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The internet has not been like this for two decades. It has been like this since Google and Facebook became ubiquitous, which didn't start until the mid 2000's

The internet has not been like this for two decades. It has been like this since Google and Facebook became ubiquitous, which didn't start until the mid 2000's. Before then, the internet was still the internet, only without most of the data hoovering. I am totally in support of legislation that curtails this kind of thing. This isn't a case of the internet being made worse, it's a case of consumer protections catching up to technology.

adventured 9y ago
I don't know what you're talking about. The Internet has been globally widely open since the mid 1990s (except for a few countries like China), when it comes to commerce. That has only begun to slowly change in the last ten years. Even now, the Internet is still widely globally open. Compliance challenges are still relatively modest. The point is, that's beginning to change at an accelerating rate.
- ionised 9y ago
  You're misunderstanding what I'm saying. The internet has been open for over two decades yes, but the ubiquitous surveillance of users and tracking and advertising across various websites and services is something that only really became a reality as Facebook and Google began to dominate. Again, that seemed to start happening after the mid 2000's.
SCHiM 9y ago
Totally agree. It used to be that one could browse the internet, and the only ads you'd see were the ads that the webmasters had personally negotiated for. These days everywhere you go your data is sucked in, and your 'reward' is a 'targeted' ad. The degradation in quality of service is staggering and sad. That said, I hope the legislation in this case will be sound. I hope that it at least leads to less invasive tracking. I hope it will be the combination of this legislation and the increasing amount of ad blockers that finally kill obtrusive ads and tracking. When I use a computer without an adblocker(tracking blocking included) these days there's a major chilling effect. It's gotten so bad that I don't dare search for certain things on my mobile (andoid) because I know somewhere a model is being trained on what I do and type. It makes me uncomfortable and suspicious, and also angry at tech companies that are using my behavior to earn money. I already paid for your phone, you don't deserve anything more. Cryptomining in a users browser, when not done through an exploit with hidden windows, is a perfect solution to website financing for larger websites. The smaller ones need to make up their mind about finding a balance between micro payments/subscriptions/patreon/free content.

adventured 9y ago

I don't know what you're talking about. The Internet has been globally widely open since the mid 1990s (except for a few countries like China), when it comes to commerce. That has only begun to slowly change in the last ten years. Even now, the Internet is still widely globally open. Compliance challenges are still relatively modest. The point is, that's beginning to change at an accelerating rate.

ionised 9y ago
You're misunderstanding what I'm saying. The internet has been open for over two decades yes, but the ubiquitous surveillance of users and tracking and advertising across various websites and services is something that only really became a reality as Facebook and Google began to dominate. Again, that seemed to start happening after the mid 2000's.

SCHiM 9y ago

Totally agree. It used to be that one could browse the internet, and the only ads you'd see were the ads that the webmasters had personally negotiated for. These days everywhere you go your data is sucked in, and your 'reward' is a 'targeted' ad. The degradation in quality of service is staggering and sad. That said, I hope the legislation in this case will be sound. I hope that it at least leads to less invasive tracking. I hope it will be the combination of this legislation and the increasing amount of ad blockers that finally kill obtrusive ads and tracking. When I use a computer without an adblocker(tracking blocking included) these days there's a major chilling effect. It's gotten so bad that I don't dare search for certain things on my mobile (andoid) because I know somewhere a model is being trained on what I do and type. It makes me uncomfortable and suspicious, and also angry at tech companies that are using my behavior to earn money. I already paid for your phone, you don't deserve anything more. Cryptomining in a users browser, when not done through an exploit with hidden windows, is a perfect solution to website financing for larger websites. The smaller ones need to make up their mind about finding a balance between micro payments/subscriptions/patreon/free content.