User benefits from effective marketing. If software dev knows who their audience is better it means product will reach the correct customers more efficiently. It is win for everybody.
Marketing platform and the product being marketed benefit from effective marketing.
That the user was “sold” to is not inherently positive. Not all products are good. Not all users can afford products they’re buying. Not all users necessarily understand they’re paying in ways they’re unaware of.
Straying away from social media in this example, cigarettes and alcohol feel like good candidates here.
It has to say something about the effectiveness of your marketing if the only way you even observe it having an effect is by installing spyware on every users system.
If companies genuinely believed that they'd advertise loudly that they were using the ad platform. The fact that they do it surreptitiously speaks volumes.
That the user was “sold” to is not inherently positive. Not all products are good. Not all users can afford products they’re buying. Not all users necessarily understand they’re paying in ways they’re unaware of.
Straying away from social media in this example, cigarettes and alcohol feel like good candidates here.