[permo-w]

I’m sure you’re right that a small minority doesn’t mind being tracked and provided personalised ads, but there are other problems too. Advertising brings poor incentives for businesses, even worse than usual. Engagement is king, and product satisfaction is hardly relevant

[fmajid]

We know how small: 4% clicked to opt-in to IDFA tracking in iOS 14. And I suspect a large number of those are people who got confused and clicked on the wrong button.

[permo-w]

that’s assuming iOS users are representative of the general public

[qwerty456127]

I'm curious about the poor incentives for businesses advertising brings. I never imagined business is possible without advertising. If I were starting a business, I would probably target the people who don't block ads (despite the fact I myself do and help all my friends and relatives to).

[permo-w]

Unless I’m misunderstanding you, I think you’re slightly misunderstanding me. It brings poor incentives for companies that make their money from selling advertising space. It does not bring poor incentives for businesses that advertise (besides the desire to censor content, but that’s a different issue).

If you’re still not clear on why it brings poor incentives, or you disagree, think about it this way:

For a company like Netflix, their customers are the people who use their service, and their product is their service. i.e. they’re selling how much you like their content. They don’t care about how long or addictively you watched it, as long as you pay every month. This is healthy.

For a company than runs a TV channel, their customers - for the most part - are advertisers, and their product is their viewers. They’re selling the viewership of their channel to companies. I.e. they’re selling how long and intently they can keep you watching their channel, and how easily they can get you to open your wallet. This is clearly unhealthy.

This applies heavily to the digital media environment too. I can give more examples, if it’d help