> There's only one thing that destroys privacy even more thoroughly than ad targeting: payment.
Can you expand? Because I disagree. I would rather a company have my name, payment info, and email address than all those things plus other personally identifying information. I feel like a payment model decentralizes the issue and that I would not be tracked around the web. I don't need the WaPo to know the other sites I've been on, what my political affiliations are, my age, gender, etc. This is because I don't see the issue as companies know who I am, but rather that I don't like that companies have intimate details of who I am, or maybe more simply put "who I am vs what I am." To me the latter (tracking) is invasive, the former (payment) is consensual. As one might say "just shut up and take my money."
But I am open and interested to differing opinions.
Subscription based services can do everything that ad funded services can do, but on top of that they can irrefutably link my real name to all of it, which makes their data even more valuable.
I don't know many subscription based content publishers that promise not to monetise what they know about me in all sorts of other ways. I do have a newspaper subscription. That doesn't stop them from showing me ads or using ad networks and trackers. Payment networks and banks monetise my payment data as well.
Even if a particular publisher is willing make such promises, I wouldn't have much confidence in their ability to keep my data safe.
So the upshot is that I simply don't want my real name irrefutably and permanently linked to everything I read, write or watch.
What ad neworks know about me is extremly patchy. Every time I see what they think about me I wonder who on earth would ever consider paying them for that rubbish. But that's not what it's about. All they need to be able to do is make predictions that are slightly better than random guesses.
So I do agree with this. But if it is an OR based situation I am less concerned with the subscription based model. When it is "don't pay for service and pay with my data and attention" vs "pay for a service and pay with my data" I tend to boycott those because they are doing the worst of both worlds (IMO).
Can you expand? Because I disagree. I would rather a company have my name, payment info, and email address than all those things plus other personally identifying information. I feel like a payment model decentralizes the issue and that I would not be tracked around the web. I don't need the WaPo to know the other sites I've been on, what my political affiliations are, my age, gender, etc. This is because I don't see the issue as companies know who I am, but rather that I don't like that companies have intimate details of who I am, or maybe more simply put "who I am vs what I am." To me the latter (tracking) is invasive, the former (payment) is consensual. As one might say "just shut up and take my money."
But I am open and interested to differing opinions.