People here who don't like it also seem to be against advertising in any form beyond direct deals between publishers and advertisers I doubt many people object

People here who don't like it also seem to be against advertising in any form beyond direct deals between publishers and advertisers I doubt many people object to ad networks and real time bidding; it's just that the user's personal information shouldn't be exposed in the process. Yes, that means the only signals you'd get are the current page, and maybe high-level OS/browser/device info. (a) ok with personalized ads, providing they can be done sufficiently privately My opinion, which I think is fairly common around here, is that what you're describing is fundamentally impossible. Much like the incessant government demands for encryption backdoors that don't compromise security.