>Are web ads evil? Some will say yes for the intrusion, or the interruption, or the compound effect of all the ads people see in they're lives. All valid reasons.
It's entirely possible to run ads based on what might be of interest to someone reading that particular content without spying on users.
It's almost tautologically obvious that the more you know about someone, the more likely you can predict what might be of interest to them. If you don't believe me, try selling something with ads sometime. Even with all the tools Google and Facebook offer, it's hard.
There is no magic universe where you can get perfectly tailored ads along with perfect anonymity.
I don't think the comment you replied to was suggesting that privacy respecting ads would be "perfectly tailored". Targeting ads based on page content alone would be less profitable for adtech companies and possibly less effective but it's entirely possible to do and would raise fewer moral objections.
> There is no magic universe where you can get perfectly tailored ads along with perfect anonymity.
That's not what they said, and I don't think it's what they meant. Seems they meant to point out that one can run ads simply based on product rather than user: e.g., if I'm buying a hammer, it's reasonable to show me an ad for a box of nails. It won't be perfectly tailored to the individual, but that's not the point.
Not nonsense at all. Nobody claims that you can get "perfectly tailored ads along with perfect anonymity"; the claim is that one can get sufficiently tailored ads with almost perfect anonymity - by tailoring the ad to the content, not the user.
No, perfectly targeted advertising is actually very easy. You just place the ad in a topically appropriate place. Selling sports equipment? Put an ad on a site dedicated to that sport, problem solved. And zero tracking required.
It's entirely possible to run ads based on what might be of interest to someone reading that particular content without spying on users.
It's just not as profitable.