11 ms·

dont know why errbody has to track each other. in the old days they'd just send you a catalog and if you were interested in something you could just buy it

ChuckNorris89 4y ago
Because $
alangibson 4y ago
Because empirically you can make more money doing it. A for-profit enterprise can only resist for so long.
- cynusx 4y ago
  It's more to answer the question if you make any money at all doing it, it's easy in advertising to spend more on ads then you make in sales from those ads
  - nerdponx 4y ago
    But the ad buyers aren't the ones doing the tracking. They pay intermediaries like Facebook to do the tracking. It's the data sellers that are the problem in GP's post. Companies like Experian and Visa who have huge amounts of data and naturally cannot resist making a buck off it.
    - cynusx 4y ago
      Agree, data sellers though are effectively dealt with by GDPR. Other major markets should consider adopting GDPR too
colejohnson66 4y ago
Mailing those catalogs for free costs money. Now, we can save that money and spend it on advertising that gives marginally better returns! Tangent: how many volumes would an Amazon catalog be?
- alpaca128 4y ago
  > how many volumes would an Amazon catalog be? How many products and companies would Amazon remove if they had to pay for each page in their catalog? Either way it would be a massive improvement.
  - jenscow 4y ago
    The search would be much better, too.
dacohenii 4y ago
Ads.
lamp987 4y ago
because they sell your data
evancox100 4y ago
Except that retailers and credit card companies were/still are selling your purchase history to advertisers and data brokers. https://www.aclu.org/blog/privacy-technology/consumer-privacy/why-dont-we-have-more-privacy-when-we-use-credit-card https://www.aclu.org/blog/privacy-technology/consumer-privac...
- nerdponx 4y ago
  Don't forget about credit rating agencies, and the US Post Office, and ... The tracking has always been there, it's just now becoming harder to ignore. It sucks, but it's possibly also a good thing because people are finally starting to care.
zouhair 4y ago
It's about changing your opinion., so they can sell you what they want not what you need or/and want.

ChuckNorris89 4y ago

Because $

alangibson 4y ago

Because empirically you can make more money doing it. A for-profit enterprise can only resist for so long.

cynusx 4y ago
It's more to answer the question if you make any money at all doing it, it's easy in advertising to spend more on ads then you make in sales from those ads
- nerdponx 4y ago
  But the ad buyers aren't the ones doing the tracking. They pay intermediaries like Facebook to do the tracking. It's the data sellers that are the problem in GP's post. Companies like Experian and Visa who have huge amounts of data and naturally cannot resist making a buck off it.
  - cynusx 4y ago
    Agree, data sellers though are effectively dealt with by GDPR. Other major markets should consider adopting GDPR too

colejohnson66 4y ago

Mailing those catalogs for free costs money. Now, we can save that money and spend it on advertising that gives marginally better returns! Tangent: how many volumes would an Amazon catalog be?

alpaca128 4y ago
> how many volumes would an Amazon catalog be? How many products and companies would Amazon remove if they had to pay for each page in their catalog? Either way it would be a massive improvement.
- jenscow 4y ago
  The search would be much better, too.

dacohenii 4y ago

Ads.

lamp987 4y ago

because they sell your data

evancox100 4y ago

Except that retailers and credit card companies were/still are selling your purchase history to advertisers and data brokers. https://www.aclu.org/blog/privacy-technology/consumer-privacy/why-dont-we-have-more-privacy-when-we-use-credit-card https://www.aclu.org/blog/privacy-technology/consumer-privac...

nerdponx 4y ago
Don't forget about credit rating agencies, and the US Post Office, and ... The tracking has always been there, it's just now becoming harder to ignore. It sucks, but it's possibly also a good thing because people are finally starting to care.

zouhair 4y ago

It's about changing your opinion., so they can sell you what they want not what you need or/and want.