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That didn’t happen a ton before the Internet anyway, because even if you can’t profile individuals you can profile a readership accurately enough not to make a
by karatestomp 7y ago
That didn’t happen a ton before the Internet anyway, because even if you can’t profile individuals you can profile a readership accurately enough not to make a mistake that bad very frequently. That just requires having a decent guess of who’s reading something and where it’s distributed, not tracking every individual reader. Ditto billboards and such. Don’t advertise your European product on a highway sign in Wyoming and you solve the geography problem. Post your for-sale ad for a tractor in the ag paper you see at your local feed shop. Doesn’t take tracking anyone to do that.
- missedthecue 7y agoTargeted advertisements on highway billboards didn't exist in 1990 and they don't exist today. However, on the internet, there is no controlling who sees or clicks on your advert without targeting controls, hence why said targeting controls are a godsend and should be protected.
- karatestomp 7y agoRight, individual targeting before the Internet was basically limited to mail. But a billboard is still targeted to a population! There are different ads on billboard in Times Square versus a rural stretch of Nevada interstate for a reason. You can control which sites you’re paying to run your ad on the Internet, just like anywhere else. The idea that internet advertising must be wholly indiscriminate without spying on and targeting individuals is absurd.