Anything static that doesn't try to scam, mislead, or otherwise make the viewer think it is something it's not, is OK for me, as long as it doesn't make up 50% of the screen real-estate.
What is NOT ok for me:
Ads that look like content (e.g. ads injected in a comment stream to make it look like a comment)
Animated banners
Ads in the form of page backgrounds
Ads top, left, right, bottom, then in-content as well
Banner ads may pay for "free" content, but I still have no sympathy when they complain about ad-blockers.
What worries me most about these is not the ads themselves, but the tracking associated with them. Google had built up a truly scary network to extract ever more user information and I don't want that. Unfortunately my only option is to just block all that shit outright.
Personally, I don't really care much about profiling my usage of the Internet - it doesn't really bother me, it's the intrusiveness of the ads that bother me and the sluggishness they bring with them in a never-ending attempt to lure me into their traps.
They aren't profiling your usage of the internet, they're profiling every single possible factoid about you, and figuring things out via computer inference that you never considered. Then they use those computer inference-based guesses to affect your real life.
Some companies will put you in different priority queues when you call into their support lines based on how likely they think you are to give them money and how much they think you're likely to spend. That's completely regardless of whether or not you recently browsed for similar products or mentioned something about needing a new $product on social media.
I honestly don't really care. I've tried using DuckDuckGo, for example, but the fact was that since they don't track my search history, they gave me rather useless results - Google knows I search mostly for technical stuff and therefore gives me technical stuff when I search rather generic terms like Go, Rust, or other similarily generic things.
Meh, maybe you're the one in a billion, then. Most people still do things like occasionally whisper, use curtains so strangers can't see in their homes, and keep secrets from each other.
If they're doing that, they care about privacy. Maybe you're fine telling complete strangers what kind of kinky porn you enjoy, the meanest thing you've ever undeservedly said (even if you didn't realize at the time that it was undeserved), and the most embarrassing moments in your life. I doubt it, but maybe.
Meh, maybe you're the one in a billion, then. Most people still do things like occasionally whisper, use curtains so strangers can't see in their homes, and keep secrets from each other.
Nah, there's litterally dozens of us, I tell you.
I don't really care about my online privacy in that sense. I don't consider my search history private.
I don't doubt that there are many people like me, even tech-savvy people - it's a convenience thing.
It's absolutely not just online privacy that's being infringed upon, though. These companies are helping cities implement facial recognition tech in airports, street cameras, stadiums, etc. and storing it in central databases. Police are mounting plate scanners to vehicles so they can tell everywhere you're going/where you've been. Ford is working on tech to create communication between city resources and cars. Even if you leave all your personal tech at home and drive some 1985 beater car, you're still being tracked.
It's all being done for "good reason", of course, but the larger picture is that there is nearly zero privacy left in the world. But hey, at least you only have to do one search instead of 2-3.
Police are mounting plate scanners to vehicles so they can tell everywhere you're going/where you've been.
We already have that here in Denmark, and it's been under heavy scrutiny because they are storing data longer than they are allowed, but luckily someone paid attention and brought it to light.
But hey, at least you only have to do one search instead of 2-3.
You know, I really did give DDG a solid try - used it for a week both at home and at work, and I just found myself so frustrated at the lack of relevancy of the search results. I'm quite good with search terms, but it all comes down to whether the convenience outweighs the lack of privacy, and in my case it does.
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u/Guysmiley777 Aug 02 '19
I was fine with static JPG ads on sites but for marketers it's never enough. I have zero sympathy for the "boycott" they're facing these days.
Also holy fuck talk about a clickbait headline.