[HN Gopher] Democrats unveil bill to ban online 'surveillance ad...
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       Democrats unveil bill to ban online 'surveillance advertising'
        
       Author : stalfosknight
       Score  : 29 points
       Date   : 2022-01-18 20:09 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.theverge.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.theverge.com)
        
       | vmception wrote:
       | Bill text
       | 
       | https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23177323/B...
        
       | f0e4c2f7 wrote:
       | I've proposed this idea before and still see the merit in it.
       | 
       | Online platforms can still be funded by advertising. Taking away
       | the targeting just reduces the incentive to spy on users.
        
       | vmception wrote:
       | I think there is a better opportunity to incentivize the desired
       | behavior, instead of attempt to disincentivize with the civil
       | code
       | 
       | Congress, particularly these representatives, doesn't know what
       | outcome they want though
       | 
       | How about making users the direct recipients of the value of
       | their data, with consent provable revokable consent. Similar to a
       | streamlined licensing agreement.
        
         | AnimalMuppet wrote:
         | All revokable consent will get us is spam surveillance
         | advertising. (Junk phone calls are illegal if you're on the Do
         | Not Call list, but I still get them.)
        
           | colejohnson66 wrote:
           | You still get them because the do-not-call registry is
           | basically ignored by regulatory agencies. What's needed
           | (IMHO), before new laws, is enforcement of the ones we have
           | right now.
        
       | tomohawk wrote:
       | Given that democrat run companies control almost all online
       | advertisement, who are they fooling? They could change this today
       | if they wanted to.
        
         | kup0 wrote:
         | This line of thinking makes the incredibly naive mistake of
         | thinking that all Democrats feel the same about online
         | advertisement (or anything, really)
         | 
         | What makes you think that Democrat legislators and "democrat
         | run companies" (operating on the assumption this is true and on
         | the assumption that all of the company's operations match it's
         | executives' political views- again a pretty big question mark)
         | in any way share the same views concerning surveillance
         | advertising?
        
       | datavirtue wrote:
       | Let me guess, Manchin blocks it and the senate puts the last nail
       | in the coffin.
        
       | skulk wrote:
       | I'm curious what the enforcement pathway will look like under
       | this bill, if signed into law. Does it start with someone
       | thinking "hmm, this ad is suspiciously specific to me?" How do
       | you even know if you're being targeted via one of the exceptions
       | (like what state you're in or keywords you've searched) versus
       | banned info (like zip code)?
        
         | Hokusai wrote:
         | "whistleblowers" is one answer. Public APIs and contracts are
         | another, it's difficult for Facebook to offer targeted adds to
         | companies while hiding it from law enforcement.
        
         | KoftaBob wrote:
         | I imagine it may involve periodic/unscheduled audits of adtech
         | companies platforms under the hood, to see how they're
         | targeting?
        
       | jklinger410 wrote:
       | Platforms can allow marketers to target without abusing their
       | users. The ball is really already in their court there. This is
       | pretty heavy-handed.
       | 
       | I also can't help but think that this creates a mote for
       | companies like Google and Facebook, who employ lawyers and
       | engineers to make sure their ad business is legal. Furthermore
       | using machine learning and proprietary signals in lieu of
       | whatever data stuff like this manages to restrict.
       | 
       | As an upstart website, ad monetization will become increasingly
       | difficult. As a small business, serving ads to the right users
       | will become increasingly difficult.
       | 
       | Ads will not go away or stop being annoying from a user's
       | perspective. They will be less relevant, too.
        
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       (page generated 2022-01-18 23:02 UTC)