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I think you're right but it's not advertisers doing any of this. It's the ad networks (Google, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon) who are the ones who've implemented all

I think you're right but it's not advertisers doing any of this. It's the ad networks (Google, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon) who are the ones who've implemented all of these things. The ad business is a shady one but the ones to blame are the ad tech companies. Google, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, etc. are the onces who should be called out and not the more generic advertising industry.

smoldesu 3y ago
Isn't Apple also an ad tech company? Do they not maintain lists of their users and sell ads based on that information?
- kalleboo 3y ago
  The distinction I believe is between selling ads on your own properties based on what people do on those same properties, and selling ads on other properties and/or basing it on tracked behavior on other properties. I'd they distinction matters or not is up to everyone to device.
- musictubes 3y ago
  No to the first and kind of for the second. Apple doesn’t stoop to the levels of actual ad tech companies as far as tracking and linking data sets. They do sell ads but they are really limited. The only place I think they use customer info for ads is in their News app. App Store ads are search and possibly location based IIRC. In any case, the info used for the ads is fairly generic and they do not have access to the level of info that the actual ad tech companies use. Apple does not know which articles you read, your location, your web browsing, search terms, etc. while using the News app.
mrweasel 3y ago
The advertising industry is in some sense dead. Only SEO, tracking, and clicking around in the GUIs provided by the ad networks remains. I don't think there are many true advertising agents out there anymore, nor are their work valued. What I mean are people who you can come to, who will help you locate your audience and buy ads on the right billboard, website, TV shows and magazines. I also believe that where all the hostility comes from. Many of the online advertising people know full well that they're not really good at advertising, they just know how to navigate Google Adwords and their clients don't.
- lancesells 3y ago
  Those people running Adwords campaigns are still not the ones creating the privacy nightmare. They use, and are in some ways complicit, with the privacy nightmare but the ad tech companies created all of it. Google and Meta are the frontrunners in ad tech and seem to do the most invasive things.

smoldesu 3y ago

Isn't Apple also an ad tech company? Do they not maintain lists of their users and sell ads based on that information?

kalleboo 3y ago
The distinction I believe is between selling ads on your own properties based on what people do on those same properties, and selling ads on other properties and/or basing it on tracked behavior on other properties. I'd they distinction matters or not is up to everyone to device.
musictubes 3y ago
No to the first and kind of for the second. Apple doesn’t stoop to the levels of actual ad tech companies as far as tracking and linking data sets. They do sell ads but they are really limited. The only place I think they use customer info for ads is in their News app. App Store ads are search and possibly location based IIRC. In any case, the info used for the ads is fairly generic and they do not have access to the level of info that the actual ad tech companies use. Apple does not know which articles you read, your location, your web browsing, search terms, etc. while using the News app.

mrweasel 3y ago

The advertising industry is in some sense dead. Only SEO, tracking, and clicking around in the GUIs provided by the ad networks remains. I don't think there are many true advertising agents out there anymore, nor are their work valued. What I mean are people who you can come to, who will help you locate your audience and buy ads on the right billboard, website, TV shows and magazines. I also believe that where all the hostility comes from. Many of the online advertising people know full well that they're not really good at advertising, they just know how to navigate Google Adwords and their clients don't.

lancesells 3y ago
Those people running Adwords campaigns are still not the ones creating the privacy nightmare. They use, and are in some ways complicit, with the privacy nightmare but the ad tech companies created all of it. Google and Meta are the frontrunners in ad tech and seem to do the most invasive things.