<story><title>Dear internet: We must ban targeted advertising immediately</title><url>https://usefathom.com/blog/targeted-ads</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>repsilat</author><text>To play devil&amp;#x27;s advocate, advertising is a social good, and better advertising is even more of a social good.&lt;p&gt;How many times have you heard someone complain, &amp;quot;I just bought a desk lamp, and now I&amp;#x27;m getting loads of ads for desk lamps. Don&amp;#x27;t they know I don&amp;#x27;t &lt;i&gt;want&lt;/i&gt; another desk lamp?&amp;quot; And surveys back it up -- people would largely rather the ads they see reflect the things they&amp;#x27;re interested in. Because a well-targeted ad is good for the viewer. Sometimes they want the thing, and they buy it, and their life is improved.&lt;p&gt;If I&amp;#x27;m statistically more likely to buy a particular item because of some demographic I belong to, and you have my demographic information, by all means use it to decide which ads to show me.&lt;p&gt;Maybe you &lt;i&gt;having&lt;/i&gt; that information is a breach of my privacy, but if you do have it you should at least use it for something that&amp;#x27;ll benefit me.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>missedthecue</author><text>This shouldn&amp;#x27;t even be a devil&amp;#x27;s advocate point of view. Targeted advertisements have been just about the greatest value-add in the world of business in maybe the last twenty years.&lt;p&gt;Imagine if you couldnt target advertisements. Imagine the waste. European baby formula manufacturers advertising to middle aged single men in Wyoming shouldn&amp;#x27;t happen, and it&amp;#x27;s because targeted advertising that we prevent that waste. We are all better off for it.</text></comment>
<story><title>Dear internet: We must ban targeted advertising immediately</title><url>https://usefathom.com/blog/targeted-ads</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>repsilat</author><text>To play devil&amp;#x27;s advocate, advertising is a social good, and better advertising is even more of a social good.&lt;p&gt;How many times have you heard someone complain, &amp;quot;I just bought a desk lamp, and now I&amp;#x27;m getting loads of ads for desk lamps. Don&amp;#x27;t they know I don&amp;#x27;t &lt;i&gt;want&lt;/i&gt; another desk lamp?&amp;quot; And surveys back it up -- people would largely rather the ads they see reflect the things they&amp;#x27;re interested in. Because a well-targeted ad is good for the viewer. Sometimes they want the thing, and they buy it, and their life is improved.&lt;p&gt;If I&amp;#x27;m statistically more likely to buy a particular item because of some demographic I belong to, and you have my demographic information, by all means use it to decide which ads to show me.&lt;p&gt;Maybe you &lt;i&gt;having&lt;/i&gt; that information is a breach of my privacy, but if you do have it you should at least use it for something that&amp;#x27;ll benefit me.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>grawprog</author><text>&amp;gt;and their life is improved&lt;p&gt;Is it really though? How many times is it more like, see the thing they don&amp;#x27;t really want or need, are swayed by an advertisement targetted based on a profile created through data harvested through their phone, their credit card, their social media, their email, etc., they buy the thing, experience a temporary endorphin rush from having the new thing that makes them feel good for a while, get bored of the thing and move on to the next thing provided by targetted advertisements?</text></comment>