Reddit will no longer let you opt out of personalized ads::Reddit is removing the ability for some users to opt out of ad personalization based on their activity on the platform, though some countries will be excluded from the change.
The solution is simple: opt out of Reddit entirely.
Mark my words, where one tech bro goes, the others always follow. This is not a good sign.
Reddit has adds ? Never seen one, uBlock doing its marvelous job…
I have seen this same headline about ten times this week. When will the regurgitation end?!?!?
Seriously
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Reddit is removing the ability for some users to opt out of ad personalization based on their activity on the platform.
Announced on Wednesday alongside several incoming updates to its privacy, advertising, and location settings, Reddit’s head of privacy, Jutta Williams, justified the change by saying that Reddit “requires very little personal information” from its users and that it would allow the company to “better predict which ad may be most relevant to you.”
European countries might be exempt from the forced opt in as the change would likely bring Reddit into direct conflict with the EU’s GDPR rules, which require companies to get express permission to collect or process personal data for use in activities like advertising.
Meta recently carved out similar exceptions for European Facebook and Instagram users earlier this year to bring it into compliance with EU privacy laws.
The Reddit changes will also add the ability for users to see fewer ads from specific categories like gambling, alcohol, weight loss, and dating.
The company says that its process of combining manual tagging with machine learning to classify the ads isn’t likely to be 100 percent successful at first but expects it to improve over time.
The original article contains 305 words, the summary contains 199 words. Saved 35%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Genuine question:
Ignoring the legality (because dystopic present), why is this a big deal? It isn’t like they are not collecting that data if you toggle personalized ads off. And if I am on a permitlisted site, I would rather see ads that are at least somewhat related to me instead of the most generic stuff imaginable.
The collection of data is an ongoing and fucked up part of our dystopic present. But… toggling personalized ads does nothing about that.
Sharing and/or selling that data to third parties that do have personally identifiable information… now they know everything about your porn habits et al., that data is more easily leaked the wider it’s spread, you’re more easily doxxed/blackmailed, etc.
But you are assuming they stop collecting that data if you opt out of personalized ads. So … wanna buy a bridge?
Collecting the data is necessary for the functionality of the site. Lemmy collects that same data. Sharing that data with third parties and potential ramifications of that is the issue I’m raising.
And that data is still being shared with advertising firms. It is just that instead of “Jack Smith is User 12345” it is “User 12345 who is probably someone named ‘Jack Smith’”
Facebook does the same shit.
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You’re working on the assumption that they collect that data anyways and if they do then I kind of agree. But in the EU for example it would be illegal for them to collect that data so I sincerely hope theyre not doing that. Well, actually I kind of hope they are doing that and someone finds out about it.
Assuming that no one is breaking any laws here I’d rather get generic ads than targeted since I’m perfectly capable of making my own purchase decisions and don’t want to be manipulated into buying some garbage I don’t need. But more importantly, I don’t want some random companies out there having a detailed profile of me, that’s super dystopian to me. What if that falls into the wrong hands? Oh wait, it would already be in the wrong hands.
