"They do if they want to deliver ads that are relevant."
I don't have any interest in them doing so, so this seems to work out.
I'm not interested in being manipulated, nor providing information about myself to make that manipulation more effective.
I don't have any interest in them doing so, so this seems to work out.
I'm not interested in being manipulated, nor providing information about myself to make that manipulation more effective.
I gave a case where advertising allowed me to write a blog for years, without paying any money. Indeed people make these choices all the time - mobile games are a good example where people will not want to purchase the game for a dollar but are happy to watch an ad every 30 minutes.
Unless you're willing to accept that advertising has some potential value I don't think there's any point in us discussing solutions.
If you run a technical blog and run advertisements that fit that theme, I am less adverse to that. I see the tradeoffs there, and can choose to visit your page and see your content knowing the exchange that's being made.
I was responding specifically to your concern that the advertiser would no longer be able to tailor their advertisement to me if deprived of information about me.
(My preference is to directly fund people who make things I enjoy, and I do practice that. I also think most mobile games funded by ads rely on predatory models to be profitable, which isn't really ideal. The whole thing is a mess of misaligned incentives.)
Direct payment would never have worked for my personal site, I could not pay and certainly my dozen readers weren't going to. But that site made my career. Ads allowed that.
As for what advertisers need to continue funding that, while not being awful, I think that is the interesting question.