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ChatGPT now knows what you do on other websites via ad collector

764 points · 395 comments · lmbbuchodi

  1. Legend2440 · · focus · HN ↗
    So basically the same kind of tracking that Facebook, Google, etc have been doing for decades?
    1. emptybits · · focus · HN ↗
      Similar, yes, but some people are paying OpenAI to be part of this business model, unlike typical free-riding Google and Facebook users.
      1. [deleted] · · focus · HN ↗

        [deleted]

      2. troupo · · focus · HN ↗
        Derogatory "Free-riding users". "Free riding users" should have the same privacy as the paying ones.
        1. rangestransform · · focus · HN ↗
          Will the government pay OpenAI to run an ad-free free tier?
          1. upboundspiral · · focus · HN ↗
            The government could pass laws that prevent advertising becoming mass surveillance and stalking.
          2. troupo · · focus · HN ↗
            Ads don't require pervasive and invasive tracking, and surveillance that Stasi would have wet dreams about.
        2. what · · focus · HN ↗
          Kind of silly. You have to pay somehow. Either pony up cash or pay with your eyeballs or data. But I doubt paying will give you privacy either.
          1. pona-a · · focus · HN ↗
            I think few will argue it's ethically or legally fine for my website to pay by installing a keylogger through a zero-click Chromium RCE, burying it in the EULA.
          2. troupo · · focus · HN ↗
            Ads don't require pervasive and invasive tracking, and surveillance that Stasi would have wet dreams about.
      3. theptip · · focus · HN ↗
        If you pay OpenAI full price, this machinery should never be used. The only paying customers getting ads are the “ad supported” tier.

        I think you can easily imagine a future where the subscription model token subsidy ramps down and is replaced by ads, but it’s important to use precise language about the current state of the world.

        1. emptybits · · focus · HN ↗
          Yes, “Go” plan users pay and also receive ads. They pay less.
    2. gentlewater · · focus · HN ↗
      Which has really only been accepted because 99% of people don’t understand how it works. Hard to be outraged by something you can’t see or understand. In my book, the practice is akin to malware. I recently opened a website for an AI service in incognito mode, because I didn’t care to have it in my search results. Despite avoiding third party cookies here, the site still fired off a tracker to Meta, who then correlated my home IP address with my Facebook account, and filled my feed with ads for this AI service. When I was tracked like this despite a somewhat informed defense, which defense do normal people have against this? None.
    3. latexr · · focus · HN ↗
      <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Whataboutism" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Whataboutism

      The fact that others do the same doesn’t make any of the cases excusable.

    4. rvz · · focus · HN ↗
      Yes. But there is no surprise given that OpenAI hired lots of ex-Meta and Google employees for that reason.
    5. jhhh · · focus · HN ↗
      Yes, the thing that many people do not like is now being done by yet another company.
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