10 votes

The ad-based internet is dead but not because of privacy regulations

Tags: privacy, ads

10 comments

  1. [2]
    Marsanghas
    Link
    (the author is co-founder of Protonmail)

    (the author is co-founder of Protonmail)

    9 votes
    1. [2]
      Comment deleted by author
      Link Parent
      1. Gaywallet
        Link Parent
        Checks Google stock price 🤔

        The ad-based internet is dead!

        Checks Google stock price

        🤔

        5 votes
  2. [2]
    Flashynuff
    Link
    "The ad-based internet is dead" is a bold claim. Is there any evidence to support this beyond an upward trend in popularity of secure software? It sounds like this is definitely starting to...

    "The ad-based internet is dead" is a bold claim. Is there any evidence to support this beyond an upward trend in popularity of secure software?

    Data exploitation will cease to be a viable business model when consumers understand the value of services that put them in control of their data.

    It sounds like this is definitely starting to happen, but not to the extent that would kill adtech. Yet, anyways. The "Is Dead" diagnosis is premature.

    7 votes
    1. Marsanghas
      Link Parent
      "is dying" would be a better statement, but less clickbaity I think ;) "is going to have a tough time" would be more correct, but again, not really a sensational title. Although I am a happy...

      "is dying" would be a better statement, but less clickbaity I think ;)
      "is going to have a tough time" would be more correct, but again, not really a sensational title.

      Although I am a happy Protonmail user I thought it would be fair to mention that the author woud benefit if his statement were to come true.

      I do think he has a valid point. There is a tipping point where people become a little more aware and products/services/companies/sites that cater to the sentiment. It's not legislation that will cause people to switch to services for which they are not the product themselves, but a sentiment that is slowly growing.

      Is ad-based internet dead. Not by a long shot, but it will have to adjust. My preference would be no ads and not selling my data. But how many people don't give a damn, because it is 'free'?! Still to many. I don't mind paying for a social medium. For a community site. For news. For my email. But that does add up and not everyone is in the financial position to pay for everything. Protonmail does have a nice free service. And ytou pay if you want something more.

      But will that result in a 'split' internet? 1 for the 'poor' who will have to sell their privacy or be excluded or miss out on a lot of features, and one for the 'rich' who will buy their privacy and have all the better options? I know that is already the case, online and in real life (and not illogical as more money just buys more stuff) but will the gap grow ?

      4 votes
  3. havoc
    Link
    Yeah, Yen didn't exactly explain how encryption is supposed to affect the ad market, tracking or personal data collection. He just threw in completely uncorrelated statistics to drive his point,...

    Yeah, Yen didn't exactly explain how encryption is supposed to affect the ad market, tracking or personal data collection. He just threw in completely uncorrelated statistics to drive his point, which seems to be: encryption equals privacy, so use ProtonMail.

    That people increasingly make more privacy-conscious purchases and choices would be a much better argument. It is not on a scale which could destroy the ad-market, however.

    5 votes
  4. [5]
    arghdos
    Link
    Anyone want to enlighten me on the software the author is discussing here? The fact that I, as a reasonably educated internet user, don't have a clear sense on what services are being discussed...

    And consumer behavior is changing as a result. Analysts expect the encryption software market to grow at a staggering 35 percent annually over the next four years, faster than the entire Software as a Service market over the same period. Virtually every cloud service, from Gmail to Dropbox, suddenly has a competitor offering end-to-end encryption. It is now possible to use cloud-based email, file storage and sharing, messaging, notes, calendar, and more without ever giving the company access to the data on their servers. Secure alternatives will continue to proliferate.

    Anyone want to enlighten me on the software the author is discussing here? The fact that I, as a reasonably educated internet user, don't have a clear sense on what services are being discussed undercuts the author's arguement, though I'll admit I don't spend as much effort as I probably should to protect my data as it often seems an impossibly sisyphean task.

    3 votes
    1. [4]
      Comment deleted by author
      Link Parent
      1. [3]
        arghdos
        (edited )
        Link Parent
        Yeah, that's where I'm at. I'll be very glad to see the death of the ad-based model for internet businesses, it's clear that advertising based revenues are an incredibly pernicious thing, if...

        or you want actual examples of that software, in which case I'm wrong

        Yeah, that's where I'm at.

        I'll be very glad to see the death of the ad-based model for internet businesses, it's clear that advertising based revenues are an incredibly pernicious thing, if nothing else, consider the feedback loop that has been created in the news media between hyper-partisan reporting / click-bait titling / fear-based messaging, etc. and advertising $'s. The sooner we bury that sort of thing in the ash-heap of history the better.

        While encryption software might be growing in prevalence, it must still at minimal market penetration levels (please correct me if I'm wrong here). Consider that the average ~'s user is likely to be tech-savy, younger, and (more) privacy conscious. What does that say about your average Facebook user then if I don't know about any of this (again, not that I'm necessarily a representative sample)?

        Data exploitation will cease to be a viable business model when consumers understand the value of services that put them in control of their data. Google and Facebook will lose, unless they can adapt to the new reality. Hackers will lose when they can only steal encrypted data.

        I think the author is conflating a thing that could (and for the sake of humanity should) happen for something that is occuring

        4 votes
        1. [3]
          Comment deleted by author
          Link Parent
          1. Tuna
            Link Parent
            kudos to the Lavabit founder, for sticking up to his principle and rather shuting down his e-mail service than letting the FBI access user data

            kudos to the Lavabit founder, for sticking up to his principle and rather shuting down his e-mail service than letting the FBI access user data

            4 votes
    2. starchturrets
      Link Parent
      Off the top of my head, Protonmail, Nextcloud/Disroot, Signal, and I dunno about notes and calendar.

      Off the top of my head, Protonmail, Nextcloud/Disroot, Signal, and I dunno about notes and calendar.

      3 votes