zlacker

>>neelc+(OP)
Its insane that the digital technology of Western world has come to be completely dominated by a couple of advertising companies. The conflicts of interest with societal (including economic) objectives are enormous and the solutions so simple and natural.

That such a pivotal issue is not handled competently with the top priority attention it deserves says more about the state of the US polity than the horned man storming the Capitol.

>>nologi+gX
If you think about it a bit, it's almost expected. Ads are a (the only?) effective way to monetize any digital device. So an advertiser has an interest in nearly all (internet connected) digital technology, as all areas can be exploited for additional advertising revenue by them. Their only meaningful competition at that scale is other ad companies, as nobody else can monetize arbitrary digital devices as effectively.

This is why we need to be politically active and politically effective and I'm glad OP called that out in their post too. It's like reminding people to vote when dealing with the consequences of elected officials.

edit: What business, other than an ad business, can safely say "we don't care what digital technologies we invent, as long as they are popular we can make piles of money." IMO, that is the motto of a dominant tech company. You can see a striking example of this failing with the various home assistants. Despite their popularity, tech companies can't figure out a way to shove ads into the UX, so they can't make money.

>>tetrep+l31
> Ads are a (the only?) effective way to monetize any digital device.

As stated this is not strictly true. E.g., Apple would object (with at least some merit) and every tech company before adtech (i.e decades of commercially viable tech) would object as well.

What is true is that adtech is the most lucrative way to monetize any digital consumer device.

This economic dominance of adtech is real and extremely distortive of the technology landscape but 1) it is predicated on questionable behavioral stances ("consumers don't care about privacy") which are manifestly not universal (see e.g. EU-wide regulation) and 2) is an incongruous and incomplete architecture for a digital economy: e.g., there is no hard line between consumer and business devices. Do businesses also don't care about commercial secrecy?

Effectively adtech short-circuited the digital society motherboard by identifying an emerging opportunity that did not exist in traditional physically organized economies. Large and vital sections of the motherboard (e.g. journalism) are now burned out.

Its a dead end.