Yet, they choose to surf to HN.

They're not choosing to have targeted ads that share their info around the web and cause someone over their shoulder to infer things about them.

That's the point -- we should have that choice. And the default should be "no".

I understand the opt-in rather than opt-out, but does disabling Ads Personalization [1] not do what you're asking?

[1]: https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated?hl=en

No, a Google account shouldn’t be required.

Why not? How else would Google know who not to track? It's not like they can identify you and remember that preference without a Google account...

Yes, that's why targeted ads shouldn't be a thing unless it's opt-in (not necessarily my opinion but it seems to be the point the parent was making). At that point, to opt-in you can create a google account. Currently though, Google will attempt targeted ads on people without a Google account by trying to identify and track them through other means.

Ideally you would have site-specific or content-specific ads normally and personalized ads if you created an account and chose to opt-in.

My children tease me about "being a hacker", by which they mean unlawfully breaching security of internet systems, because they've seen me reading "hacker news".

Yeah, but HN is not shown as part of every website out there.

The problem is if the person looking over your shoulder has power over you.