Open letter: Ban surveillance-based advertising

Re:Open letter: Ban surveillance-based advertising by Jonsvt on Wednesday July 07, 2021 @08:16PM (#27767224)

Clearly not allowing anyone to track is good for competition. Now there are certain companies that collect data from multiple sources. That gives them a benefit compared to others. But what I do not understand is how they can do it? How can you accept that your company spies on its users and collects data on them? How can you say it is OK?

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Re:Open letter: Ban surveillance-based advertising by jefftk on Wednesday July 07, 2021 @08:45PM (#27767382)

https://www.jefftk.com/p/why-i-work-on-ads

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Re:Open letter: Ban surveillance-based advertising by bitten on Thursday July 08, 2021 @05:50PM (#27778053)

Regarding your "earn to give", I feel like I want to play devil's advocate and ask why not cut your salary in half by working or volunteering on more humanitarian projects and charities? Not sure the pay would exactly be half less, maybe even more, maybe less, but the net positive of what you do may be greater? (I say that, as if we can measure such impacts :p)

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Re:Open letter: Ban surveillance-based advertising by jefftk on Thursday July 08, 2021 @08:18PM (#27779186)

I've considered doing directly valuable work, have tried things along these lines in the past, and may try them again in the future. For now though, I think earning to give is a much better fit for me: https://www.jefftk.com/p/earning-to-give-transcript

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Re:Open letter: Ban surveillance-based advertising by Jonsvt on Wednesday July 07, 2021 @10:26PM (#27767908)

Interesting read. Clearly you are struggling with your choice.

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Re:Open letter: Ban surveillance-based advertising by jefftk on Thursday July 08, 2021 @07:51AM (#27770745)

> Clearly you are struggling with your choice

What in the post gives you that impression?

(I'm not)

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Re:Open letter: Ban surveillance-based advertising by Jonsvt on Thursday July 08, 2021 @09:33AM (#27771741)

I guess the start of it gave that impression in particular. It is great you are giving so much of your salary to charity, but the fact that is the first thing you write as an explanation of why you do what you do does send a signal.

I also have a feeling you are trying to explain to yourself why the things Google is doing is not bad. So you twist things a bit here and there to make your point.

In any case, you are not in a position, I assume, to influence what Google does. Google is on a path that a lot of us do not like. We do not like being tracked and we do not like profiles being built on us. We want that to stop. You try to convince us it is not so bad, but the feeling I get is that you are just as much trying to convince yourself, but obviously I am not you, so this is just based on a feeling.

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