[s188]

These are two separate things - advertising and tracking. Advertising has been around for millennia. I'm sure an orange seller on the streets of ancient Bagdad used some form of advertising to sell his oranges. But when we discuss tracking we're actually taking about data collection and what the data is used for. This is a privacy issue. The problem is that we have no idea what the data collectors are doing with our data or even who they are. Advertising is intentionally and overtly manipulative - we know it happens and we're kind of ok with that. On the other hand, tracking and data collection (also called surveillance capitalism) is covertly manipulative - we have no way of knowing who, what or why. The problem is that tracking often piggybacks off advertising. Ultimately, I reckon this will be bad for advertising. Sure, the data is useful to advertisers but only up to a point. It's ironic that surveillance capitalists sell their technology to advertisers through advertising. Advertisers are being manipulated into buying technology that helps them become better manipulators.