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Since LinuxLoop.com serves Google AdSense ads, I feel that I should alert you that Google has announced they will begin targeting their ads to individual users, rather than basing off the content of the site. This announcement immediately made me uncomfortable, since I feel that it can be viewed as an invasion of privacy. Other ad networks do this already, but (a) this is Google and (b) I would prefer to avoid serving tracking ads.
I have to give credit to Google for making it possible to opt-out, though, both as an advertiser and as a user. I have already disabled serving ads based on interests on this website, but I encourage you to opt-out of the entire interest-tracking system on your own with Google’s Ads Preferences page. Please note that this is on a per-computer basis and will be erased if you clear your cookies. If you use IE or Firefox, you can download a plugin that will keep your preference, even if you clear your cookies. You can read more about this here.
I am not sure that I find this too concerning. After all, Google is actually making it easy to opt-out as a user, something that is not generally done. Plus, this can only, as I understand it, pull data from your browsing history of sites that have AdSense (and have interest-tracking enabled). Overall, I think we have to applaud Google for the easy opt-out switch.
For now, to the best of my knowledge, I have disabled interest-tracking on this site. Depending on how this plays out, I may or may not choose to re-enable it in the future, especially since you can opt-out on your own. I would love to get your feedback on this.
Thank you.
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Actually, there is no money, but that is another topic. Invasion of privacy is the issue. The corporate state vs the individual is a growing concern to any thinking person. The question here is access and control. Making informed decisions requires open access without fear of reprisal or interference. Why track everyone’s activities unless there is the underlying desire to ultimately control or interfere with said activities, whatever they may be. Unless we choose to identify and deny such unwarranted invasions it will be assumed we are ok with it and it will proceed untill we have no choices. Think about it.
The good guys need to make money too. I ignore ads anyway, just clicking on them to generate some income for both the sites i visit and Google. Sites using Google ads are the only ones I don’t block.