Slashdot Mirror
Will "Do Not Track" Kill the Free Internet?
jfruh writes "Dan Tynan is a privacy blogger and longtime proponent of the use of browser plug-ins and other technologies that block advertisers from tracking your web browsing habits. He's also a professional tech writer who makes his living writing articles for free, ad-supported sites. But he doesn't feel those two facts are in conflict, and points out that users pay good money to ISPs for those 'free' sites."
No, it *tells* the company to please don't track me. Next i'm writing a plugin that tell's the IRS to please don't tax me.
so people could give up their privacy in exchange for less ads.
Or fewer ads.
People who insist on a distinction between less and fewer are pompous losers.
English is not some strongly typed programming language. Get over it.
No. Whenever a headline on Slashdot asks a question, the answer is No.
Tomorrow on slashdot: Won't "Do Not Track" Kill the Free Internet?
In more than anyway imaginable, advertisements and targeted advertisements helped to fund and thus build the internet as we know it today. Taking targeted ads out as a possible revenue stream will lead to a string of bankruptcies and site shutdowns across the Internet. It will stifle new innovation and content that can't get adequate funding.
Startups will struggle and fail too. Ultimately, the only content generators that will matter at that point will be hobbyists who spend their own time and money to partake in the internet just to be noticed.
I don't think people truly realize how much money will dry up without targeted advertising.
Don't tax me, bro!
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
Yes, but then we'll lose the delicious irony of things like Slashdot ads for Go Daddy above stories about how Wikipedia is going to dump them because they supported SOPA.