If I'm going to have to view ads, I'd prefer to see relevant ads instead of irrelevant. The issue is with the data collection and privacy issues around it. Not with making ads more relevant by appropriately targeting.

I reject the notion entirely that we "have to" view ads. Advertisements are nothing less than an unwelcome intrusion into my life. Further, I'd rather know that any ads I see are the same exact ads as seen by anyone else in the same space.

Having said that, I agree that _another_ core issue is the data collection and privacy issues. Certainly, viewing advertisers as the value-subtracting rent-seekers as I do, I wish for them to know as little as possible about the world in general and about me specifically.

In a perverse way, I'd rather see irrelevant ads. That way I am not inclined to purchase.

I prefer not to have salespeople come to my door, I prefer to seek them out when I am inclined to.

This is a very apt way to put it! I'm likely to adopt it into my own descriptions, thank you!

Advertisers should be relegated to their own greasy pit, to speak only at my pleasure and where I know to find them. Any other attempt to engage with me, anytime and anyplace else except where I explicitly permit them, is nothing less than an unwelcome intrusion. Begone, rent-seekers! Trouble us with your A/B tests no more.

The problem is that microtargeted ads aren't necessarily more relevant to your interests — they're more tailored to you.

For example, an advertiser might be able to microtarget people with certain characteristics that correlate with voting for a particular political party, and bombard them with ads that discourage them from voting.

That's targeted, but not "relevant".

Agreed. And perhaps if we call them "optimized" instead of "targeted", this becomes more obvious.

The goal of the advertiser isn't to create a win-win situation, where you get just the right ad at the right time, for a good deal on what you actually need. That would be nice, but it's leaving money on the table - and the goal of the advertiser is to make money. So the ads get optimized further: a better ad is one that gets you to buy something regardless of whether you need it, on a deal that's as bad for you as possible without burning you as a future customer[0].

--

[0] - Which does not imply the deal isn't absolutely shitty. There are ways to guarantee you'll buy again, no matter how much you hate it. See e.g. the telecom industry - there's only few players on the market, and they're all equally shitty, and it doesn't matter because people need phone service, and those abandoning telco A in anger are offset by those flocking to A from the other telcos.