21–30 of 105 posts
I personally think the best way to fix online advertising is to make it so expensive that door-to-door salesman suddenly make financial sense.
I cannot believe we are still in this ridiculous situation with these dreadful cookie approvals on Every. Single. Page. How did we let Europe do this to us?
> How did we let Europe do this to us? Blaming the EU for this feels pretty disingenuous. GDPR is definitely well-intentioned and in the interest of the consumers, the horribly annoying popups you get everywhere are just a form of malicious compliance from companies who want to track you anyway and make opting out as annoying as possible. Note that it's perfectly fine to have a page without a cookie popup. HN doesn't…
Intentions should not be a factor in evaluating whether laws are good laws or not. GDPR is not a good law. It hasn't even put a dent in the problem, and we are worse off for having it.
in all seriousness, i'll take the contrary opinion, i love targeted ads. saves me time, and there's no way to keep my data private anyway, so i might as well get some value out of it. i wish there were a browser plugin called "please accept all cookies" which would just get rid of the friction, and as a downstream fringe benefit, show me better ads.
Do you love targeted pricing too? Like user X is more likely to buy product Y so make the price +10%. It’s a good thing that targeted pricing is illegal in many places, but oh wait, there’s an AI pricing layer which cannot be reverse engineered so evidence of price targeting can’t be found. The problem with user data is it lasts forever, and as the political and technological environment further shifts into "profit-f…
Is this strictly true? Couldn't we can audit the model's parameters for things analogous to the user's economic status?
This has been my approach for the last 10 years: I live to make adversisers pay out the nose for my attention, then I don't buy products. I'll fill out surveys, invent names as long as the terms are vague enough to allow it, and do anything in my power to give large data-miners as much information to choke on as possible. I personally think the best way to fix online advertising is to make it so expensive that door-t…
I'm sure advertisers have had to invest into detection algorithms because of that addon.
Edit: links:
- Website: https://adnauseam.io/
- Addon for Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/adnauseam/
- Addon for Edge: https://microsoftedge.microsoft.com/addons/detail/adnauseam/...
- Source and instructions for installing on Chrome: https://github.com/dhowe/AdNauseam
Note that Google removed AdNauseam from their Chrome Store for interfering with their ad business. The fact they removed AdNauseam but not uBlock Origin is a good sign that the addon is doing something right!
This has been my approach for the last 10 years: I live to make adversisers pay out the nose for my attention, then I don't buy products. I'll fill out surveys, invent names as long as the terms are vague enough to allow it, and do anything in my power to give large data-miners as much information to choke on as possible. I personally think the best way to fix online advertising is to make it so expensive that door-t…
This is exactly why I like the concept behind AdNauseam, the UBlock Origin fork that will click every single ad it encounters (but still hide the actual ads). I'm sure advertisers have had to invest into detection algorithms because of that addon. Edit: links: - Website: https://adnauseam.io/ - Addon for Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/adnauseam/ - Addon for Edge: https://microsoftedge.microso…
in all seriousness, i'll take the contrary opinion, i love targeted ads. saves me time, and there's no way to keep my data private anyway, so i might as well get some value out of it. i wish there were a browser plugin called "please accept all cookies" which would just get rid of the friction, and as a downstream fringe benefit, show me better ads.
There's almost that. It doesn't always accept all cookies but it does hide the warnings: https://www.i-dont-care-about-cookies.eu/
I cannot believe we are still in this ridiculous situation with these dreadful cookie approvals on Every. Single. Page. How did we let Europe do this to us?
They don't need to track your information but they can make a quick buck selling you the latest far right conspiracy theory or fake medicine, but for that they need consent thanks to that pesky law that says they need to be careful.
By making the popups as annoying and obnoxious as possible, the populace will blame those darn EU law makers.
It's not unlike variable speed bumps installed into the road by crash injury lawyers intended to automatically slow down cars with airbags or seat belts to get everyone to stop taking normal precautions just so they can extract more profit.
Legislative bodies are slow, but dark patterns are being investigated by DPAs already. It's only a matter of time before these dark patterns will become punishable offences as well, which should clear the way for a cleaner internet.
Meanwhile, my solution is to not give websites that insist on badgering me with their manipulative consent forms any of my business. I can live without most Medium blogs.
in all seriousness, i'll take the contrary opinion, i love targeted ads. saves me time, and there's no way to keep my data private anyway, so i might as well get some value out of it. i wish there were a browser plugin called "please accept all cookies" which would just get rid of the friction, and as a downstream fringe benefit, show me better ads.
The thing is that your personal information doesn't just subject you to targeted ads. It also makes you vulnerable to propaganda, behavioral modification, and all sorts of psychological manipulation. Advertisers have known this for decades, and the internet has given them the perfect delivery method. While you can't be entirely invisible online, you can certainly make things more difficult for adtech by changing some…
Otherwise, if an ad is straight facts, even if it's making a specific argument based on your personality, is that intrinsically bad? Is it bad that we are exposed to convincing counter-arguments? Shouldn't we occasionally re-exam our beliefs, especially in light of new information?
More philosophically, should we, as free-willed people, be prevented from seeing "untruths"?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> How did we let Europe do this to us? Blaming the EU for this feels pretty disingenuous. GDPR is definitely well-intentioned and in the interest of the consumers, the horribly annoying popups you get everywhere are just a form of malicious compliance from companies who want to track you anyway and make opting out as annoying as possible. Note that it's perfectly fine to have a page without a cookie popup. HN doesn't…
Laws that allow malicious compliance are bad laws. Intentions should not be a factor in evaluating whether laws are good laws or not. GDPR is not a good law. It hasn't even put a dent in the problem, and we are worse off for having it.
This has been my approach for the last 10 years: I live to make adversisers pay out the nose for my attention, then I don't buy products. I'll fill out surveys, invent names as long as the terms are vague enough to allow it, and do anything in my power to give large data-miners as much information to choke on as possible. I personally think the best way to fix online advertising is to make it so expensive that door-t…
This is exactly why I like the concept behind AdNauseam, the UBlock Origin fork that will click every single ad it encounters (but still hide the actual ads). I'm sure advertisers have had to invest into detection algorithms because of that addon. Edit: links: - Website: https://adnauseam.io/ - Addon for Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/adnauseam/ - Addon for Edge: https://microsoftedge.microso…
No, you misunderstand, they removed it from their store because extensions are supposed to "have a single purpose that is clear to users"[0].
/s
[0] https://adnauseam.io/free-adnauseam.html (third paragraph)