The Price of Free Google Report.
Proton analyzed over 54,000 demographic profiles using 2025 ad auction data to estimate what advertisers pay to reach different types of Americans. The range is much wider than you might expect.
The average American generates about $1,605 a year in advertising value. A 35- to 44-year-old man in Bozeman, MT, without children, using a desktop and making high-value corporate searches, generates an estimated $17,929.30. An 18- to 24-year-old father in Fort Smith, AR, using an Android phone and making low-value searches, generates $31.05.
That’s a 577x difference between two people using the same free service.
Ok but what actually is the issue? Whenever I ask this people respond things like oh they are making money off you. Again what is the actual issue?
Data collection. One of the reasons the Nazis were so successful was because countries like Germany and the Netherlands kept excellent records on people. As soon as they got access to those records, they were easily able to identify people as undesirables and send them off to the camps.
Today, Google collects data like this on you, and then the US government buys it off them, bypassing constitutional privacy protections. This is the one of the ways ICE is targeting people. (Feel free to replace with your local equivalent.)
In order to prevent things like this happening, we should prohibit the collection of the data in the first place.
OK so it's done. All the data scraping is illegal.
Now all that money they are making either comes directly out of our pockets or you don't use it any more. A lot of countries now cannot afford the internet as a complete service.
The thing is though that people are selfish so this isn't going to happen.
And it worked just fine without those services, or the Internet at all, for thousands of years. I'm not sure if the Internet has been a net positive or negative for society yet.
Here is 1. How Meta exposed vulnerable teens to get expolited by advertisers:
https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/meta-allegedly-targeted-ads-at-teens-based-on-their-emotional-state/
Which is absolutely wrong and indefensible. This is about how you use the data though which absolutely should be heavily regulated.
Here's the thing though. If we stopped the actual data gathering then we would be paying for all internet services directly out of our pocket. Now I have disposable income so I don't mind doing that.
How is this not about data collection? Why do you think Meta is collecting data about teens mental conditions? It's definitely not the teens that are telling Meta that they are depressed themselves. No, instead Meta spends millions on researching human psychology, just so they can come up with whatever fuckep up algorithm that will enable them to gather that data.
Back in the day, when you went to a website, you would either see ads that are somewhat related to that website, or you would see ads that are completely random. Now, thanks to data collection, advertisers can exploit your personal habits or medical conditions to exploit you. Thanks to data collection, the US government can track womans period cycles to track if they are possibly pregnant, and if they might have had an abortion.
Who do you think is going to do the regulation? The money hungry corpos? Or the same US government that is currently hunting anyone who don't agree with them?
You are fundamentally wrong about data collection being a separate issue then how that data is used. One does not exist without the other.
The point I was making was that if no data was gathered then people would have to pay for internet services such as emails, search, maps etc. That is not going to happen because people don't want to put their hands in their pockets.
Why? Advertising was a thing way before digital data collection and personalized ads was a thing. Let's imagine a current world where data collection was illegal. Do you think Google would make no money in this scenario? I am pretty sure they could still sell ads even if they were doing no personalized data collection. They could sell these ads based on where those ads could be displayed. So, instead of advertisers targeting specific demographics based on their personal data, they would instead choose what kinds of websites or search results they would like to display their ads in. Problem solved, no?
It seems like you are either too young to remember this, or maybe forgotten about it because of the norm we have been living in for so long, but internet existed way before personalized data collection, screw that, way before even Google was a thing, and we were still able to use the internet. Who do you think trained all these slop genarators if not the pre-AI small hobbyist and enthusiast websites that shared their knowledge with the rest of the world, usually for free. Hell, you are literally on a decentralized network of forums, most of which has been running by people paying for the costs themselves, or with the help of donations.
I would argue, something as essential as an email address should be a government provided service, since you can't even login to your online government services, or can't even open bank accounts without one.
Targeted ads. I live in a third world country having its economy devastated by targeted foreign online gambling advertisements and I can tell you the consequences are severe and in large scale.
People can mass spam websites without data. Targeted ads are ads based on my search. Without this we would be paying for all internet services. Searching, email, maps everything you would need to pay for.
I didn't consent to this. If you're cool with people taking advantage of you without your consent then that's on you, but acting like exploiting people without any consent is somehow not an issue then you are extremely fucked in the head.
But if you use it then you really did consent to it. It's right there in the t&C's.
On an aside, if I have to suffer ads I would rather have ads which are about things I am interested in.
I did not consent to anything, I did not agree to any terms and conditions. Consent is active, not passive. Companies like Google and Meta are also tracking you regardless of whether or not you are using their service through other websites. Again, I did not consent, I am not using their service. Stop defending predatory, rapist behavior.
That's the point though. If you do not consent then do not use.
I'm not using Google or Meta services, but they are still tracking me. That's my point. Stop simping for corpo rapists.