Every once in a while I give in to the temptation to write an assertive post despite believing firmly that there must be an alternative perspective of which I am unaware. I’m afraid I’m bowing to the rules of the blog genre: I’m posting this despite my ignorance. (I’m not quite following the rules of the genre, however, because I have waited a long time to post this.)
Here’s the issue: Internet privacy. I have never been able to figure out why some people object to Google or Facebook collecting data from their searches in order to customize their advertisements. I’m not ashamed of the things I search for, and if I have to see ads I’d rather see ads that are relevant to me. The more the relevance, hopefully, the better the deals.
And might not products go down in price if advertisers were able to be more efficient with their spending because they are more targeted in their reach?
And don’t ads fund the free services I have come to rely so heavily on?
As I said this very day to a pastor having severe trouble typing in the URL for my design site, the only explanation I can find for some people’s tech habits is a pre-1980 birth date. (Thankfully, the pastor laughed.)