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Disney+ demands users’ age and gender so it can “deliver targeted advertising”

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Re: Disney+ demands users’ age and gender so it can “deliver targeted advertising”

#151

Post by monksy »

fxtentacle wrote: post #123
mikedelago wrote: post #121

I'm so exhausted from constant advertisements. I'm so tired of my information being sold off to third parties in order to deliver ads. I'm so tired of good, useful tools and services requiring a forfeit of my privacy in order to use them. Does anyone else wish that they could just exist without being told to buy something every 15 waking minutes?

You have pretty much summarized the thinking that led me to build: 1. my own SmartWatch 2. a tool to remove iTunes DRM so that my TV can stay offline 3. fully offline speech recognition 4. a beefy Linux workstation 5. set up a pi-hole 6. patched LineageOS to work on my phone And now my life is pretty much ad-free :)

Don't forget to use libredirect, and ublockorigin on every browser. (libredirect will kill your shadow profiles websites collect about you)

Re: Disney+ demands users’ age and gender so it can “deliver targeted advertising”

#152

Post by kgwxd »

Ancient wrote: post #25
user3939382 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My "birthday" is January 1, 1970 (an homage to unix) for any database/system inappropriately asking. This way they don't have my data to leak or abuse, but I still know what I specified if I'm asked to verify it.

I always use January 1st {Birth Year} (easy to remember) but I like this now too. Thanks

That's still accurate enough for their goals though. I put random very old dates and just keep DOBs noted in my password manager.

Re: Disney+ demands users’ age and gender so it can “deliver targeted advertising”

#153

Post by DoingIsLearning »

noasaservice wrote: post #84

Just Pirate and store stuff using Jellyfin. It's an infinitely better experience, and everything just works. And you don't get advertised to, demographized, tracked, or anything. You download, copy, go! I used to recommend Netflix back in the day, cause it just worked. Now, there's 30+ different streaming services, and many have switched to the "leak an episode once a week/month". Just pirate. It's better, cheaper, A…

I went from Exodus to Covenant and then eventually gave up on tweaking kodi and slowly went the path of least resistance to streaming services. But now it just feels like a repeat of cable tv with balcanized services.

What do you recommend in the high seas, and how do you manage the threat of malware?

Re: Disney+ demands users’ age and gender so it can “deliver targeted advertising”

#154

Post by fsflover »

fxtentacle wrote: post #123
mikedelago wrote: post #121

I'm so exhausted from constant advertisements. I'm so tired of my information being sold off to third parties in order to deliver ads. I'm so tired of good, useful tools and services requiring a forfeit of my privacy in order to use them. Does anyone else wish that they could just exist without being told to buy something every 15 waking minutes?

You have pretty much summarized the thinking that led me to build: 1. my own SmartWatch 2. a tool to remove iTunes DRM so that my TV can stay offline 3. fully offline speech recognition 4. a beefy Linux workstation 5. set up a pi-hole 6. patched LineageOS to work on my phone And now my life is pretty much ad-free :)

> 1. my own SmartWatch

You could buy PineTime instead.

Re: Disney+ demands users’ age and gender so it can “deliver targeted advertising”

#155

Post by pests »

lfowles wrote: post #135
njarboe wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since many services now split into two tiers with a cheaper option for no ads, maybe ads showing up in no-ads tier won't happen. There really wasn't the possibility to do that before streaming (multiple cable channels I guess could have been done). I pay for ad free YouTube, HBO, and Netflix (although often cancel for awhile when nothing on the service interests me). Ads for other shows on the service at the beginnin…

No such luck. The Hulu no-ad tier still has ads for a select few shoes.

