> If the accuracy of the data are not intrinsic to their value, then data brokers could literally just manufacture data. “Is this person X?” flips coin “yes!” Who are you to say otherwise? We have a vast network of blah blah data sources and advanced AI inferencing. They would absolutely do this if they could get away with it because it is dramatically cheaper.
Measuring the effectiveness of advertising has always been difficult. Targeted ads can be very effective at times, and at others do no better (or worse) than chance. The many clear failures of targeted advertising hasn't hurt the industry though and it isn't likely to either. Now companies are advertising AI as the new thing to increase their accuracy. How well that works for them remains to be seen.
Yes they could, and I suspect that some actually do stuff dossiers with total fabrications. The accuracy of the data being collected and the targeting itself is known to be very questionable(see https://joindeleteme.com/blog/incognito-september-2023-data-... and https://www.forbes.com/sites/augustinefou/2021/04/19/ad-rele... and https://news.ncsu.edu/2022/03/new-study-reveals-why-facebook... and https://www.forbes.com/sites/augustinefou/2021/05/05/why-is-...) and I don't know a single person who feels like every ad they see is relevant to them.
Measuring the effectiveness of advertising has always been difficult. Targeted ads can be very effective at times, and at others do no better (or worse) than chance. The many clear failures of targeted advertising hasn't hurt the industry though and it isn't likely to either. Now companies are advertising AI as the new thing to increase their accuracy. How well that works for them remains to be seen.