[Rjevski]

> It seems to me that people are working to find ways to improve their lives, and that they'll keep doing so to the shegrin of the internet behemoths absent any "regulation"

I'd agree with you if ad & tracking blocking was mainstream, or even better, built into major browsers & operating systems and enabled by default. We are not there yet (and might never be since a major OS developer - Google - has a vested interest in keeping the cancer that is called advertising alive) so we need regulation.

[kiriakasis]

> the cancer that is called advertising

In these conversations "advertising" is a very loaded term, not all advertising is tracking, not all advertising is invasive and not all advertising is served by shady clickbait companies.

With a little stretch even a review of a movie or a game is advertising. The GDPR might push toward a more sustainable advertising model and honestly I cannot see anything negative in that.

(also not all advertising is fake news and product discovery is a hard problem for both sellers and buyers)

[TeMPOraL]

Not all advertising is tracking and clickbait, but in general it is still a cancer on the Internet, and on the modern society. The world is oversaturated with advertising, and we're all forced to look at it everywhere, day in, day out. Advertising is eating absurd amount of resources directly and indirectly (through support industries - from graphics design to printing, transportation and distribution), mostly to shift the split of a fixed pie of customers, in what's pretty much a fractal of zero sum games.

[jMyles]

> I'd agree with you if ad & tracking blocking was mainstream

But isn't Eich making the argument that it is mainstream? That's the whole reason I'm quoting him here.

Which is it?

Is Eich correct that the "enormous growth of ad-blocking by people across the globe" is evidence of some desire on the part of a global community to fight back on the ability of internet giants to track us?

If so, isn't this evidence that this phenomenon is already "regular" without needing any further "regulation" by the state?

He's trying to eat his cake and still have it.

[Firadeoclus]

There being a desire to fight back does not mean that this fight is effective or avoiding an arms race (which is wasting resources for everyone).