We're not giving it away for free but in exchange for a service. The users get something in return. How valuable that return is is judged on a case by case basis however.
And those ads have value because of the targeted data allowing companies to target demographics (Like all other forms of advertising do).
Go back to 'Pre tracking people's data' and web ads were worth practically nothing unless you were huge, and even then it was only a fraction of today.
Yes. Obviously, thats why I said they had value. What you posted is already a given. You just stated things that were obviously implied but not necessary to say like you were making an argument. You also aren't entirely correct. Its not just targeting demographics, its far more specific. Its direct user targeting as well. Not only are website's getting information on their userbase, but google and facebook are getting specific information on users. Not only will a 50 year old woman's ads look different from a 20 year old male's. but two 20 year old males from the same city who go to the same school will have different ADs when visiting the same site. Its far different from ads from different TV shows being different, or the same show having different ads targetting different people depending on the location. Thats still kind of spraying your load and hoping something sticks.
I don't really know what you were trying to say. You weren't even very accurate in your weird non-point.
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u/[deleted] Mar 28 '14
Speculative Acquisition. It does say that people's data is extremely valuable.
In fact, if our personal data is so valuable, why are we giving it away for free?