This would be amazing.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

It’s a well documented issue tied directly to gambling…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgfaSLO_T4A

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

I mean wouldn't it be crazy, to get something like people are eating cats and dogs publicly said.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I like the idea, but I'd worry about getting sued for fraud. Though it's not likely that would be a top issue what with his trying to stay out of prison.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

I’m not a lawyer but I’m not sure how liable you’d be. People run bots all the time. Plus, this is all about numbers. You can’t sue thousands of people like that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

The major networks can determine bots from people.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I read once that a good thing to do was to physically mail a low denomination check to the campaign. All because the work and effort to record and deposit the funds was so labor intensive by an actual person.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You'll need to mail thousands of them for it to matter. The labor and expense for you to do that is greater than the labor and expense for them. Plus, I feel like they'd probably just throw the checks away if they are like a penny, or something stupid low.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Postdate them lol

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago

Web ads already drain accounts like water in a bathtub. Your ideal click thru rate is in the mid 2% and that's just clicks, not conversions. If you are a politician it's a lousy and expensive way to market yourself. Just like businesses you do it just to crowd out others that are doing the same thing.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (2 children)

As much as the hacker in me would love to do this, I sincerely hope ideas (posts... not ideas really) like this don't become fodder for the paranoia propaganda machine driving MAGA.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago

Let’s be honest, they’d probably already be screaming foul play regardless.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

I have no problem taking flack for it. In my view they're so far off base that a flurry of unforced errors unravel with every variable.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Anything that you can think of has already been thought of, modelled, and done by international actors who have more resources, technical capability and time than you, and have far fewer morals.

You want a specific outcome to this election? So do Russia and China. They're a lot better at this than you are and are orders of magnitude more invested in it.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I'm spitballing for a conversation. I don't think I'm a pivotal strategic player.

Edit: that said, I do think what you said is certainly worth mention, so I want to get ahead of my defensiveness.

So to continue, do you think that such a tactic would be valuable for a state funded interest?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

I always click on ads for companies I don't like. The cost to them is trivial, but whatever. It's a petty vengeance.