> why is lowering online ad revenue [a negative effect]? It may not do that in the long term. Total spend for online advertising is probably a relatively stabl

> why is lowering online ad revenue [a negative effect]? It may not do that in the long term. Total spend for online advertising is probably a relatively stable figure. In the short term it will likely have, at least from where I stand, a net positive effect. Now that industrial-grade stalking is finally illegal, companies whose sole business model was based on it will suffer. Possibly collapse. Well boohoo, cry me a river. If and when large enough portion of the target market may no longer be stalked, the advertisers will have to come up with new (or rediscover old), non-intrusive ways to target their audience. The value of intent- and context-based audience segmentation might just go up again. But how do you know which ads, and on which sites, ended up working the best? How about generating per-impression [bonus] codes? You don't need to stalk your potential customers if they willingly submit opaque and non-trackable information that allows you to trace the ad campaigns. GDPR does allow incentivisation, after all.