The biggest impact, for me, is that the dominance of Google and Facebook based on having access to this data for the general population has led to worse advertising revenue for the news industry and some of my favorite websites. That has caused some of them to rely on memberships and paywalls.
I also don't appreciate that the money that they've accrued due to their dominance as a result of data like this has led to undue political influence. That comes at the expense, I believe, of voters (and I'm one of them). I don't think that power is healthy for a democracy, generally. I believe this about non-tech companies, too, so I wouldn't suggest anybody just pick on this industry.
This isn't to say that I'm not concerned about privacy. It's only to say that IF YOU AREN'T, then there are other reasons to root for people to have transparency around how their data gets passed around.
Edit: I have now deleted the DNS records so the website will be down until I have time to fix this properly.
I’d look into static site generators but the problems with them is that I will always be tempted to tinker with it which is why I went with a hosted solution.
I will look into Substack as I’ve seen it used quite a bit around here recently. If not, I’ll see what Squarespace has to offer.
I actually tried emailing the owner of Svbtle (the platform I used) about removing GA but haven’t had a reply.
So at the end of the day, it means I don't get to enjoy as much quality content from the publications that I love.
In my view, I end up with the best content when advertisers aren't going to one or two central places for their ad buys online. I'm actually an advertiser, myself (as just one part of my job). And I certainly know how my own buying practices have shifted over the past 14 years to now be 100% focused on FB/Google. Some of the Google money trickles down to other publications, and certainly this makes my job easier, but I don't think it's a good thing as somebody who also loves reading online.
I don't have a problem with bad content out there, so long as there's a ton of really good content. For the great publications I read, I want them to be successful businesses so they can expand. A better ad market, or even a return to how it was before the dominance of FB/Google, would enable them to do that in a way that relying mostly on subscriptions hasn't.
/s