> I work in advertising and defend tracking, targeting, Meta, etc all the time as largely harmless.
Perhaps tell that to one of my friends that has a shopping addiction. He buys endless amounts of running gear, and then resells it, basically burning thousands of pounds every year. His phone does nothing but show more and more running gear adverts. We've told him to stop but he reckons he doesn't have a problem. No runner needs 30 pairs of trainers a year, or 10 rucksacks etc.
Advertising is just a tool. Shopping addiction is really unfortunate but it exists with or without targeted ads - people buying too much stuff has existed since shopping existed. Like you said, you can't help someone who doesn't think they have a problem - sellers will just give them what they want.
However, some categories of products are categorically bad, like gambling. So we can ban anything that makes it easier to do those categories.
Perhaps tell that to one of my friends that has a shopping addiction. He buys endless amounts of running gear, and then resells it, basically burning thousands of pounds every year. His phone does nothing but show more and more running gear adverts. We've told him to stop but he reckons he doesn't have a problem. No runner needs 30 pairs of trainers a year, or 10 rucksacks etc.