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EU data regulator bans personalised advertising on Facebook and Instagram

reuters.com

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Re: EU data regulator bans personalised advertising on Facebook and Instagram

#151

Post by MereInterest »

pembrook wrote: post #75

Ok, my contrarian hot take (for HN at least). The real entities we need to be afraid of in regards to privacy are governments & politicians, not companies & entrepreneurs. The worst thing a company can do is try to sell you more soap. The government on the other hand can literally ruin your life (or even end it in some countries). The EU is doing a fantastic job of keeping everyone distracted by pointing the finger a…

> The worst thing a company can do is try to sell you more soap.

A company can bar the exits, letting you burn to death [0]. A company can send private militias to force you to work [1] (or because you were sent the wrong set of MtG cards [2]). A company can improperly store pesticide, until the resulting explosion kills thousands [3]. A company can own every house and store in a town, managing your expenses to ensure you can't leave [4]. A company can bribe judges to provide them with child labor [5].

Some of these were illegal at the time they were done. Some of these were made illegal as a result of these events. All of them are within the nature of companies, optimizing in pursuit of profit regardless of the human cost. That nature is useful for improving lives, but must be carefully controlled to prevent it from trampling us all.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fi...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton_(detective_agency)

[2] https://gizmodo.com/magic-the-gathering-leaks-wizards-wotc-p...

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_town

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal

Re: EU data regulator bans personalised advertising on Facebook and Instagram

#152

Post by prmoustache »

pembrook wrote: post #75

Ok, my contrarian hot take (for HN at least). The real entities we need to be afraid of in regards to privacy are governments & politicians, not companies & entrepreneurs. The worst thing a company can do is try to sell you more soap. The government on the other hand can literally ruin your life (or even end it in some countries). The EU is doing a fantastic job of keeping everyone distracted by pointing the finger a…

I think we don't have to accept one in order to reject the other but yes we should talk more about those countries (mainly France, Spain, Poland) who are pushing to backdoor end to end encryption.

Re: EU data regulator bans personalised advertising on Facebook and Instagram

#153

Post by diego_sandoval »

jqpabc123 wrote: post #2

Personalized advertising should never have been allowed without a specific opt-in. I know lots of advertisers think they can't live without it --- because promoters have told them so.

You specifically opt-in when you create your account on IG/FB.

Re: EU data regulator bans personalised advertising on Facebook and Instagram

#154

Post by stcroixx »

pembrook wrote: post #75

Ok, my contrarian hot take (for HN at least). The real entities we need to be afraid of in regards to privacy are governments & politicians, not companies & entrepreneurs. The worst thing a company can do is try to sell you more soap. The government on the other hand can literally ruin your life (or even end it in some countries). The EU is doing a fantastic job of keeping everyone distracted by pointing the finger a…

Government routinely abuse their power to coerce companies into behaving as they'd like. So if a company builds a tracking and surveillance network, the government now has that at their disposal.

Re: EU data regulator bans personalised advertising on Facebook and Instagram

#155

Post by aesh2Xa1 »

spacebanana7 wrote: post #99
repelsteeltje wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting line of reasoning. :-) That would imply, that (globally) we spent significantly [EDIT: remove -less-, insert:] more on advertising before the advent of personalized targeting.

Not necessarily, cost reductions can increase, decrease or have no effect the total expenditure on goods. The total effect is quite ambiguous depending on the income and substitution effects.

I agree. I've always heard "charge what the market will bear."

Why would a reduction in advertising costs equate to lower consumer pricing — if there's a better margin to be had instead?

Re: EU data regulator bans personalised advertising on Facebook and Instagram

#156

Post by Nextgrid »

Broken_Hippo wrote: post #84
thfuran wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Also, it is almost impossible to have a free internet without ads Good. A well-functioning market might emerge instead.

Somehow, by excluding poorer folks, you get a well-functioning market? I doubt it. Regulation is the best chance for well-functioning markets. I highly doubt we are going to be without advertisements.

This argument is flawed.

Advertisers pay money to serve ads not out of the goodness of their hearts but because they want to earn back not only their initial investment for the ad but a profit on top. Since they keep buying ads, it means that they are able to achieve this.

This means it should always be cheaper to pay for a service directly (avoiding all middlemen involved in the advertising industry) than to "pay" with ads. In the latter you'll not only still pay, but will have to pay more to cover the overheads of the advertising industry.

If folks were truly poor then they would be denied service since nobody would pay to serve them ads. Advertisers paying to serve them ads means there's still money to be extracted out of them, money they're better off just paying directly for the service they use.

Re: EU data regulator bans personalised advertising on Facebook and Instagram

#157

Post by xxs »

diego_sandoval wrote: post #153
jqpabc123 wrote: post #2

Personalized advertising should never have been allowed without a specific opt-in. I know lots of advertisers think they can't live without it --- because promoters have told them so.

You specifically opt-in when you create your account on IG/FB.

this is not the case in the EU at any rate whatsoever

Re: EU data regulator bans personalised advertising on Facebook and Instagram

#158

Post by vharuck »

pembrook wrote: post #134
LightHugger wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you realize that large enough corporations are a form of government, your way of thinking really starts falling to bits... But, the government is the solution to when business gets too much power. You can't convince a profit motivated corporation to stop doing something evil as long as it's profitable, so it's the government's job to protect people from corporate governance.

> the government is the solution to when business gets too much power. I totally agree with this. But are personalized Facebook ads really an example of this? And what's the solution when the government gets too much power? Especially in a "democracy," when the people have implicitly given approval for this by voting in the people who are attempting to consolidate power?

>And what's the solution when the government gets too much power?

Elections and courts. Compared to private entities, the government is very restricted in what it can do. When a company says, "We won't share your data with anyone," there's nothing you can do when they change their mind. But you can sue the government for damages.

Re: EU data regulator bans personalised advertising on Facebook and Instagram

#159

Post by ajsnigrutin »

pembrook wrote: post #75

Ok, my contrarian hot take (for HN at least). The real entities we need to be afraid of in regards to privacy are governments & politicians, not companies & entrepreneurs. The worst thing a company can do is try to sell you more soap. The government on the other hand can literally ruin your life (or even end it in some countries). The EU is doing a fantastic job of keeping everyone distracted by pointing the finger a…

But the company can sell your data to the government too. Googles location history can tell a lot about where you've been and when. Social networks can tell who you've been communicating with and what about. Sites like facebook can sell your interests, google can sell them your search topics, etc.

Imagine being an evil dictator, who just got to power after years of trying... what's the easiest way to find your strongest opposition? Just buy data from social networks.

I mean... look at some stuck up countries with a lot of religious nuts, and some data, that you either bought a butt plug, googled a butt plug, went to an online buttplug store or worse... and it's just a bit of plastic.

Re: EU data regulator bans personalised advertising on Facebook and Instagram

#160

Post by kwanbix »

mcv wrote: post #123
kwanbix wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you think they can do?

Sell it. Health insurance companies are always interested in more details about your health so they can adjust your premium accordingly. Or use it for excuses to deny coverage.

So what you need to do is regulate what they can do with the data, not forbid personalized ads.

By the way, here in Europe we have universal healthcare, maybe is something the US should consider?

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