The thing is: with a 22% impact their employees have a clear signal that they need to brush up their CV. 100% would mean they would have to ask tough questions about how they would pay for their baby’s milk (I realise this is a little dramatic but I’ve seen that happen).
I feel like that problem, like GDPR, should be read as: you have to ask permission, rather than you are not allowed to. I think retargeting, well done, is a great tool. I hate myself for forgetting to include tea towels in my last Amazon order. However, without a ‘Get out of my face’ option (and more generally better controls) those ads are incredibly hurtful and need to be gone. I personally would do shameful things to remove Taboola from my mobile browsers (embedded in social media apps).
It's not about some silly ads at all, it's about several companies collecting massive amounts of information about a very large numbers of individuals. There are essentially no controls imposed on that information and it will live pretty much forever.
Information is power, and such a database could be used for manipulation, blackmail, fraud, etc.
But if you think that's acceptable because it might help you remember to order tea towels, what can I say... thank goodness the EU GDPR is there to save your butt.
I see those databases as the key tool that I interact with most of those services and how, as the person developing services for the same services, I can improve them. If the information there is wrong, I’m happy to correct it.
From experience, if the information is true, appropriate and sensical, the benefits are clear and valued by both parties. There is a problem when they are wrong and the user can’t provide feedback.
> such a database could be used for manipulation, blackmail, fraud
Which is why I refuse to keep private information about me accessible to a company whose security practices I don’t trust.
Your private information is collected and shared no matter if you refuse or not. The biggest offenders are US companies, where there are no laws offering customers access to information about them or the possibility to delete or correct it.
I feel like that problem, like GDPR, should be read as: you have to ask permission, rather than you are not allowed to. I think retargeting, well done, is a great tool. I hate myself for forgetting to include tea towels in my last Amazon order. However, without a ‘Get out of my face’ option (and more generally better controls) those ads are incredibly hurtful and need to be gone. I personally would do shameful things to remove Taboola from my mobile browsers (embedded in social media apps).