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Comment by thaumaturgy | Hacker News Reader

Okay, I've generally wavered on this between "assume the online advertising sector is nefarious and evil and perfectly competent" to "assume the standard level of bureaucratic incompetence". Your comments here are moving the needle back towards the former.

So what in your opinion can people do, that are reasonable, actionable steps to take, to avoid being an unwilling part of this ecosystem?

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You have to be a part of the ecosystem. If you need any connectivity (internet or phone), you really have no choice. Unless you buy prepay cell phones with cash, change the number every few months, only use public WiFi, wipe your computer, change browsing habits, etc.

Even if you Adblock and never give away personal info, like op said, your cable, bank, insurance, dmv, internet, and phone provider will still collect and sell your data.

Your comment and the sibling comment are both saying this is an all-or-nothing situation with no degrees of variation at all. That flies in the face of pretty much all other data science, so I find it hard to believe.

I mean you can have some impact, but at the end of the day the variables you control are relatively minor in the grand scheme. For example, uBlock will prevent your browsing habits from being used.. but browsing habits aren't really a great signal anymore. I only ever used audiences that are based on strong signals like purchases, location visits, verified demographics, etc.

What's your goal exactly?

Yes you can make their ad targetting somewhat less accurate in some circumstances.

> You have to be a part of the ecosystem. If you need any connectivity (internet or phone), you really have no choice.

Which is why we need really tough legislation to put a stop to this abuse. The GDPR and CCPA are good starts, but both of those are much too weak. Here's hoping that such legislation will get better, and more pervasive, over time.

Destroy your cell phone, delete your internet accounts, and only use cash.

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