[stevenjohns]

Probably not his call. By "we" he's probably talking about the engineering team, which in many cases is nothing more than a conduit for whims of the marketing and sales teams.

The only time they'd do that is if the marketing team decided that the value-add from taking ads off cancelled out the profit loss from taking the ads off.

[wtmt]

I completely understand that it may not be his call. That's why I said "Tell management to take an ethical stance and preserve the reputation of SO."

Maybe he (or someone else in the team) has already given this as a temporary solution but it's been rejected. Since we don't know what's going on in the background, this suggestion being put on a public forum is still worthwhile. It could also help external parties (like HN readers) add more pressure in not letting this kind of surveillance continue just because the company doesn't want to stop making money while they're working on a solution or waiting for Google (or someone else) to help.

Every minute they delay cutting this off puts thousands of people in a position of vulnerability.