A Google Spokesman
I remember when it was Big Tobacco or Halliburton.
1) The idea of targetted adverts is probably Google & Facebook snake oil to divert budgets from billboards, TV, magazines, newspaper and radio.
2) Whether the personalisation or not works, all the data gathering is illegal and may have been so before GDPR. Fines used to be so small it wasn't worth prosecuting.
3) It's OK to sell adverts on websites. It's not OK to harvest any of people's usage to claim to do it better. Loyalty & Credit card usage is also being added. It's toxic and an abuse of human rights. It would be even worse for the public if it actually really worked.
4) It's very bad for the ultimate product and service companies buy adverts as the effectiveness of the illegal process isn't proven and often clicks are fraudulent, or in some cases they are lied to as to how many regular users a service has or how many videos are watched. This isn't libel because Facebook has admitted massive inflation of video figures and click fraud is well documented. Google and site owners benefit. Advertisers lose out.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
