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Top-level
@aral This might be a bit of a weird take on this, but I think the most concrete thing most of us can do against this is use and encourage the use of ad-blockers. We can't compete at scale with this sort of money. Free services will always trump donation-based or paid services, because that's what we're used to as consumers. We *can* however try to make this industry totally not worth it for VCs to invest in. And this is where ad/tracking blockers at a massive scale come in. 10 comments
@aral On the other hand though, "just say no" and consumer education are also historically failing ideas. In the infrastructure I build, I make sure that surveillance is just not a thing that would be possible (namely making sure you have to explicitly consent to user-content tracking you) - but this is just my small corner of the universe.  @imsnif It’s not just the ads; it’s the tracking. Sure the ads are the visible symptom. Many ad blockers (e.g., adblock plus) are actually part of the advertising industry and they unblock folks like Google for money (that’s their business model – see “acceptable ads”). And they usually don’t block trackers, opting for a cosmetic approach. (Assuming you use uBlock Origin, which is good.) These folks don’t limit themselves to tracking you on the web either. They buy data from brokers, etc.  @Aram 🌈♾️ Isn't that the new business model of the VC/Silicon Valley people? They call it AI.
 @imsnif @aral yeah, the technological battle against tracking is a losing game. Try https://coveryourtracks.eff.org. The solution would be in social awareness, but they also influence the media. And regulation. @Walrus @imsnif You’re up against trillion-dollar budgets. The best approaches, in my opinion are: 1. Regulate them (hard, because institutional corruption – revolving doors, lobbying, etc.) 2. Create – decentralised, free and open, etc. – alternatives (see Small Tech: https://small-tech.org/about/#small-technology and Small Web: https://ar.al/2020/08/07/what-is-the-small-web/)  Pity. I just made up Search as a name for the app to do it. |
Gregory's Server
@imsnif Having made and maintained a tracker blocker for quite a few years, it’s a losing game.
The surveillance capitalists control the browsers. You can only be as effective in policing them as they allow you to be (see what’s happening with Chrome, etc.)
And it doesn’t even have to be free for this to apply. Venture-capital-funded is the core issue. Because with VC you’ve already sold your company,you’re just waiting for the sale to mature (the exit) – which it will do if you’re successful.