Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

Sure. As long as I don’t have to deliver (all) my private data to get those relevant ads.



ALL your private data sounds rather extreme. That could certainly mean a lot of things!

Some examples of what I'm fine with: if I visit a hardware store's online website and am then retargeted by their ads, or I visit a hardware magazine's website and am then targeted by hardware ads.


So you'll be happy to opt in and disable the 'do-not-track' option in your browser, etc.


My clarification then, targeted ads are fine if ai don't have to provide ANY of my private data.

The site showing an ad knows the context of what I'm looking at, whether that's a specific news article or the weather. That's enough info for a reasonably targeted ad without needing to match back to my browsing history, who I bank with, my likely religious views or sexual orientation, etc


However, in the case of Meta, if you are a Facebook user they are likely using your likes, friends, any personal information you give them, the content of your posts/comments/private messages to better target your ads. So you, in fact, agree with this ban.


> ALL your private data sounds rather extreme.

How so? Ad tech wants to eat as much of your data as possible. They’ll use everything they have to make inferences about things you want, things you believe, things you might believe later. I think you could go as far as saying they want ALL your data and then some..


The ads can be targeted to the publisher, so the hardware magazine's ads will likely all be hardware related, instead of related to whatever website you visited before it


Sellers and marketers don't want you opting into their market (eg. by checking a box that says "I want ads for computers"). They want to target their customers with fine-tuned, data-driven assumptions. Age, gender, income, interests, career...

This is the value Facebook delivers (targeting and measuring), and it's about to go up in smoke.

Nobody will pay the same price for a billboard.


Where would Facebook be getting income data from?


From banks, via some middleman service.

Or, the facebook pixel embedded in a page you (or your employer) put your tax info into.


Tax software is one way. Payroll companies another. This is why these fuckers can’t be trusted even a bit as you might like. Give an inch and they take a mile.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/07/meta-wont-say-wh...


That's entirely reasonable. Unfortunately, people don't make distinctions. Some kinds of ad targeting are far more intrusive than others.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: