The Plus-Sized Ad Mystery

Online ads being tailored to the individual user have been prevalent for a while. I've never stopped feeling vaguely creeped out that online trackers use my browsing history to decide which ads I see, but I have gotten used to it to some extent. I try to minimize the effects on my personal computer, installing all kinds of tracker-killing aps on my browsers, but I have no control over the settings for my work computer, and my job requires a lot of online research, so some of my personal data inevitably gets around.

The information these programs are looking for tends to be fairly specific and fairly benign. They want basic demographic information, and they want to know the kinds of products you're shopping for, in order to better predict the kinds of products that you might consider buying. The latter tend to be less noticeable and less troubling to me than the former. For instance, I got a huge boost in wedding-related ads last year when I got married, and they've figured out I've been doing home improvements lately, so I've been seeing a lot of related marketing. I also usually get the higher-end entertainment ads instead of the more obnoxious celebrity gossip blurbs.

On the other hand, one example of customization I found extremely unnerving was the sign-in page for Microsoft Outlook, which one day showed me picture of a female Asian user. The page then proceeded to cycle through pictures of mostly Asian users for a few weeks, which felt a little more sinister every time I saw it. Because Asians aren't prevalent at all in Western media and advertising, it was obvious that I was only seeing these graphics was because the trackers knew that I was Asian. Someone was watching. Recently the sign-in page pictures went back to users with a mix of different backgrounds, probably because the racially targeted pictures were just too blatant.

Then again, there are those times when the personalized ads are completely wrong. Right now, the A.V. Club article I have open in another window features a Special K breakfast cereal ad banner with text in Spanish. I haven't eaten breakfast cereal in years and I don't speak Spanish. Over the past few days, I've also noticed that I've been getting a slew of clothing ads for plus-sized women. On the one hand, it's a nice change of pace from the stick-thin models I usually see in clothing ads. On the other, it's a little bizarre because I'm not plus-sized. I've been wracking my brains trying to figure out what search I might have conducted or what product I might have looked at to give the internet the idea that I'm in the market for plus-sized clothing. I can't think of anything I've been looking at that is related to dieting or my physical state in general. The closest thing I can think of is that I read a Slate expose of the "One Weird Trick" ads that often involve fat-burning tips, but I think the plus-sized ads started coming before I read that piece.

There's also the possibility that I happen to fit the profile of someone who would need plus-sized clothing. We know that companies are increasingly turning to this kind of potential customer profiling in order to better target their marketing efforts. The New York Times ran a story about a year ago, How Companies Learn Your Secrets, detailing how Target identified the buying patterns of women who were likely to be in the early stages of pregnancy. Maybe the traits that the trackers have gleaned from my browsing habits are more typical of a larger woman. Maybe larger women tend to like the movies I like, buy the furniture I buy, and research the subjects I research. Maybe this is a sign that I need to be more careful about my eating habits, since I may be more susceptible to weight gain.

This all becomes much scarier when you consider what's going on with the NSA, and that these benign-seeming marketing tactics are very similar to what law enforcement uses to target potential terrorists. All it took was Google searching pressure cookers and backpacks for the police to pay a visit to a couple in New York, looking for potential bombers. Does the fact that I just searched those two terms together in order to bring up that article mean I have something to worry about? I look at those tasteful ads following me around the internet, and I have to wonder. If my browsing habits point to me being plus-sized, could it also suggest that I'm up to no good? I know I don't have anything to hide, but in light of everything that's going on, I strongly feel the need to be more careful online.

And I should probably start skipping dessert.
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