The real harm seems to be from the tech giants censoring speech and policing payments, but what's the harm that someone targets a pair of shorts that I might like or show an ad for a conference I might be interested in?
Some people don't want to be tracked or monitored by advertising companies and it should be enough to just say so without companies like Facebook always trying to sneak tracking back in via dark pattens, shadow profiles, etc, etc.
For example once you've seen a website offer you the same product for different prices based on arbitrary tracking it leaves a bad taste in your mouth.
So Facebook and Google know your religion, politics and food preferences. So what? How can they harm you with this?
They harm you when they choose what you can say, who you can talk to and who you can do business with. But literally what's the harm of ads? Making your computer a bit slower? That's such a tiny issue it's not even worth talking about.
The harm if targeted ads depends on your viewpoint.
A targeted ad might serve you something you were looking for anyway, or it might manipulate you into spending on something you don't actually need. I.e. look at Instagram influencers, showing off their fake perfect live, making the viewer feel small and then try to buy the same happiness by buying the same product.
At best, ads are information that you need, at worst, they use psychology to manipulate you.
I was talking about how ads, tv programming, trackers and such have a tendency to create a positive feedback loop, which leads people towards less quality and mindless consumption. And about a fun idea from a movie, to break this feedback loop and replace it with another one, that promotes higher quality content.
You then started talking about a different topic and are now accusing me of not being interested in free speech.
Thanks!
('E.g.' doesn't really mean 'example given' in English - it means 'exempli gratia' in Latin. But it's a useful mnemonic.)