[schuetze]

In some ways, I think the unintended consequences of these ads are very positive. Anything that encourages us to think about the ever-increasing amount of data held by private companies is a good thing in my mind.

I doubt that we will ever break the grip of the advertisement-driven web, but maybe someday a corporation will make an advertisement tone-deaf enough to spark a revolution on how the internet is funded. I'm not affiliated with, nor do I have any stake in this concept, but I think micro-payment funded content, like yours.org, is an interesting alternative. But I doubt many people will adopt yours.org, myself included, until the content is on part with that of ad-funded media.

[SimbaOnSteroids]

I have a pet-hypothesis that people really don't care about their privacy, but rather they care about being reminded that their privacy is being violated. That is to say they really don't care enough to do anything about it, but that being reminded makes them uncomfortable enough to not want to be reminded.