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Comcast-Funded Civil Rights Groups Claim Low-Income People Want Ads Over Privacy
- jasonkostempski 10y agoHow about ads with privacy? They are not mutually exclusive.
- hackuser 10y ago> How about ads with privacy? They are not mutually exclusive. Mozilla attempted this on the Firefox home page. Nobody understood the point (partly Mozilla's fault for poor messaging) and it was roundly criticized for putting advertising in the browser, instead of providing a solution to funding websites without violating privacy.
- Chaebixi 10y ago> How about ads with privacy? They are not mutually exclusive. Yeah, but internet advertising fetishizes "personalization" and quantitative metrics, which are predicated on invasions of privacy. Advertisers could put those toys down, and go back to more traditional, privacy-preserving advertising, but I don't think they have the maturity and willpower to do so on their own.
- ouid 10y agoyou're asserting that the reason why advertising organizations who are competing to deliver the most valuable advertising product to their clients end up invading people's privacy is a lack of maturity and willpower? You're insane if you believe that this problem is not systemic.
- Chaebixi 10y agoI was talking collectively about the ad-men and the companies hiring them. And yes, I think the group lacks the maturity and willpower to act ethically in the face of competing pressures.
- sp332 10y agoHow would they know what kind of ad to show if they don't know anything about you?
- mattnewton 10y agoThe same way it used to work: you show the same ads to almost everyone based on the content, not the people. Not that I think advertisers will go for it.
- api 10y agoThat's considered "spray and pray" today. Today advertisers want data, data, data, and micro-targeting is everything. The entire advertising industry has become something akin to a private signals intelligence agency.
- criddell 10y agoToday? For the past 20 years I've been hearing how data collection will enable advertisers to precisely target ads and that ads would go from being a nuisance to being useful. It's not working very well. How much more data do they need to collect before it starts working?
- jklinger410 10y agoThis is not the fault of the platform, but the advertiser. When you see an ad that's too tailored most people just get scared anyway. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
- criddell 10y agoI don't believe that for a second. I've seen relevant ads beside search results on Google, but that doesn't really take a lot of magic to figure out that when I search for "Aeropress", I'm interested in coffee. Ads in podcasts have been somewhat effective as well. I use Blue Apron, I like Audible, I've checked out Squarespace, I bought a Casper dog bed. AFAIK, none of the podcasts know anything about me, but they do know generally who their audience is.
- omginternets 10y agoTargeted ads already convert miserably, so they (unfortunately) sort of are mutually exclusive...
- sfifs 10y agoThat's called TV. Cost per reach point on TV is a lot lower than the internet which charges advertisers extra for "targeting" Can be done... rates would have to go down below TV to work and even so will be attractive only for big advertizers (think billions in sales).. Smaller advertisers would have no interest in the medium without targeting
- rfrank 10y agoReminds me of Facebook's arguments in support of Free Basics. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-35197062 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-35197062
- meesterdude 10y agowow, give me something i very much don't want while taking away something i very much want. Sounds more like corporate rights than civil rights.
- Overtonwindow 10y agoIs there nothing Comcast won't do to screw the public?
- inputcoffee 10y agoOn the plus side, the low-income group can probably get the privacy issue addressed through great customer service.
- kalleboo 10y agoThey'd probably also agree to slavery to get food and shelter
- LeifCarrotson 10y agoI can't imagine what they would be willing to do for a luxury like health care!
- greedyliberal 10y agoThis idea makes sense, empirically. There is a cost to provide internet, and low-income individuals may be more willing to provide a combination of valuable assets (cash & data), while higher income individuals would be willing to provide more cash in exchange for no data. Regardless, the end payment is the same, it's just a question about how you want to pay. Edit: For those who think this may be a money grab, remember that the government is getting tax revenue out of the profits ISPs make from monetizing your data. While the ethics of this are debatable, the alternative is zero additional government revenue. So the ethics of privacy need to be weighed against the ethics of providing programs for communities that could be beneficial.
- ehsankia 10y agoIf they provide a decent free connection (at least 10/2), and support it buy collecting your data, then fine. But to force it on people who pay for a connection makes zero sense.
- thatcat 10y agoIsps already have an obligation to run lines to low income areas and are required to offer lowered income / lower speed tiers. This just subsidises it so that they make more money from another source.
- mfringel 10y agoBut that's not how services are priced... you can't guarantee that how/what a private entity will cross-subsidize. The whole point of a Universal Service Fund (for telephony) is that there was no motivation for this kind of monetization. As for the gov't getting tax revenue from selling the information, that's just unpersuasive. First, it's an incredibly indirect way of getting the revenue, and second that could be used to justify any profit-making activity, which makes it meaningless.
- bighi 10y agoIt makes sense. Poor people can't pay for privacy, now that it became a feature instead of a right.
- eveningcoffee 10y agoFirst there is strong bias here, so we actually do not know really if it is true. Second, lets imagine that poor people would prefer whipping instead of imprisonment (they can return to work sooner) or fine. Should we follow the same logic here then and accept it?
- mfringel 10y agoIn your example, "whipping", "imprisonment", and "[or] fine" are all examples of punishments for a crime. Being poor is not a crime.
- marcosdumay 10y agoI think that's the point.
