How to replace the intrusive add supported model on the internet

I have been thinking about how to convince companies to drop privacy invasive adverts, I believe the internet needs an innovation in its economic model. Any thoughts?

3 Likes

If only there was an easy way to resolve this :crossed_fingers:Sadly, (and I’m guilty of this myself) we’re accustomed to not having to pay for anything on the internet. This very simple concept alone pushes companies to offer free services without asking people to pay for them. But they still have to generate at least enough money to keep the lights on.

It’s pretty insane how something like YouTube is a free product. The only reason it still exists is because of the privacy-invasive ad industry. As much as I disagree with privacy-invasive ads, and the concept of advertising in general, I think we’ve really taken for granted the barrier of entry they’ve provided to the modern internet - especially the lack of financial friction.

I have no clue what to do about it, just some thoughts. Though my assumption is people like yourself who are financially contributing to things you care about (thanks for being a Techlore patron!) can be a very important part of the solution.

4 Likes

I agree the capitalist economic model has led to commodification of our data and information. I only see it getting worse as companies keep pushing to extract further profits they will start collecting even more information and implementing further privacy invasive practices.

Doesn’t really help when these multinational corporations are lobbying the US government to ensure that regulations are never put into place or are weakened significantly to be not effective.

1 Like

I think freemium models are a good solution. Look at sites like Music streaming, mail services like tutanota. I seems fair to me to get a basic, somehow limited services for free and if you want more, you have to pay for that.

Agree, however, I had Nebula via curiosity stream. I found however that Nebula lacked quantity. I has some decent quality for not enough for that price. I also means yet another wallet service. It would IMO better to have a service like peertube with paid instances/clients.

You also have MeWe. This is a freemium social media without ads. It was to silent for me but there are alternatives.

1 Like

Fair, and in the case of already big platforms like youtube, facebook, instagram etc, you also have the network effect that makes these changes hard. And I suppose that if you take YT premium, Google stills tracks you so you don’t buy more privacy. That is also one of the reasons I don’t buy YT premium of YT music though I really like the content on YT.

I think that these platforms have to be slowly replaced by decentralized alternatives and that the current big one slowly vanish. They are not going to implement a decent decentralization themself. It takes time but see how TikTok was able to join the social media market. It is possible, you just need a good product.