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Comment by fragmede | Hacker News Reader

I'm not in the advertising business, but people want free shit and don't want to pay for it. How do you suggest it get paid for if not advertising?

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Constant tracking isn't necessary for advertising, it's a choice. So is hiding the extent of this tracking from the user. If the user doesn't understand the full scope and impact of the "payment" then the business model is akin to loansharking. Those people also take the deal without realizing it will cost them a finger.

How many fields obscure the form of payment, the amounts, the methods when you purchase a good or service? You're oversimplifying and glossing over the real issues.

If it was as simple as "you must pay" and nothing else mattered, then any form of payment would be justifiable.

I mean, I don't agree with the tracking, constant or otherwise, but it enables advertisers and other company go-betweens to manage their ad spending. Suggesting an outlay of cash to push platinum card ads on 14 year olds, or diet medications on a forum for people who have a hard time gaining weight, or things anathema to certain people (assuming not done to mess with them) -- just random examples -- is at a minimum a waste of that company's investment.

At the same time, if you have ever been in certain neighbourhoods, you personally might feel really grateful for keeping this setting on; a few hours, or days, in some places can send you ads that'll change your ad profile SO much for SO long, it'll drive you crazy if you aren't careful, or at least make you annoyed and regret it.

Personally, I prefer variety in my ads, and not to be profiled, but there are times I specifically and expressly choose tracking for ads.

There are other business models, it depends on what you're building. For a while almost everything coming out of SV was destined to be advertising real estate. Now I think there's more interesting businesses going on. We'll keep strip mining attention to push plastic trinkets into container ships, certainly. Probably no stopping that.

For plastic trinkets, at least 3D printing has this recycliability to it. PLA-only prints can be broken down into PLA filament with the right machinery. It's not home desktop machinery, but the theory is there.

Does advertising absolutely need to track people? Advertising existed for a long time without having to know exactly who would look at the ad

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