The Price of Free Google Report.
Proton analyzed over 54,000 demographic profiles using 2025 ad auction data to estimate what advertisers pay to reach different types of Americans. The range is much wider than you might expect.
The average American generates about $1,605 a year in advertising value. A 35- to 44-year-old man in Bozeman, MT, without children, using a desktop and making high-value corporate searches, generates an estimated $17,929.30. An 18- to 24-year-old father in Fort Smith, AR, using an Android phone and making low-value searches, generates $31.05.
That’s a 577x difference between two people using the same free service.
Ok but what actually is the issue? Whenever I ask this people respond things like oh they are making money off you. Again what is the actual issue?
I didn’t consent to this. If you’re cool with people taking advantage of you without your consent then that’s on you, but acting like exploiting people without any consent is somehow not an issue then you are extremely fucked in the head.
Here is 1. How Meta exposed vulnerable teens to get expolited by advertisers:
https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/meta-allegedly-targeted-ads-at-teens-based-on-their-emotional-state/
Data collection. One of the reasons the Nazis were so successful was because countries like Germany and the Netherlands kept excellent records on people. As soon as they got access to those records, they were easily able to identify people as undesirables and send them off to the camps.
Today, Google collects data like this on you, and then the US government buys it off them, bypassing constitutional privacy protections. This is the one of the ways ICE is targeting people. (Feel free to replace with your local equivalent.)
In order to prevent things like this happening, we should prohibit the collection of the data in the first place.
Targeted ads. I live in a third world country having its economy devastated by targeted foreign online gambling advertisements and I can tell you the consequences are severe and in large scale.