Why Don't We Just Ban Targeted Advertising?
This article, from Wired, is a good read on the privacy implications of targeted advertising. While the headline is somewhat sensationalist, similar privacy measures (to a certain extent) are currently in place in parts of Europe. In this piece, the author examines the micro-targeting practices of the internet advertising giants like Facebook and Google (as well as The Trade Desk, not mentioned) and outlines the dangers associated with hoovering up highly personal information as well as selling it to third parties. The vast sums of money being made by these advertising firms has others jumping into the market, and this is what scares me more as surveillance may become omnipresent: "The behavioral advertising business model has given rise to a teeming ecosystem of adtech firms, including data brokers, that pass user information through each step of the chain between publishers and advertisers. It's all perfectly legal and very profitable, which explains why established companies like Adobe, Comcast, and Amazon have been getting in on the action...the practice of mining and monetizing user data has migrated to sectors like insurance, finance, and even automobiles—not to mention law enforcement, as the revelations about the facial recognition company Clearview AI remind us." Restricting targeted ads is a clear negative for advertising companies' business models, so I wonder what the catalyst will be for more stringent privacy controls in the US, if any.