• lyralycan@sh.itjust.works
      9·
      11 days ago

      I can’t get anything for free* because someone’s put a price on it. I’m not about to willingly let someone I don’t even like profit off me for free

      *Steam is an exception

      • Bustedknuckles@lemmy.world
        9·
        11 days ago

        Yeah, it’s invasive and predatory and sucks and I hate it. But I also don’t understand it. Someone out there is paying for my data (demographics, purchase and browsing history, psychological profile maybe?) how are they making back their money on that purchase?

        Seems like either

        • a) the marginal difference in wealth extraction for the whole population is worth more than the data costs,
        • b) it isn’t and these purchasers are net losing money, or
        • c) there’s some nefarious propaganda goal where the motive is more control than profit

        I wish they’d leave me alone*

        *Except for steam

    • boonhet@sopuli.xyz
      5·
      11 days ago

      Targeted ads.

      Google and Facebook in particular aren’t selling your data, they’re selling the service of showing ads to people who are likely to purchase those things.

      The average website that has 800 close friends to share data with is trying to figure out who their target demographic is so they know which demographic to pay Google to advertise to… Or they’re also selling ad space.

      So it’s targeted advertisements either way, just different angles