How it seems to me, in a simplified way, is that advertisers feel they have the right to serve you ads. Off the bat, I disagree with this notion, however I do see that without ads many websites would not be around or would be forced to hide behind a paywall.
At the same time, what guarantee do advertisers give users that their ads are not a potential attack vector, or what standard do they follow that their ads are not intrusive and degrade the performance of a users machine or overly distract and irritate
Tracking is not required to serve ads. I don't mind seeing billboards on the side of the road, but if the billboard is photographing my license plate and sending that to a central server, I have a problem with that.
by Anonymous Coward writes:
on Saturday September 08, 2012 @09:09AM (#41272767)
Exactly the point I was going to make - you don't need to be tracked to for the ads to be displayed. It's just less effective that way, because the advertiser does not know your lifestyle and preferences. Tracking can be beneficial for both the advertiser and the user - we all like to be offered relevant content, and the advertiser likes to offer it to people who he thinks will be interested. The problem is NOT EVERYBODY likes to be followed around and have a good piece of their life noted down in a central database.
My opinion is that the default option should always be choice, and will I always oppose having someone make the decision for me. And everyone else should learn that having a choice matters.
Tracking can be
beneficial for both the advertiser and the user - we all like to be offered
relevant content, and the advertiser likes to offer it to people who he
thinks will be interested.
No, we do NOT. We do NOT all like to be offered RELEVANT content. That is one of the insidious fallacies that ad peddlers (and Google is a prime offender) like to claim so they can justify their practices.
Ads are noise, whether they are relevant or not. Take your favourite kind of music, say your favourite songs from your favourite band. Do you want to hear those songs ALL THE TIME? While you're driving to work, while working, after work when watching TV, etc? Clearly NOT.
NEARLY ALL THE TIME, PEOPLE DON'T WANT ADVERTISING, RELEVANT OR NOT (caps to make it easy on the stupid Googlebot;-)
The whole idea that we need to be aware of available choices and having choices is good is bullshit. What we need is to be able to control our environment, and if we want choices we'll ask our friends first, thanks very much.
I call bullshit! I give my own experience lately as evidence - I HATE those lame/annoying tampon adds, they are f'ing everywhere and mean ZERO to me to say the least. Recently I've been doing a lot searching for tires and now, regardless if I follow them or not, I'm receiving more adds for tires - whether I follow them or not is a different story all together - the web is full of banners, although I would MUCH rather see a an advertisement for a tire than free flowing tampons!
NEARLY ALL THE TIME, PEOPLE DON'T WANT ADVERTISING, RELEVANT OR NOT (caps to make it easy on the stupid Googlebot;-)
Well, I don't want to work for a living, either, but I have to, because I will miss out on a lot of good things in life if I don't.
Same is true for putting up with ads. You may be one of those Luddities who wants to go back to the WWW of 1994, but for my part, I'd appreciate it if you left me out of your Utopia.
Intrusive ads (Flash, etc.) should be blocked without mercy, but the "tracking"
Huh? Seriously? You think watching ads is like working for a living?
You need to wake up. You don't actually have to watch ads. You're not going to be evicted from your home, or prevented from getting a car loan, and restaurants aren't going to turn you away because you didn't watch your quota of ads that day.
My opinion is that the default option should always be choice, and will I always oppose having someone make the decision for me. And everyone else should learn that having a choice matters.
With a yes/no toggle, there is always a choice made for you in the beginning. Either DNT is 'on', or it is 'off'.
As enough people have pointed out already DNT is doomed to fail anyway: As soon as people are starting to use it in great numbers, the advertisers are going to not follow it anymore.
"Who alone has reason to *lie himself out* of actuality? He who *suffers*
from it."
-- Friedrich Nietzsche
How it seems... (Score:5, Interesting)
At the same time, what guarantee do advertisers give users that their ads are not a potential attack vector, or what standard do they follow that their ads are not intrusive and degrade the performance of a users machine or overly distract and irritate
Re: (Score:5, Insightful)
Tracking is not required to serve ads. I don't mind seeing billboards on the side of the road, but if the billboard is photographing my license plate and sending that to a central server, I have a problem with that.
Re:How it seems... (Score:1)
Exactly the point I was going to make - you don't need to be tracked to for the ads to be displayed. It's just less effective that way, because the advertiser does not know your lifestyle and preferences. Tracking can be beneficial for both the advertiser and the user - we all like to be offered relevant content, and the advertiser likes to offer it to people who he thinks will be interested. The problem is NOT EVERYBODY likes to be followed around and have a good piece of their life noted down in a central database.
My opinion is that the default option should always be choice, and will I always oppose having someone make the decision for me. And everyone else should learn that having a choice matters.
Re:How it seems... (Score:5, Insightful)
No, we do NOT. We do NOT all like to be offered RELEVANT content. That is one of the insidious fallacies that ad peddlers (and Google is a prime offender) like to claim so they can justify their practices.
Ads are noise, whether they are relevant or not. Take your favourite kind of music, say your favourite songs from your favourite band. Do you want to hear those songs ALL THE TIME? While you're driving to work, while working, after work when watching TV, etc? Clearly NOT.
NEARLY ALL THE TIME, PEOPLE DON'T WANT ADVERTISING, RELEVANT OR NOT (caps to make it easy on the stupid Googlebot ;-)
The whole idea that we need to be aware of available choices and having choices is good is bullshit. What we need is to be able to control our environment, and if we want choices we'll ask our friends first, thanks very much.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
NEARLY ALL THE TIME, PEOPLE DON'T WANT ADVERTISING, RELEVANT OR NOT (caps to make it easy on the stupid Googlebot ;-)
Well, I don't want to work for a living, either, but I have to, because I will miss out on a lot of good things in life if I don't.
Same is true for putting up with ads. You may be one of those Luddities who wants to go back to the WWW of 1994, but for my part, I'd appreciate it if you left me out of your Utopia.
Intrusive ads (Flash, etc.) should be blocked without mercy, but the "tracking"
Re: (Score:2)
I will continue to block ads until there are no such ads as that "try this 1 weird trick to lose abdominal fat" bullshit.
Unfortunately for sites that need ad revenue to survive, this means they won't ever get it from me.
Advertisers shat where they eat the moment they forgot about things like "standards."
Re: (Score:2)
You need to wake up. You don't actually have to watch ads. You're not going to be evicted from your home, or prevented from getting a car loan, and restaurants aren't going to turn you away because you didn't watch your quota of ads that day.
Re: (Score:3)
My opinion is that the default option should always be choice, and will I always oppose having someone make the decision for me. And everyone else should learn that having a choice matters.
With a yes/no toggle, there is always a choice made for you in the beginning.
Either DNT is 'on', or it is 'off'.
As enough people have pointed out already DNT is doomed to fail anyway: As soon as people are starting to use it in great numbers, the advertisers are going to not follow it anymore.