@trhr did you read the article?

@freddy I skimmed it. It's my industry. I'm the guy who tracks you.

@trhr @freddy how ever did small business exist before ai assisted targeted advertising then I wonder 🤔

@thatguyoverthere @freddy

before targeted advertising, they used the yellow pages. i haven't looked at a yellow pages in 20 years. customer behavior changed.

@trhr @freddy Sounds like an excellent case for banning targeted advertising. After all, how did we end up with it in the first place?

Companies which, before they became big tech were small businesses run out of garages, had a problem: how to generate revenue to pay for the services they wanted to give away. Existing business practice said it couldn’t be done, you have to sell a product not give it away. So targeted digital advertising was born.

@trhr @freddy If necessity is the mother of invention, then the solution seems not to be to protect an existing business practice, but to force business to come up with a new solution.

Thus, ban targeted advertising and watch brilliant people solve for the problem.

@robert @freddy

yeah I'm not talking about your tech startup in your garage. it would cripple your local italian restaurant. right now, facebook ads are their _only_ profitable ad channel. everything else is too competitive. facebook does keep their costs lower.

@trhr @freddy

While I would agree that FB advertising is more lucrative than other media sources, I still reject the underlying premise: that a business needs to target 'me' to keep afloat.

Businesses have survived and thrived for millennia prior to the advent of targeted advertising (as understood in the digital space), and the fear campaign FB are embarking upon does not convince me I have to surrender my privacy so the local Italian can continue to serve excellent pasta.

@robert @freddy

Customer behavior has changed. If small businesses can't advertise, then the people who can advertise (Olive Garden) will dominate.

I don't work for FB and I think the way they handle data is atrocious. But there is currently no replacement for the advertising service they provide to small businesses. It's easy enough to use that they don't need consultants, cheap, and effective at driving traffic. They're winning because their product is the best.

@trhr @freddy Again, pretty much in agreement with you, but still hold to the innovation route.

FB have gone from about $242 million in ad revenue to $86 billion a year in barely ten years. A business would be mad to abandon their financially successful approach and find an alternative unless there is legislation to compel them. Hence Freddy’s initial comment to ban targeted advertising. I fully admit the transition will be difficult, but the alternative seems to be more of the same...