Reddit Is Removing Ability To Opt Out of Ad Personalization Based On Your Activity (techcrunch.com) 54
Ivan Mehta writes via TechCrunch: Reddit said Wednesday that the platform is revamping its privacy settings with an aim to make ad personalization and account visibility toggles consistent. Most notably though, it is removing the ability to opt out of ad personalization based on Reddit activity. The company said that it will still have opt-out controls in "select countries" without specifying which ones. It mentioned in a blog post that users won't see more ads but they will see better-targeted ads following this change.
The company is essentially removing the option to not track you based on whatever you do on Reddit. Additionally, Reddit is consolidating two toggles on showing ads based on activity and information from partners into one toggle. So there is no way to separate those two settings now. Reddit is seemingly removing toggles for getting post recommendations based on "general location" and activity on partner sites and apps. It's not clear if this means those parameters will be used for post suggestions by default and there is no way to turn them off.
The social network said it will also roll out controls to limit certain advertising categories such as alcohol, weight loss, dating, gambling pregnancy and parenting. The company noted that ad-limiting controls will possibly show you fewer ads from mentioned categories if the toggles are turned off, but won't possibly filter out all ads. Reddit justified this by saying it uses manual tagging and machine learning to label ads, so there is a chance that it is not 100% accurate. Reddit is also simplifying its location customization setting under a single menu, which will be easily accessible through settings on apps and on the web.
The company is essentially removing the option to not track you based on whatever you do on Reddit. Additionally, Reddit is consolidating two toggles on showing ads based on activity and information from partners into one toggle. So there is no way to separate those two settings now. Reddit is seemingly removing toggles for getting post recommendations based on "general location" and activity on partner sites and apps. It's not clear if this means those parameters will be used for post suggestions by default and there is no way to turn them off.
The social network said it will also roll out controls to limit certain advertising categories such as alcohol, weight loss, dating, gambling pregnancy and parenting. The company noted that ad-limiting controls will possibly show you fewer ads from mentioned categories if the toggles are turned off, but won't possibly filter out all ads. Reddit justified this by saying it uses manual tagging and machine learning to label ads, so there is a chance that it is not 100% accurate. Reddit is also simplifying its location customization setting under a single menu, which will be easily accessible through settings on apps and on the web.
You are the product, not the customer (Score:2)
Livestocks don't get a say on what's fed to them. That's the main problem with the ad-based economy of websites.
Re: You are the product, not the customer (Score:5, Insightful)
Wait...reddit has ads?
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Wait...reddit has ads?
I've never seen any.
Re: You are the product, not the customer (Score:5, Funny)
They don't have them in adult-only subreddits.
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One more reason to declare your Reddit smut and post the occasional naked pic to ensure it stays ad free.
Re:You are the product, not the customer (Score:5, Insightful)
Livestocks don't get a say on what's fed to them. That's the main problem with the ad-based economy of websites.
People don't want to actually pay for any online service anymore. That, is why we have ad-based economy.
Unfortunately paying for service won't eliminate ads now. Cable TV proved that decades ago.
Re:You are the product, not the customer (Score:5, Insightful)
The people who won't pay for services also won't pay for the things being advertised, so it's a waste of money to batter them with advertisements.
I also blacklist any product or company which has obnoxious ads and will go out of my way to find alternatives.
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Unfortunately paying for service won't eliminate ads now. Cable TV proved that decades ago.
And that in turn is the reason people don't want to pay for online services anymore. It doesn't get them out of being pestered by ads, so why bother paying when you get the same shit either way?
Re:You are the product, not the customer (Score:4, Insightful)
People don't want to actually pay for any online service anymore. That, is why we have ad-based economy.
We have lots of ads because advertisers were always ready to pay, and by being always there and ready, ads took over close to everything as a revenue model, and generally speaking we now don't get to shop options of pay vs ads. Some people would pay given good options; for some, good price alone would carry the day, for others they'd want to not have to give up privacy (e.g. by signing in) now that we're not just an advertising state but a surveillance state. I write this not because your statement is wholly incorrect (it isn't), but it makes people sound cheap... and I think the truth is more complex.
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People don't want to actually pay for any online service anymore. That, is why we have ad-based economy.
We have lots of ads because advertisers were always ready to pay, and by being always there and ready, ads took over close to everything as a revenue model...
...and often without proving the cost was worth the expense. We have LOTS of ads not ever generating the revenue they need to justify their very existence, because we've allowed Corporate America to take some rather insane tax breaks with "marketing expenses".
Like going after Capone, perhaps this is a matter of changing business tax code to defeat the justification to fill our eyes and ears with relentless amounts of advertising. A future of wearable tech sitting in front of our eyes or potentially in our
I've always paid for Reddit (Score:2)
I started giving them $40/year back in the days when they really needed the money.
I still do it, because Reddit with no ads is worth $40/year to me.
I only see ads on Reddit when I need to log in again - roughy annually, for a few seconds.
Re:You are the product, not the customer (Score:4, Informative)
They do when there are laws against this. (EU and California) You are required to have consent. Otherwise, their needs to be an option to anonymity.
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This is why on Wednesday I finally gave up with Reddit and deleted the app off my phone. I used to use apollo app which was great but since that was forced out of the ecosystem I had to use the Reddit app but for example last wednesday I loaded up the app and got....
4 adverts, 2 sponsored, 5 posts popular near me BEFORE I could even see the first post of my subscribed subreddits....Then every other poast were more ads and popular posts near by.
That was it and I deleted the app. So long Reddit you were good
I hate that a lot of useful info can only be found (Score:5, Insightful)
... on Reddit. I'd love to not have to visit that site at all. As a general rule, I don't like rewarding companies who treat their users like garbage by inflating their DAU count.
