This creeps me out

[Racket_Man]

Target's data mining techniques figure out a teen girl is pregnant and sends her baby related coupons and ads before her FATHER finds out

[TheHuckster]

I've heard of related stories like this. It was not only creepy for stories like this but it also caused heartbreak from people who got a ton of ads after they had a miscarriage. And it's not just Target that's doing it. Any store that's using a loyalty card can do the same exact thing. Same goes for just about any website that you shop from, and there there isn't as much you can do since you already need to give them your address info and other details that they can easily store and do data crunching on.

[Andara Bledin]

Welcome to big data.

This isn't about them figuring out a girl is pregnant: This is pregnant girls tending to follow a typical progression in shopping needs and a properly-configured heuristic coupon program will give you coupons based on what the majority of other people following that pattern moved on to purchasing.

Plus, this is a story from three years ago, so just think how much more targeted it can get. Though, I think Target has done some tweaking to make it a little less creepy.

[s_stabeler]

Welcome to big data.

This isn't about them figuring out a girl is pregnant: This is pregnant girls tending to follow a typical progression in shopping needs and a properly-configured heuristic coupon program will give you coupons based on what the majority of other people following that pattern moved on to purchasing.

Plus, this is a story from three years ago, so just think how much more targeted it can get. Though, I think Target has done some tweaking to make it a little less creepy.

not quite. (I did some research on this for an assignment at college) Target were actually looking to identify pregnant shoppers, since pregnancy, especially a first pregnancy, if one of the major occasions that allow you to influence someone's shopping habits. Where ti became creepy is when it turned out they can estimate the due date, and are at least as accurate as the doctors, IIRC. That, and being able to predict the pregnancy before the mother even knows. Thye haven't stopped, incidentally, they just mix the coupons in a little better so that it looks like a random mailer.

[HYHYBT]

If Target is so good at predicting what you're going to be buying NEXT, why does Amazon always advertise to me things I've recently bought and am not likely to need again any time soon?

[Andara Bledin]

Target uses loyalty cards to determine the actual buying habits of individual shoppers to use in their database.

Amazon is likely using targeted advertising from a third party who has no idea what you have or have not actually bought and is merely aware of what sites you've recently visited and is using that to throw similar items at you.

[Dreamstalker]

I once got a mailer from Target for...a wedding registry. I'm not engaged, and nobody in the house has a Target card. It was addressed to me, can't figure out how that happened (or where they got my address from).

The $20 gift card offer for setting up a registry was tempting, but I didn't want the assorted complications that would create.

[drunkenwildmage]

A week after my Wife died in 2012, I started getting stuff from various divorce lawyers trying to sell me their services. Went on for about 2 or 3 months.

[cindybubbles]

They should sell their "fortune-telling" services to people who want it. It would be fun to find out your future from someone who could actually predict it based on your shopping habits.

[HYHYBT]

Target uses loyalty cards to determine the actual buying habits of individual shoppers to use in their database.

Amazon is likely using targeted advertising from a third party who has no idea what you have or have not actually bought and is merely aware of what sites you've recently visited and is using that to throw similar items at you.

I bought the items from Amazon, so they really OUGHT to know I have them.

[Andara Bledin]

Oh, Amazon knows you have it, but the targeted advertising company that pays them for eyeballs and clicks on Amazon doesn't have any info other than keywords for the pages you've looked at that their tracking cookies have recorded.

[Shangri-laschild]

The amazon thing always creeps me out. I look up something on their site and then suddenly there are ads for it on so many of the other sites I go to.

[MadMike]

The amazon thing always creeps me out. I look up something on their site and then suddenly there are ads for it on so many of the other sites I go to.

...which is pretty useless if I just ordered the damn thing.

[Andara Bledin]

Like I said, most places outsource their ads to just a few different companies, with Google being one of the largest.

They just match up keywords for sites you visited with keywords for targeted advertising, and then the ads follow you around the network.

Yeah, it's a bit creepy. Likely going to get creepier, too.

[Herebecause]

I work in a private, dormitory school. I knew that a graduate and his wife were expecting their first child because we started receiving targeted mailings addressed to him (somehow their data was on target, they just had an old address).