> I don't agree with the assertion that this has a materially negative impact on anyone's privacy or life as a whole. I haven't asserted that it has any negati

> I don't agree with the assertion that this has a materially negative impact on anyone's privacy or life as a whole. I haven't asserted that it has any negative impact. To say that it has no tangible impact (as you have) is decidedly wrong. Either the manipulation is working at a grand scale (which is scary in its own right), or people that invest that much money in targeted ads are idiots buying snake oil. Regardless, Facebook and Google now command huge social and political influence, and they're entirely in the business of using my private information to sell ads. I guess wanting to be the constant target of increasingly direct attempts at manipulation is a matter of personal preference, but the fact that it has an obvious material impact on the world is not.