> Is this really any better than "internal" entities trying to actively brain-wash the electorate right before the elections with personalized propaganda and a fake impression of consensus?
It's the same thing pretty much. It's not like some Wall Street bank is going to have a lot more care and concern for the American voters than some country out there. The story about Russians is only interesting as it was turned into a rather successful PR campaign and a lot of time was spent writing, talking, investigating, and mud slinging based on it.
> The problem is personalized ads. We need to get rid of them, regardless of who does it.
It's going to be hard. The company which provides the most refined and exact profiles in the ad space will win. So even if there was some company that decided they are not doing this individual targeting, they would lose out and go out of business while company with the most detailed profiles would win. In a way I think that is why Google is afraid of FB. They realized at some point that FB holds much more nuanced and detailed profiles on people.
It's the same thing pretty much. It's not like some Wall Street bank is going to have a lot more care and concern for the American voters than some country out there. The story about Russians is only interesting as it was turned into a rather successful PR campaign and a lot of time was spent writing, talking, investigating, and mud slinging based on it.
> The problem is personalized ads. We need to get rid of them, regardless of who does it.
It's going to be hard. The company which provides the most refined and exact profiles in the ad space will win. So even if there was some company that decided they are not doing this individual targeting, they would lose out and go out of business while company with the most detailed profiles would win. In a way I think that is why Google is afraid of FB. They realized at some point that FB holds much more nuanced and detailed profiles on people.