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Comment by gretch | Hacker News Reader

> No. The most ad targeting that should ever exist is by geography, and that's it.

This is an arbitrary moral line, and if you that's the one you want to draw for your own life, then fine.

But it's also really dumb.

Why should men see ads for tampons? Why should women see a message telling them to get a prostate cancer checkup? I already have tickets to see the superbowl - why am I getting ads to once again buy more tickets to the superbowl?

There's all sorts of value and productivity that can be gained from targeting ads. Are those capabilities used 100% for good causes? of course not. But it at least does something for society, unlike a weird moral finger wagging.

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If targeting can be done without spying on people, then fine. But it's the spying that's the problem. Whether or not the data obtained without people's consent can be used for good purposes doesn't justify it.

> This is an arbitrary moral line, and if you that's the one you want to draw for your own life, then fine.

The moral line is that you do not spy on people in order to "improve" their "ad experience". Geography is one way to do it that's then acceptable.

> Why should men see ads for tampons? Why should women see a message telling them to get a prostate cancer checkup?

If a man enters a lingerie shop, he will expect to see ads for tampons. If a woman enters a man's cigar club (or whatever), she will expect to see ads for a prostate cancer checkup.

"Why" is because the only possible way to do otherwise is by spying on them. Anything that requires customizing ads per person inherently requires the spying.

> There's all sorts of value and productivity that can be gained from targeting ads.

And there it is. You see it as an optimization problem of "value and productivity", and there is no place for privacy in that equation.

Much like a factory dumping its chemical waste in the town's river. A lot of "value" is created during the process.

> Why should men see ads for tampons?

Why do tampon ads need to exist? It’s something you purchase on a regular interval.

> Why should women see a message telling them to get a prostate cancer checkup?

Why would there be any ads at all for prostate cancer checkups? This should be brought up by your doctor in an appointment with you. Who would even pay for and produce such ads?

> I already have tickets to see the superbowl - why am I getting ads to once again buy more tickets to the superbowl?

A stadium holds what, ~70k people, <0.05% of the US population? The massive adtech infrastructure privacy invasion just to avoid potentially showing an ad to someone who won’t convert on that incremental impression.

None of the arguments for hyper-targeted ads are compelling in the slightest.

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