Re: I hate that a lot of useful info can only be f (Score:5, Interesting)
Or you can just fuck with reddit in ways that are entertaining. For example, post something useful to a technical problem somebody is having, then after a few people respond with posts like "oh that worked, thanks!" proceed to delete your post after like a month or so. Now reddit becomes that much more frustrating for casual users :)
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If you really want to mess with Reddit, take it a step further. Create a bunch of sockpuppets and make sure they get awesome karma. Easier done than said on Reddit, karma-whoring is very easy, just go to one of the million filter bubble subs and post what the general groupthink is about.
Once you have a few million positive karma, hunt down someone useful and complain about them 'til they get banned.
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just go to one of the million filter bubble subs and post what the general groupthink is about.
Once you have a few million positive karma, hunt down someone useful and complain about them 'til they get banned.
/r/europe and just post a Brexit Bad article. Several thousand post points if you submit an article, hundreds of upvotes especially if you go for the trifector of Brexit Bad, muh evil Torees innit, UK economy crashing.
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Thanks, gonna add that to the karma-whoring-subs list.
Re: I hate that a lot of useful info can only be (Score:2)
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Hey, everyone is entitled to a hobby. Mine is to mess with webpages I don't like.
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Re: I hate that a lot of useful info can only be (Score:3)
No, that's not how reddit works. You get karma for agreeing with whatever the popular opinion of the sub is. Even ones that claim to do the opposite, like r/unpopularopinions, still follow that rule.
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If you're using Reddit read-only, you have no reason to allow them to set cookies.
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Beats Discord.
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Not exactly a big problem since you neither have to be logged in to Reddit nor use Reddit to search for that info. I find a bunch of Reddit links quite well with search engines, click the link, read it and close the page.
That this is on Reddit has very little effect on me. Twice so because my adblocker is working.
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You know when we pull that inexplicable shit from the sands of time and stand around scratching our heads wondering how in the HELL it even exists, not being able to figure out how the "dumb" ancient ones did it?
Makes you wonder how often a new-something came along and everyone just ditched the old shit, no matter how useful it might have been at one time.
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You mean Lemmy [join-lemmy.org]?
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>Someday a new Reddit-like platform will show up and everyone will ditch Reddit.
It may not be a never-ending cycle - slowly, it is being learned that there isn't nearly enough money to be made from social media as hoped. At least not for sites like Reddit.
If it's something where the ads are the point, or your visitors are drooling idiots, sure. There will always be another Facebook, but I wouldn't confidently make the same statement about Reddit.
Use a browser (Score:2)
Re:Use a browser (Score:5, Interesting)
I haven't seen an ad on Reddit or Twitter EVER. There's this new ad blocker thing. I'd include Facebook but I gave that shit up in 2007.
You seem to be forgetting you're talking to the generation that switched to pocket-sized internet devices for surfing. And those devices have browsers that act accordingly by default, which is why you are marched right over to an app store when you try and "browse" a site that tends to demand consumers use an app, because marketing.
Re: Use a browser (Score:1)
That's why you don't buy an iphone where you're stuck with a choice of either a shitty browser, or lipstick on a shitty browser. Firefox on Android allows you to use actual web extensions.
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...actual web extensions.
When it comes to sticking our browsers in Reddit or Twitter, maybe we should come up with a more accurate term for those plug-ins? You know, like eCondoms. Or use the iProphylactic Protection Protocol. (iPPP)
Hmm, maybe not. I feel like some poor proxy is gonna get accused of being a SOCKS blocker...
Re: Use a browser (Score:2)
Extensions aren't plugins. Plugins connect external libraries at the ABI level. Extensions extend (read: alter) the functionality of web pages within the DOM by manipulating it, something plugins generally aren't meant to do. Given you repeatedly and often make really poorly thought out and poorly educated comments on slashdot (that I've sometimes interjected to correct) I suppose it's natural that you have no idea what the fuck I'm talking about, thus you can't tell the difference, bringing you inevitably.
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Extensions aren't plugins. Plugins connect external libraries at the ABI level...Think before you post dude...
I did. It was a fucking joke. Uh, literally. Clearly this is the wrong audience for that.
Yeah, I kinda do know what the fuck I'm joking about. Lighten up.
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Vivaldi and Brave on iDevices also has good ad-blocking. Vivaldi released a few days ago, and I'm now using it in place of Brave.
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You seem to be forgetting you're talking to the generation that switched to pocket-sized internet devices for surfing
Very unlikely, I tend to avoid talking to idiots.
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[solved] (Score:3)
adblock makes all this misery go away.
Re:Dear Nerds.... and one last thing (Score:1)
Only for people who somehow stilldon't know better (Score:3)
If you use uBlock Origin (or one of the many, many other adblocking options), you will never see an ad on Reddit. I never have (though I mostly stopped going there anyhow because they're shitty corporate whores).
Even on your mobile devices (if you must) you can get ad blocking. Seriously, the internet works SO MUCH BETTER, period, with all ads blocked. it's faster, cleaner, less buggy, and far fewer privacy violations right up your tush reporting everything you do to Facebook and other mass evildoers.
I don't see ads, so... ? (Score:3)
Race to the bottom (Score:3)
Reddit is doing a speedrun in trying to destroy user trust. First they crush third party apps and then are caught lying about it and slandering the developer of Apollo, then they get rid of the Reddit Gold features and announce more user tracking/monetization.
Power users are fleeing the site and moving to Lemmy, which is growing quickly with all the disaffected users. When this is all over Reddit will be a husk of its former self and just another 9gag.
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Two Words: (Score:2)
Firefox to the rescue (Score:2)