I'm very cautious when it comes to the web. All my browsers Safari, Firefox, and Opera are tightly configured to fend of any attempt of intrusions and attacks from the cyber villains.

Call me paranoid and I'm fine with that.

Most people think and guard themselves only from viruses and malwares, which are definitely real threats but I add another, which is not seen by most people as endangering - advertisements.

The Ad-blocker on my browsers are permanently on and if any sites request it to be turned off, I'd say, "Bye-bye, Auf Wiedersehen!"

Digital Deceit

The Technologies Behind Precision Propaganda on the Internet

The central problem of disinformation corrupting American political culture is not Russian spies or a particular social media platform. The central problem is that the entire industry is built to leverage sophisticated technology to aggregate user attention and sell advertising. There is an alignment of interests between advertisers and the platforms. And disinformation operators are typically indistinguishable from any other advertiser. Any viable policy solutions must start here.

The menace, dangers and harm of advertisements have never been greater until the advent of the Internet.

Tackling the Internet’s Central Villain: The Advertising Business

- NYTimes | Farhad Manjoo

"Ads are the lifeblood of the internet, the source of funding for just about everything you read, watch and hear online."

...there’s tech “addiction,” the rising worry that adults and kids are getting hooked on smartphones and social networks despite our best efforts to resist the constant desire for a fix. And all over the internet, general fakery abounds — there are millions of fake followers on Twitter and Facebook, fake rehab centers being touted on Google and even fake review sites to sell you a mattress.

So who is the central villain in this story, the driving force behind much of the chaos and disrepute online?

This isn’t that hard. You don’t need a crazy wall to figure it out, because the force to blame has been quietly shaping the contours of life online since just about the beginning of life online: It’s the advertising business, stupid.

...The digital ad business is in many ways a miracle machine — it corrals and transforms latent attention into real money that pays for many truly useful inventions, from search to instant translation to video hosting to global mapping.

...In 2015, Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, warned about the dangers of the online ad business, especially its inherent threat to privacy. I wrote a column in which I took Mr. Cook to task — I argued that he had not acknowledged how ad-supported services improved his own company’s devices.

I stand by that view, but now I also regret dismissing his warning so cavalierly. Socially, politically and culturally, the online ad business is far more dangerous than I appreciated. Mr. Cook was right, and we should have listened to him.
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