Reading 07: Collecting Your Data and Ads

I think the main ethical issues surrounding online advertising at least from my experience are whether or not it is ethical to block advertisements with software like AdBlock and whether or not it is ethical for companies to collect your data so that they can sell you products or services you may enjoy more. To be quite honest, I am not a hundred percent sure what my feelings are towards companies gathering my information and data mining it in order to sell me products and services. I want to say “it’s super unethical, it’s an invasion of privacy, blah blah blah.” However, for the most part, I guess I just don’t care enough? In LaFrance’s article, she writes, “People like no-cost services, and are willing to forfeit some privacy in exchange for them” (LaFrance). This quote rings so true for me. I just don’t care enough that sites like Facebook collect my data because I enjoy using their “free” platform. Above this, usually, the purpose of collecting your information is to help deliver advertisements and articles that would be more interesting to you. I guess my concern for privacy doesn’t outweigh the convenience of this. In the Verge article, they say things like “Facebook’s Instant Articles, which will also track the shit out of you [serve] unblockable ads inside of the Facebook app” (Patel). I’m lazy as hell. I don’t want to spend the time and effort it takes to go out looking for articles and videos that are interesting to me. The fact that Facebook and YouTube “track the shit out of me” to deliver content that is interesting to me is so convenient, and quite frankly, their methods really work on me. There are so many articles and videos I’ve enjoyed that I wouldn’t have found otherwise. I think this is kind of unrealistic, but I think companies should not sell your information to other companies. If they are to truly be responsible with your data, then they should handle your data themselves, not give it off to others. Because so many services collect your data nowadays, I find it difficult to believe that total privacy is a realistic thing to have. I feel like it’s something we all want, but having it would inconvenience us too much. With regards to advertising, for the most part, I don’t find it too invasive. Honestly, ads don’t bother me too much. For the most part, I just ignore ads, or if I can’t, the effort it takes to click x’s or watch a video just isn’t that much. I guess in the grand scheme of things 5–15 second ads add up a lot and pop-up ads are kind of annoying, but they’re not annoying enough for me to want to turn on an ad blocker. In the Verge article, they ask the questions, “What happens to a small company when you take away 75 to 85 percent of its revenue opportunities in the name of user experience? Who’s going to make all that content we love so much, and what will it look like if it only makes money on proprietary platforms?” (Patel). A large reason why I don’t use an ad blocker is because I feel like I’m cheating the content creators, and if everyone were to cheat them, they wouldn’t be making money and as such, couldn’t make their content. If everyone were to enable ad blockers for a better user experience when getting content, then I don’t think anyone should ever be surprised if that content stops being made sooner rather than later.