There is a lot of stuff about how creepy ad targeting is in today’s newsletter. Our first story is one I did, about how advertisers — or really anyone with 5 minutes on their hands — can inject ads into your ChatGPT session based on your phone number or email address. This is pretty normal in the advertising world, but I seriously doubt that when most of ChatGPT’s many, many users see an ad, they realize that might be because someone, somewhere, uploaded their phone number into OpenAI’s systems. I made my own ad on ChatGPT (without using peoples’ personal data) to test out the system. Then, in other news, there is new research confirming, I think for the first time, that online ads are being used to deliver zero-click mercenary malware against targets.
OpenAI's ads targeting is pretty creepy, and new research confirms spyware companies are delivering potent malware through advertising networks.
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