That's due to contract reasons. Hulu keeps a list of shows they are required to show ads on:

https://help.hulu.com/s/article/no-ads-exceptions

Re: Disney+ demands users’ age and gender so it can “deliver targeted advertising”

#156

Post by fxtentacle »

monksy wrote: post #151
fxtentacle wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have pretty much summarized the thinking that led me to build: 1. my own SmartWatch 2. a tool to remove iTunes DRM so that my TV can stay offline 3. fully offline speech recognition 4. a beefy Linux workstation 5. set up a pi-hole 6. patched LineageOS to work on my phone And now my life is pretty much ad-free :)

Don't forget to use libredirect, and ublockorigin on every browser. (libredirect will kill your shadow profiles websites collect about you)

I prefer uMatrix over uBlock. But thank you very much for telling me about libredirect :)

Re: Disney+ demands users’ age and gender so it can “deliver targeted advertising”

#157

Post by fxtentacle »

fsflover wrote: post #154
fxtentacle wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have pretty much summarized the thinking that led me to build: 1. my own SmartWatch 2. a tool to remove iTunes DRM so that my TV can stay offline 3. fully offline speech recognition 4. a beefy Linux workstation 5. set up a pi-hole 6. patched LineageOS to work on my phone And now my life is pretty much ad-free :)

> 1. my own SmartWatch You could buy PineTime instead.

I wanted to have WiFi connectivity and an e-ink display. But yes, I could have saved myself a lot of effort by purchasing a PineTime... It's just that I truly enjoyed the "work" of building my own.

Re: Disney+ demands users’ age and gender so it can “deliver targeted advertising”

#158

Post by mattbrewsbytes »

jklinger410 wrote: post #141

I wonder how many commenters on HN work for businesses that in some way or another use advertising to help sustain their revenue. By the tone of every thread discussing advertising you would think the answer would be zero. But it is certainly not zero.

I'm fine with advertising as a trade-off when a service is free but if I'm paying for a service why does that service have to become an ad network?

Is the only answer to making money in tech to get massive traffic so you can get 1% of people that actually click on an ad and buy something? What I can't fathom is the amount of money being spent on ads, surely it must be paying off.

Re: Disney+ demands users’ age and gender so it can “deliver targeted advertising”

#159

Post by ravenstine »

JohnFen wrote: post #149
ravenstine wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's worth considering a reduction in how much you watch. Let's be honest; you can just exist without being told to buy something every 15 minutes. Don't use services that force ads on paying customers, limit your passive screen time to no more than an hour per day, and find other things to do that advertising can't touch. Try being content not living vicariously through fictional characters or real people arguing wi…

True, but insufficient. You'd also have to avoid going outside in an urban environment, etc. The bombardment isn't only online.

You're right, but I think that takes the spirit of the issue a bit too far. In my experience, it's highly dependent on where you live. Where I live, which is somewhere between urban and suburban, there really aren't enough ads plastered everywhere such that it's at all interrupting. I don't think most people outright hate every single form of advertising – it's the frequent interruption, obnoxious music, unreasonable audio volume, and over-repetition that frustrates people, not to mention the quite blatant social engineering present in at least half of TV commercials in America. In certain urban centers, yes, the outdoor advertising approaches the absurdity of TV commercials, but that by no means represents most livable places. Most reasonable people would agree that there is an acceptable level and forms of advertising.

Re: Disney+ demands users’ age and gender so it can “deliver targeted advertising”

#160

Post by jklinger410 »

mattbrewsbytes wrote: post #158
jklinger410 wrote: post #141

I wonder how many commenters on HN work for businesses that in some way or another use advertising to help sustain their revenue. By the tone of every thread discussing advertising you would think the answer would be zero. But it is certainly not zero.

I'm fine with advertising as a trade-off when a service is free but if I'm paying for a service why does that service have to become an ad network? Is the only answer to making money in tech to get massive traffic so you can get 1% of people that actually click on an ad and buy something? What I can't fathom is the amount of money being spent on ads, surely it must be paying off.

You can definitely consider tracking and advertising as an extra cost of any service. You are obviously free to cancel services that are too expensive for you.

The answer to your second question is yes. How many newspapers do you think we would still have without digital advertising? Close to zero.

What people are willing to pay for and what is actually good for themselves and society are two different things. Advertising is a capitalist way to democratize attention.

I also sincerely hope everyone complaining about advertising is a hardcore socialist or communist. If not they are awfully hypocritical.

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