Reddit is removing ability to opt out of ad personalization based on your activity on the platform

techcrunch.com

Reddit is removing ability to opt out of ad personalization based on your activity on the platform | TechCrunch

Technology @lemmy.world

ZeroCool @feddit.ch

2y ago

Reddit is removing ability to opt out of ad personalization based on your activity on the platform

techcrunch.com /2023/09/28/reddit-is-removing-ability-to-opt-out-of-ad-personalization-based-on-your-activity-on-the-platform/

Reddit @lemmy.world

ZeroCool @feddit.ch

2y ago

Reddit is removing ability to opt out of ad personalization based on your activity on the platform

techcrunch.com /2023/09/28/reddit-is-removing-ability-to-opt-out-of-ad-personalization-based-on-your-activity-on-the-platform/

19 comments

I learned about lemmy from this story
- Same. Just migrated to Lemmy using the Boost app after hearing the news. Should have done earlier. Can't trust a greedy company after what happened before.
  
  Lemmy's been wonderful. Like reddit of yore. Like how reddit should be. Like it should still be. Reminder, tell others. The more the merrier. I've told tons of people while just being in line at restaurants/ coffee shops when people peer over my shoulder while browsing on mobile. Reddit took mobile away from us (even though I found a way with a patched reddit app but the reddit app is just damn fucking bad. That reddit app is a miserable experience with or ads no ads).
If I had ever visited reddit without an adblocker in place, I am sure this would have upset me...
old.reddit plus ublock was the only way for me.
- Old Reddit, ublock, and RES. Those were the days, before the ~~fire nation attacked~~ enshittification.
  
  and RES
  Good point, I forgot about RES. Actually I still have it installed.
  Does anyone know how to setup RSS for reddit that includes the comments in the feed? As r/askhistorians is still worth checking every week of so.
  
  The enshitification was already happening with the page redesign, which was up years ago.
- For now, yeah. They'll kill it eventually
  
  I expect it will hang around till after they IPO (if they ever manage to) as it will see a drop in numbers that they want to keep till then.
Glad the Lemmy Migration seems to be progressing nicely
How do I nuke my reddit account again? I wasn’t going to in case they decided to smarten up, but fuck ‘em
- PowerDeleteSuite.
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.
Emphasis mine. The matter here is not consistency; the article author correctly identified it, it's to prevent users from disabling ad personalisation. Perhaps Reddit users wouldn't be trying to burn the platform down from the inside, if it didn't lie to the users so often, like this.
“Reddit requires very little personal information, and we like it that way. Our advertisers instead rely on on-platform activity—what communities you join, leave, upvotes, downvotes, and other signals—to get an idea of what you might be interested in,”
That's a lot of information and arguably personal.
I'm glad that I moved out.
If you are listening to these people, join Reddit again. I will harvest all of the data FOR YOUR BENEFIT! You want a free Reddit, right? Well then, Support this change. Privacy is dead.
- It's OK if the content of this comm gets a bit redundant with other comms. It's useful for documenting.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Reddit said Wednesday that the platform is revamping its privacy settings with an aim to make ad personalization and account visibility toggles consistent.
Our advertisers instead rely on on-platform activity—what communities you join, leave, upvotes, downvotes, and other signals—to get an idea of what you might be interested in,” Reddit said.
Reddit is seemingly removing toggles for getting post recommendations based on “general location” and activity on partner sites and apps.
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.
It infamously made changes to its data API terms that led to many third-party clients shutting down and subreddits protesting in retaliation.
In an interview with The Verge in June, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman responded to IPO rumors and said “Getting to breakeven is a priority for us in any climate.”
The original article contains 415 words, the summary contains 147 words. Saved 65%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Wouldn't this be illegal in the EU?

19 comments