I think that's a valid point. Clearly the Silicon Valley firms delivering ads are building in metrics and tracking.
However, my point was that this would not matter if one had capabilities at hand to control what information your own machine sends out about you for these ad trackers to capture. What Washington and Hollywood are doing is passing laws together that prevent this.
There are situations where I am perfectly happy letting a company have information about me, on which it makes profits, but that I feel on balance is in my interests. (For example personalization algorithms in some services I feel provide me with added value). There are plenty of situations where I do not want this. When I have the option to disengage with services that track me in ways I don't want to, and thereby reduce my surveillable footprint I am fine with Silicon Valley doing its thing. When I don't have such options because Hollywood has lobbied to ban computers which don't identify their owner clearly to all in the foodchain, and by extension the government - and when I have no idea about the security of my own machine thereby undermining my own crypto choices, that's a fundamental undermining of my liberties.
Silicon Valley firms may deliver services to Hollywood and DC but ultimately both of those are more powerful in the decision making hierarchy than is the tech sector.
However, my point was that this would not matter if one had capabilities at hand to control what information your own machine sends out about you for these ad trackers to capture. What Washington and Hollywood are doing is passing laws together that prevent this.
There are situations where I am perfectly happy letting a company have information about me, on which it makes profits, but that I feel on balance is in my interests. (For example personalization algorithms in some services I feel provide me with added value). There are plenty of situations where I do not want this. When I have the option to disengage with services that track me in ways I don't want to, and thereby reduce my surveillable footprint I am fine with Silicon Valley doing its thing. When I don't have such options because Hollywood has lobbied to ban computers which don't identify their owner clearly to all in the foodchain, and by extension the government - and when I have no idea about the security of my own machine thereby undermining my own crypto choices, that's a fundamental undermining of my liberties.
Silicon Valley firms may deliver services to Hollywood and DC but ultimately both of those are more powerful in the decision making hierarchy than is the tech sector.