- eveningcoffee 10y agoOf course being poor is not a crime. But we all may make mistakes. For example exceed the speed limit. Say, instead of fine 50, I may agree to accept 5 whips with a wooden stick on my back. Because I need these 50. So should we accept whipping the poor if they demand it?
- cmdrfred 10y agoI don't see how physical violence is on the level of some company paying to know you visited a porn site.
- eveningcoffee 10y agoBoth are violating ones decency. On different levels of course. In both examples decency is traded for money. I would argue that violation of the online privacy is worse than whipping. No, the problem is not that somebody knows what specific content you are watching. The problem is that they find out you are poor. Youtube once considered that I could be a stereotypic poor person living in the US. The result was ugly.
- cmurf 10y agoI think it's asinine "free market" religious nonsense. If we had done this ~100 years ago with phones being rolled out to rural areas, the free market would have said pay $1000 a month for phone service. Instead the government forced everyone to pay a subsidy so it'd be cheaper in rural areas, and even cheaper for poor people anywhere including cities. No one complained about this. So now the idea is privacy is a commodity to be purchased, and freedom from ads is a commodity to be purchased. It's every man for himself, that leads to more distrust, less cooperation, and more acrimony and I think it's incompatible with a civil society. This classist variety of Republican/conservative/capitalist - whatever label to put on it - is vile. It's neo-aristocracy, and it's anti-democratic.
- cmdrfred 10y agoIf this business model is not OK for Comcast why is it OK for Google and the rest of the internet?
- hatsunearu 10y agoAds over privacy? Why can't we have Ads vs. Privacy? Income for Comcast can come from either at the cost of serving ads OR at the cost of privacy--not both. What the fuck?
- prklmn 10y agoThem wanting people to believe that this will lower the cost of internet service is laughable. Have TV ads lowered the cost of cable? We need to think of the internet as a public utility. How absurd would it be if every time you used water in your home, you heard an advertisement playing from a speaker in the faucet.
- hackuser 10y ago> Them wanting people to believe that this will lower the cost of internet service is laughable. Have TV ads lowered the cost of cable? It's a very important point; this false argument is often used. In truth, in the marketplace, goods are not priced at 'cost-plus'; i.e., they aren't priced by taking the cost to the vendor and adding a profit margin. Goods are priced at the point that will maximize profit for the vendor; economists would say at the point that maximizes marginal profit. Colloquially, they charge as much as they can. The fact that the vendor has another stream of income from Product B doesn't cause them to reduce their prices for Product A. Microsoft doesn't cut the price of Windows because they are making so much from Office.
- aero142 10y agoThis is only half the argument, though. Yes, companies charge as much as possible, but prices go down when a competitor can offer a comparable good at a lower price. Some markets clearly have features that make competition harder.
- hackuser 10y agoAgreed, but how do you see that applying in this situation? Privacy regulations apply either to all competitors or none.
- aero142 10y agoI think both sides just argue past each other. Democrats promote government regulation as the solution without discussing the problems. Heavy regulation often leads to stagnation and lack of innovation. You also have to deal with regulatory capture since your politicians now have huge influence and are worth bribing. Republicans argue for "free-market solutions" which are actually government granted or encouraged monopolies where no competition exists. There lots of examples of free market capitalism making the world a better place and markets failing as well. There are examples government run services providing great consistent services and there are examples of government bureaucracies soaking up budget and graft in their own or lobbyists interest. Which tool do you think will work best in this situation and why? How do you plan to deal with the inherent problems of government involvement in ISP regulation? I'm just tired of "free market solves all" vs "corporation are evil, government is universal solution". We learn nothing and convince no one.
- equalunique 10y agoI have no problem with ads being targeted to me. It increases the likelihood something useful will pop up on my screen. I also don't mind using sites which are ad free, nor do I mind paying for ad-free services like YouTube Red.
- tomjen3 10y agoOh my God, that is low. And quite frankly, for a of people, they're probably right. Especially because people don't understand what they are giving up, because it somehow has to do with "computers" and are therefore different from real life. If, however you were to explain to a person, that this would be the same as his landlord knowing every single step he took in his home, when he took that step, what he was listening to when he took the step, who he was taking the step with, exactly how he looked when he took the step and use it to shoe advertising, he would cry foul and he would understand that this was not a small thing.
- shmerl 10y agoThey mean Comcast funded corporate control group? Calling it "civil rights" is an insult. This paid propaganda is just sickening.
- cat199 10y agoLow income people also would prefer spam and coolaid every single meal instead of starving - that doesn't mean it should be promoted as a good diet...
- cr0sh 10y agoI'm wondering how this is all going to play out with ad-blocking software and plugins...? Are we going to see where - if you run such software - suddenly you can't browse any sites, or you can only browse very slowly? Or will running ad-blocking software be considered illegal or something - because you're depriving potential profit from somebody? Will ads slowly take over the entire experience? To the point where you just don't want to use the internet any longer (or at least the web)? Will people move back to gopher and ftp (oh, we can only hope)? BBSs? Door games and MUDs to the rescue? My wife and I have considered moving to a more rural area of our state - we're both tired of the city and of people in general. I've lamented about how out in such areas, internet service would be spotty or non-existent, but you know what? Maybe that's a good thing, ultimately. If I need internet for some reason, I'll just mosey into town, send an email or two, then mosey back home. These advertisers, their enablers, ISPs, and the corrupt political machine that supports it all? They can go f--- themselves.