> See, the thing is, it’s not about you at all. It’s not really about the ads anymore either. Nobody cares about you. And if the police or your government happen to care, I’ll gladly take their money too.
> I look at all this data and I don’t see people. I see patterns. Patterns emerging out of patterns. A living, digital fractal state of the economy, society and human psyche. The crystal ball of the 21st century and it’s made of silicon! That’s the product.
> And to the highest bidder it goes!
> What does that make you then? A gear? An ox? A volunteer?
This does absolutely nothing for me. If this resonates with you, can you explain?
I can understand worry about a tyrannical government, and if you have something like a gambling addiction I can understand about ads. But the meta-level privacy fear about deidentified patterns - I just plain don't get it.
If every website you ever visits knows it is you, exactly what links you clicked on, and what content you viewed, forever, are you truly ok with that?
Guaranteed deidentified, as the quote above is talking implying?
It's truly totally ok with me, yes.
(I get the non-anonymized concerns, or risk of becoming non-anonymized, that's not what I'm confused about)
But you are deanonymized. That’s the entire argument. I’m not sure you understand.
I don't think I do.
Is the implication that the machine knows me so deeply that it doesn't matter if it connect my device ID to my name? That it knows me deeply as a person regardless of what identifiers are used?
If that's what meant, I have to say: 1. That's an absurd overestimation of the current capabilities of adtech 2. Even if it were true, I'm not sure I'd be that bothered by it? What I'm bothered by is what could be done with that intimate knowledge. And if the answer is just "show me the absolute most optimal ads", this doesn't really bother me.
That's why the quote I highlighted confuses me.