4 ms·

Agreed. We need to fix the web's default business model to something that does not require people to be tracked all the time.

jokethrowaway 5y ago
Why? If that gets me free stuff I'm fine with being tracked. Why don't we let users decide instead of letting a vocal minority dictate laws that ruin everyone's browsing experience?
- kreeben 5y ago
  Businesses ruined their web sites and everyone's browsing experience, not law makers.
- yunohn 5y ago
  > vocal minority A vocal minority that gets paid a cushy upper middle class wage and can afford to “pay for every website view”.
- smolder 5y ago
  The power gained over people when they submit to being monitored by pocket 1984 telescreens leads to totalitarian bullshit, inevitably. Free stuff for now, lost rights forever. It doesn't matter who is recording you, the information will end up in the wrong hands, and has. Maybe I seem hyperbolic, but on longer time scales there is certainly a trend towards taking our agency from us as we become more dependent on tech. There is no free lunch. What I would give, to be the guy everyone hates for taking their free shit away and saving democracy...
- Taywee 5y ago
  Mostly because it's not free. The money still comes from you, otherwise targeted tracking and advertising wouldn't make a profit, and wouldn't exist. For advertising supporting "free stuff", you have to accept one of a handful of potential realities: * Advertising companies are taking a loss, and are funding free websites out of the good of their hearts. (we know that this is not true) * Advertising companies make a killing, but the money still somehow doesn't come from you, so it is somehow being taken from somewhere else, or the companies paying for the advertising are taking a huge loss. * The money actually still comes from you, but most of it is going to the advertisers instead of the content that you actually want to support, and it comes from you in a roundabout way over a longer period of time so you don't even notice it. In short, if the companies are getting the money to run their "free content" AND the advertising companies are making a big profit, where does the money actually come from? It has to come from somewhere, it isn't being printed and gifted to the advertising companies. There's only one place I can see that this money comes from, and that's the people being advertised to. Why is anybody okay with being psychologically manipulated knowing that the benefits of the manipulation primarily come to the manipulators rather than the content that they like? And also knowing that the manipulation itself continually warps and corrupts the content as everything is being optimized toward pure "Engagement" rather than actual useful information? Wouldn't you rather pay directly for the thing that you like than be subtly manipulated into paying some weird third party longer down the line?
ajdegol 5y ago
If we fix that and crypto we are up to web 4.0 ...

jokethrowaway 5y ago

Why? If that gets me free stuff I'm fine with being tracked. Why don't we let users decide instead of letting a vocal minority dictate laws that ruin everyone's browsing experience?

kreeben 5y ago
Businesses ruined their web sites and everyone's browsing experience, not law makers.
yunohn 5y ago
> vocal minority A vocal minority that gets paid a cushy upper middle class wage and can afford to “pay for every website view”.
smolder 5y ago
The power gained over people when they submit to being monitored by pocket 1984 telescreens leads to totalitarian bullshit, inevitably. Free stuff for now, lost rights forever. It doesn't matter who is recording you, the information will end up in the wrong hands, and has. Maybe I seem hyperbolic, but on longer time scales there is certainly a trend towards taking our agency from us as we become more dependent on tech. There is no free lunch. What I would give, to be the guy everyone hates for taking their free shit away and saving democracy...
Taywee 5y ago
Mostly because it's not free. The money still comes from you, otherwise targeted tracking and advertising wouldn't make a profit, and wouldn't exist. For advertising supporting "free stuff", you have to accept one of a handful of potential realities: * Advertising companies are taking a loss, and are funding free websites out of the good of their hearts. (we know that this is not true) * Advertising companies make a killing, but the money still somehow doesn't come from you, so it is somehow being taken from somewhere else, or the companies paying for the advertising are taking a huge loss. * The money actually still comes from you, but most of it is going to the advertisers instead of the content that you actually want to support, and it comes from you in a roundabout way over a longer period of time so you don't even notice it. In short, if the companies are getting the money to run their "free content" AND the advertising companies are making a big profit, where does the money actually come from? It has to come from somewhere, it isn't being printed and gifted to the advertising companies. There's only one place I can see that this money comes from, and that's the people being advertised to. Why is anybody okay with being psychologically manipulated knowing that the benefits of the manipulation primarily come to the manipulators rather than the content that they like? And also knowing that the manipulation itself continually warps and corrupts the content as everything is being optimized toward pure "Engagement" rather than actual useful information? Wouldn't you rather pay directly for the thing that you like than be subtly manipulated into paying some weird third party longer down the line?

ajdegol 5y ago

If we fix that and crypto we are up to web 4.0 ...