Gregory's Server
@slothrop So there's two separate issues in play here (both of which are bad, but they're not the same):
1) Datamining consumers for profit (often, but not always, for the purposes of creating more effective advertising). The harms here are twofold for the most part: direct economic (purchasing unwanted or subpar goods as a result of being influenced by advertisers), and indirect (usually the result of data miners being compromised and the collected data abused by third parties).
2) Advertising in general. My mind is an even more core part of my "self" than my body. Thus, any attempt by a third party to worm their way in there and interfere with me making an objective, informed decision on any subject (including but not limited to what products or services to buy) is an even worse violation of personal autonomy than unwanted physical contact.
@slothrop I'm shocked more people don't see #2 the way I do. I think average consumers are just so conditioned from birth by the flood of ads everywhere that they see it as normal and don't stop to think about what it actually is doing to them.
When an ad gets through my filters and catches my attention, it doesn't make me want to buy that product. It's intensely revolting and makes my mental image of that brand drop significantly. As much as possible I go out of my way to avoid buying services from business or voting for candidates who are particularly intrusive with their ads, but of course everyone does it so 100% boycotting advertisers is (sadly) not practical.
I do have absolute red lines though, and SMS spam is one of them. Any political candidate who personally texts me has lost my vote for that election season, if not for life.
@slothrop I'm shocked more people don't see #2 the way I do. I think average consumers are just so conditioned from birth by the flood of ads everywhere that they see it as normal and don't stop to think about what it actually is doing to them.
When an ad gets through my filters and catches my attention, it doesn't make me want to buy that product. It's intensely revolting and makes my mental image of that brand drop significantly. As much as possible I go out of my way to avoid buying services from...