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what stops a company that charges for it's services from also making even more money by selling your data and showing you ads? even traditional magazines and n

what stops a company that charges for it's services from also making even more money by selling your data and showing you ads? even traditional magazines and newspapers had ads.

dragonwriter 7y ago
Traditional magazines and newspapers were generally primarily ad-supported; paid circulation was important as a signal that the as ads were getting viewed, drive there was no way to measure impressions delivered to actual readers directly; there's less reason for an ad-funded online service to charge users directly, since they don't need the indirect proxy measure of reach.
- your-nanny 7y ago
  yeah, but "less reason to" is not "more reason not to"
chongli 7y ago
what stops a company that charges for it's services from also making even more money by selling your data Their reputation. If a company develops the reputation for not doing that, then changing their minds will alienate people. Notably, Apple has begun to develop a reputation for caring about privacy. It fits their hardware-driven business model. It has a nice side effect of creating a moat that would be difficult for ad driven businesses to cross.
Nextgrid 7y ago
A paid service has to serve my interests for me to pay for it. A paid tool with ads will not succeed unless it’s absolutely necessary to the user and there’s no way around. People tolerate Facebook & their ads, dark patterns to get users addicted, etc when it’s free, but very few people would pay for that. Also, traditional magazines’ ads is something I personally value. It’s a safe way to discover new trends/products that have been somewhat vetted by the magazine (you won’t find any malware or scams on a full-page ad in a magazine, and if you did the reputation of that magazine would be severely damaged) without being stalked and seeing the same product everywhere for months just because you happened to check one out.

what stops a company that charges for it's services from also making even more money by selling your data and showing you ads? even traditional magazines and newspapers had ads.

dragonwriter 7y ago

Traditional magazines and newspapers were generally primarily ad-supported; paid circulation was important as a signal that the as ads were getting viewed, drive there was no way to measure impressions delivered to actual readers directly; there's less reason for an ad-funded online service to charge users directly, since they don't need the indirect proxy measure of reach.

your-nanny 7y ago
yeah, but "less reason to" is not "more reason not to"

chongli 7y ago

what stops a company that charges for it's services from also making even more money by selling your data Their reputation. If a company develops the reputation for not doing that, then changing their minds will alienate people. Notably, Apple has begun to develop a reputation for caring about privacy. It fits their hardware-driven business model. It has a nice side effect of creating a moat that would be difficult for ad driven businesses to cross.

Nextgrid 7y ago

A paid service has to serve my interests for me to pay for it. A paid tool with ads will not succeed unless it’s absolutely necessary to the user and there’s no way around. People tolerate Facebook & their ads, dark patterns to get users addicted, etc when it’s free, but very few people would pay for that. Also, traditional magazines’ ads is something I personally value. It’s a safe way to discover new trends/products that have been somewhat vetted by the magazine (you won’t find any malware or scams on a full-page ad in a magazine, and if you did the reputation of that magazine would be severely damaged) without being stalked and seeing the same product everywhere for months just because you happened to check one out.