If Big Tech has our data, why are targeted ads so terrible?

Privacy issues aside, the question of the efficacy of all that data scraping needs to be addressed

Personalised advertising is the dirty fuel that powers some of the world's biggest tech giants. PHOTO: REUTERS

FINANCIAL TIMES - For more than a year now, I have been chased around the Internet by maddeningly chirpy ads for a spellcheck start-up called Grammarly.

The Ukraine-founded company is pitched as an assistant for people who struggle to write simple sentences in English. On the 50th viewing, it started to feel less like a targeted ad and more like trolling by the algorithm.

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