Please Sell My Personal Information • Hacker News Board

Re: Please Sell My Personal Information

#31

Post by sneak » Fri, Jan 06, 2023, 6:33 PM UTC

mindslight wrote: post #29

sneak wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Obtaining "consent" via nagwalls and other dark patterns doesn't seem like its actually legal per the GDPR. Rather the enforcement is just so slow moving that it appears that way. So your complaint seems akin to saying that the laws against physical assault are pointless, because you were attacked and the police didn't find your assailant.

GDPR has had a huge cost. If it doesn't yield any benefit because it's not being enforced, then it is a bad law, because it has costs without benefit, unlike the prohibition on physical assault, which is "free".

Re: Please Sell My Personal Information

#32

Post by garganzol » Fri, Jan 06, 2023, 6:36 PM UTC

I am one of those few who loves ads. Some banners catch my attention to the point that I start analyzing the design and marketing choices made by their creators. I save the most outstanding banners to my hard drive to enjoy them later.

Is this a full-blown pathology or just an eccentric kink? Who knows, but the presented sarcastic article resonates with me.

Needless to say, I watch hours of YouTube videos full of ads from the 80s and 90s. I just can't get enough of them.

Re: Please Sell My Personal Information

#33

Post by garganzol » Fri, Jan 06, 2023, 6:38 PM UTC

pbreit wrote: post #15

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?

Yep. Annoying as hell, this should have been a browser setting. Global/per site/etc. But we should not blame EU here, we should blame predatory advertising tactics.

Re: Please Sell My Personal Information

#34

Post by surprisetalk » Fri, Jan 06, 2023, 6:47 PM UTC

garganzol wrote: post #32

I am one of those few who loves ads. Some banners catch my attention to the point that I start analyzing the design and marketing choices made by their creators. I save the most outstanding banners to my hard drive to enjoy them later. Is this a full-blown pathology or just an eccentric kink? Who knows, but the presented sarcastic article resonates with me. Needless to say, I watch hours of YouTube videos full of ads…

Woah! I'm genuinely curious what kind of things you've collected over the years!

If it's not too much trouble, could you send me a dump of everything? or just your favorites? Sounds like a fun rabbit-hole :)

hello@taylor.town

Re: Please Sell My Personal Information

#35

Post by verisimi » Fri, Jan 06, 2023, 6:51 PM UTC

temp2022account wrote: post #21

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…

There are some AIs being planned for you in the coming years...

Re: Please Sell My Personal Information

#36

Post by culi » Fri, Jan 06, 2023, 6:53 PM UTC

garganzol wrote: post #32

I am one of those few who loves ads. Some banners catch my attention to the point that I start analyzing the design and marketing choices made by their creators. I save the most outstanding banners to my hard drive to enjoy them later. Is this a full-blown pathology or just an eccentric kink? Who knows, but the presented sarcastic article resonates with me. Needless to say, I watch hours of YouTube videos full of ads…

Similarly I have a really old email account that's infested with spam. I mostly keep it around because the spam box is genuinely entertaining and I sometimes get really creative ones. The kind of spam you usually don't even find in your spam box nowadays. Like the real "Nigerian prince" classics

Re: Please Sell My Personal Information

#37

Post by OneLeggedCat » Fri, Jan 06, 2023, 6:55 PM UTC

chadd wrote: post #4

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.

I can't wait for insurance companies to start charging higher or lower rates based on the personality traits they've gleaned.

Re: Please Sell My Personal Information

#38

Post by titzer » Fri, Jan 06, 2023, 6:58 PM UTC

pbreit wrote: post #15

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?

Funny, we didn't have this problem 15 or 20 years ago. The banners are a reaction to the Ad Tumor's voracious appetite for tracking that we just got around to noticing.

Re: Please Sell My Personal Information

#39

Post by culi » Fri, Jan 06, 2023, 7:00 PM UTC

Baader-Meinhof wrote: post #28

imiric wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Isn't the root issue here "propaganda" in ads? If so, should we focus on banning that? 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 pe…

deciding what is and isn't "propaganda" feels like a much harder task than forcing companies to have your consent for how they use and who they share your data with...

Re: Please Sell My Personal Information

#40

Post by manicennui » Fri, Jan 06, 2023, 7:07 PM UTC

chadd wrote: post #4

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 have money burning a hole in your pocket? I don't want to be constantly prompted to buy and consume things.

When I have a problem, I research solutions and buy a product or service if necessary. I don't care what those with the largest marketing budgets think I should buy. I also follow companies on social media that I know and trust if I think I might be interested in their future products.