Interest-based advertising needs far more refinement

Personalised advertising is a very useful feature that some companies provide. They cut down on searching for similar products. But there needs to be better control, not only of the advertisements, but of what can be shown in the advertisements.

If I’m shopping for a hedge trimmer, showing me gardening tools across my devices is fair enough. But if I’m researching something personal or buying a surprise gift for my wife, those recommendations shouldn’t suddenly appear on shared devices or in personalised ad feeds.

I’ve had Amazon recommendations on an Echo display reveal the very type of gift I was trying to keep secret, and Facebook is another platform that often seems to serve personalised ads without considering whether the subject is private or appropriate to surface.

Personalisation should be intelligent enough to distinguish between everyday purchases and topics that deserve discretion. Until then, “relevant advertising” risks becoming an unnecessary invasion of privacy.

At the very least, there should be some granularity of the permissions required. Instead of the “Personalised Ads” on or off button, allow the user to select what product categories should be included in personalised advertising.

Maybe the best solution is to have a different Amazon account for the Amazon Echo devices. That way, I cut down on how much of my life is shared with everyone that visits.