EVENT DETAILS
The ADM+S Australian Ad Observatory Project
3 October 2021
Speakers:
Prof Mark Andrejevic, Monash University node, ADM+S
Prof Daniel Angus, QUT node, ADM+S
Abdul Obeid, QUT node, ADM+S
Laura Edelson, NYU Ad Observatory
Watch the recording
Duration: 0:02:30
TRANSCRIPT
Prof Mark Andrejevic:
Online advertising ushers in a quantum shift in how advertising works. Dan Angus: Advertising traditionally was out in public view.
Prof Daniel Angus:
The shift to advertising online means that advertising can be targeted at very, very specific groups.
Abdul Obeid:
The reality is that these ads are orchestrated and designed to target vulnerable information about you, that you thought was private.
Prof Mark Andrejevic:
They are hyper-customized, often in automated ways which makes it possible to generate thousands of variations of ads or tens of thousands of variations and serve them to different groups or different individuals.
Laura Edelson:
One thing we know is that there are a lot of problems.
We know that there are a lot of consumer scams. We know that there is discriminatory delivery and targeting. We know that there’s misinformation, that there is wilful disinformation, in fact.
Prof Mark Andrejevic:
Online ads are sometimes called dark ads because they’re only seen by the people to whom they are Directed. That means that they are not available to the public, they’re not available to reporters or journalists, they’re not available to government agencies or regulators.
Prof Daniel Angus:
We can’t, as a general public, know what advertising is out there.
Laura Edelson:
The most important step we can take right now is more transparency so that more researchers can actually work on this problem.
Prof Mark Andrejevic:
The goals of the Australian Ad Observatory project are to provide some measure of accountability for online targeted advertising, and really, to get a conversation started about what the appropriate social response is.
Prof Daniel Angus:
The ad collection tool works as a plugin that is installed on a computer browser.
Abdul Obeid:
You install the plugin and register your consent to letting us collect advertisement data that we gather from within the plugin. This all happens while you are scrolling through your news feed. And you can later view the advertisement data within a dashboard that’s provided with the plugin.
Prof Daniel Angus:
Anything we find out feeds into a global conversation around the potential harms and threats that online advertising might pose to a functioning democratic society.
Laura Edelson:
There is no reason why digital ad platforms cannot subject ads to the same scrutiny that other industry does. The problem is really urgent. This is a real threat to democracies all over the world.
