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The other examples in this thread are useful, but here is another: Google wants to serve you "effective ads". What does that mean? It wants to serve you ads t

The other examples in this thread are useful, but here is another: Google wants to serve you "effective ads". What does that mean? It wants to serve you ads that you see and take some new action or think something you didn't before. In other words, Google wants to manipulate you to do things you otherwise wouldn't do. It is very much in Google's interest that you spend money with its advertisers, think things its advertisers want you to think, and do things that its advertisers want you to do, and in such a way that you don't realize you are doing it. Do you want to make them better at that?

eridius 10y ago
The entirety of social discourse and information sharing is to influence behavior. Personally, I don't agree with your unstated assumption that having someone else influence your behavior is automatically bad. Hell, you're doing that right now with your comment. That said, there are plenty of other reasons to value privacy other than not wanting to be served effective ads.
- compiler-guy 10y ago
  The question here is, "Are Google's advertisers really the ones you want to influence your behavior?" What interest of yours do they have in mind? What interest of society's?
  - eridius 10y ago
    Well, their interests are to make sure you see ads that are relevant to your interests, because advertisers are only happy if they actually sell whatever it is they're advertising. And on the face of it, seeing content that's relevant to your interests instead of content that's not seems like a good thing for users (completely ignoring for a moment all the scummy ads that prey on fear or ignorance to sell bad products). Speaking personally, if I have to see advertising, I'd rather see advertising that interests me instead of advertising that doesn't. However, I am not willing to sacrifice my privacy to do so.

eridius 10y ago

The entirety of social discourse and information sharing is to influence behavior. Personally, I don't agree with your unstated assumption that having someone else influence your behavior is automatically bad. Hell, you're doing that right now with your comment. That said, there are plenty of other reasons to value privacy other than not wanting to be served effective ads.

compiler-guy 10y ago
The question here is, "Are Google's advertisers really the ones you want to influence your behavior?" What interest of yours do they have in mind? What interest of society's?
- eridius 10y ago
  Well, their interests are to make sure you see ads that are relevant to your interests, because advertisers are only happy if they actually sell whatever it is they're advertising. And on the face of it, seeing content that's relevant to your interests instead of content that's not seems like a good thing for users (completely ignoring for a moment all the scummy ads that prey on fear or ignorance to sell bad products). Speaking personally, if I have to see advertising, I'd rather see advertising that interests me instead of advertising that doesn't. However, I am not willing to sacrifice my privacy to do so.