Weather Update
Tampa has once again dodged a bullet: the impact from Elsa was minimal. Here at the Irreal bunker, we had some rain and a bit of wind but nothing much worse than our usual afternoon thunderstorms. Now back to our normal content.
One of Irreal’s favorite hobby horses is the depredations of the malevolent adtech industry. It’s bad for everyone involved: those who are surveilled are obviously harmed but so are the assumed benefactors of the scam. Advertisers pay a surprising amount for so called targeted ads but research shows they are largely ineffective. Basically, no one benefits but the adtech industry.
Some folks are fed up. The Norwegian Consumer Council has called for an international ban on surveillance advertising and they’ve assembled a coalition to do just that. In Europe the ball is already rolling with the Digital Services Act that, according the above article, can lay the framework for banning such ads in Europe.
In the U.S. there is no such legislation pending and a court has just dismissed a suit by the FTC and various state Attorneys General against Facebook so the outlook is dimmer. Nonetheless, the coalition is urging U.S. legislators to grab to opportunity to ban such ads.
There’s growing pressure on the tech industry in general but in the absence of European action it seems to me unlikely that the U.S. will do anything. On the other hand, if Europe bans surveillance advertising, Congress may be shamed into doing the same. It will be interesting to see what happens.