Microsoft Azure CTO believes confidential computing is the future of targeted advertising Confidential computing will become the standard for all tasks rather than a specialized feature used for certain sensitive workloads, and Mark Russinovich, Microsoft's Azure CTO, has hailed it as "the future of advertising." Russinovich spelled out his viewpoint in a missive this week relating his participation in this year's …
Well, Russinovich isn't a jerk.
But I am disappointed he agreed to allow his name to appear on a press release like this. I am sure the confidential computing technology can increase security and reduce unintended leaks. But it has nothing at all to do with who is allowed to do processing, or what processing they are allowed to do - which is nothing to do with the technology as it is a social and legal question.
What? Sort of logs and planks and other scrap wood, piled around some sort of pole to which the advertiser can be conveniently fastened, and the application of fire at the base?
"This is exactly the question. Do people want fire which can be fitted nasally?" [DNA]
《" this architecture is the future of advertising"
What? Sort of logs and planks and other scrap wood, piled around some sort of pole to which the advertiser can be conveniently fastened, and the application of fire at the base?
"This is exactly the question. Do people want fire which can be fitted nasally?" [DNA]》
I suspect while most not wanting nasally fitted fire many would benefit from its liberal application and I am not just thinking of the redundant population of Golgafrincham.
And this is the same Russinovich of Sysinternals and the Windows internals books? Like Suruman, if you study the devices of the enemy too deeply, you are ultimately ensnared much as that wizard was by Sauron.
Lipstick on a pig is what it is.
You can shuffle it in as many ways as you want, we still see the end result : we're getting profiled in ever more precise ways.
Well we don't like it, and we'll vote the laws that are needed to keep our privacy.
As soon as we find out how to write them.
The reason we want this data that companies collect anonymized is not because we fear that someone else might get their hands on that data and do something awful with it.
It's because we suspect that the companies who collect it will do something awful with it.
Currently, I only ever seem to be shown ads for stuff I'm not remotely interested in. However, this is very obviously just a workaround for existing data protection legislation. Rather like a tax haven but for data instead of money. Microsoft et al being as trustworthy as ever.
Targeted advertising doesn't scale to a network the size of the planet. For example, say you are looking for handmade greeting cards. If you go to your local boutique, you'll probably find some. No need for ads at all. If you search for them online, with no filters enabled you'll be inundated with ads for said cards from all over the world. The advertisers claim this is targeted because you were looking for the cards ... but from your perspective, you're getting spammed by a ton of junk from all over the world (who knew they made greeting cards out of chinesium‽‽‽) ... and the person you were sending the card to received it three weeks ago. You don't need or want any more, but still the ads come ... So if you are like my computer incompetent DearOldMum or computer illiterate GreatAunt, you find and install ad blockers out of sheer frustration over the barrage of shit.
"Currently, I only ever seem to be shown ads for stuff I'm not remotely interested in."
More likely, based on complaints of my users, it'll also be ads for things you have already bought and don't need any more of.
"Branding" started with cattle being herded long distances from pasture to market, and buyers wanting an idea of the quality of the meat: “Brand” is a proxy for missing information.
“Advertising” started as a way to speed-up dissemination of information about products, and became big when consumers found out about new refrigerator, car, truck etc products before news spread about their usage.
Advertising and Branding have considerable momentum, but doesn’t mean it will always be that way: information and lineage water down the value of message, but because we overloaded with information adverting provides a pointer to likely quality.
In the future, AI will help sort to the information overload, and enable more people to make qualitative decisions from produce, use-case, reliability, satisfaction – budgets for advertising will decline, as effort is switched to satisfaction channels of authoritative – no more fake reviews for products we’ve not bought, or venues we’ve not visited.
“clean rooms” provide a concept space where you AI avatar can inspect information to help you decide what to spend money on
"adverting provides a pointer to likely quality."
I think I see a serious problem with your thesis.
"“clean rooms” provide a concept space where you AI avatar can inspect information to help you decide what to spend money on"
More like provide more fodder for my filters. A corporate shill working out of the 27th floor on Madison Avenue and living in a 300sq foot, $3500/month "apartment" in Manhattan (San Francisco, London, Paris, Rome, Tokyo ... ) has absolutely no idea whatsoever about the needs of Middle America, much less what I need out here in the wilds of the West Coast. Why should I pay any attention to them, much less allow my network to waste the bandwidth downloading their useless drivel?
that I'm aware of was the STI Cell Microprocessor from around 2003. Yeah, I worked on that part.
Took the idea from the cable company (you don't own your TV, we do), and applied it to game boxes. Outrageous at the time, outrageous for the future as well.
Bugger the ad slingers. It’s time for all digital information to be free as in beer again with no strings attached.
Confidential computing as a concept allows for the exchanging of data in an environment which guarantees providers plausible deniability regarding what they’re processing, provided what enters and leaves is zero knowledge encrypted. If in practice this tech doesn’t allow folks to pirate things with impunity, then how confidential is it really? ;)
"The bad news – if you are a consumer – is that this allows for scenarios where companies can more easily target you with pitches that are tailored to you personally."
Arguably good news - so many customers say they want their banks, retailers and other suppliers to make better use of their preferences to provide a more personalized experience - instead of adopting a one size fits all approach and spamming everybody with the same irrelevant thing.
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