TL;DR: Reddit is removing the option to opt out of ad personalization, targeting ads based on user activity. Some specific ad categories can still be limited, but there’s no more opt-out option.

  • meseek #2982@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    They just went from we love you guys to we don’t even give a fuck bend over boy in like 6 months.

    Twitter has also shifted into a dystopian QQ wannabe.

    Meta has been a dumpster fire for a decade now.

    Tik Tok. heavy sigh

    This kinda seems like end of times.

    • Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net
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      1 year ago

      if this is your version of the end of times, I suggest you take a look out your window at the burning hellscape of western north america and other locations around the globe. I also hope you’re not too attached to birds or polar bears.

      • bubblefizzpop@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        It’s almost like we can be upset about multiple things at one. Wow.

        Why are we playing these games of let’s come up with something worse so we can devalue what someone else is talking about? This isn’t a competition. That is such unnecessary behavior.

        • Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net
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          1 year ago

          How am I devaluing what they are saying by pointing out there are much, much, more serious signals of a looming apocalypse?

          It’s like worrying about the mosquito biting you in a room full of blood thirsty canibals.

          I realize I shifted off topic, but they were getting a bit dramatic with the end of times bit

          • bubblefizzpop@beehaw.org
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            1 year ago

            How is it dramatic when it’s all interconnected to begin with? People noticing a shift like that online might start to get involved in other ways as well if they start to feel more of the effect personally. It’s a good thing that people are noticing this stuff.

            Again it’s not a competition and people shouldn’t have to have their frustrations compared to something else, that is devaluing it. We are allowed to be upset about something and have that stand on its own without others chiming in and acting like it doesn’t matter because of something else so that they can act self important or more intelligent. It’s just old and tired.

            You seem to have an incredibly bad attitude and I wouldn’t be shocked if you were trying to start something, so I’m done here. Maybe try some empathy out for a change.

            • Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net
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              1 year ago

              I’m not trying to start anything, I just don’t follow your logic, and your comments seem like an over reaction.

              I’m happy to agree to disagree though, and won’t presue a conversation neither of us really wants to have.

              Hopefully you find other people on here that are more suited to your perspectives (I’m legitimately sorry we’re clashing). Lemmy is a great platform and I want you to enjoy it as much as I do

    • bobs_monkey@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      If it’s the end of the era of social media, I’m plenty ok with that. Shit’s been cancer for almost a decade now.

      • ReallyActuallyFrankenstein@lemmynsfw.com
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        1 year ago

        And may it usher in the era of antisocial media. The era where we all stop trying to impress each other, monetize each other, and just buy a thing and have it do the thing we bought it for, and not be bothered. Long may it reign.

        • bobs_monkey@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Lol that’s more like the end of American consumerism, and while I wholeheartedly agree, that’ll take a generation or two at least to decouple from American society. That shit’s been going strong here for over 100 years.

  • Sphere@reddthat.com
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    1 year ago

    Some of us remember there was a time when things like Reddit didn’t exist, and neither did Facebook, Twitter etc. Lots of people lived just fine without them then. It’s completely possible to take a hard line on this stuff and just refuse to use sites/apps/products that don’t respect your privacy. Remember, there’s always a smaller, friendlier or mechanical version.

    • Erdrick@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      Reddit was unique - at least in my experience - in that it expanded my horizons and allowed me to grow in many ways.
      Before Reddit I just searched out sites / forums about my interests.
      Reddit allowed me to organically gain new interests through daily interactions.

      I’ve left it since they killed Apollo but I will admit that there were various good communities that I do miss!

    • friendlymessage@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      In select countries, the option to turn off ad personalization will remain, allowing Reddit to continue to comply with GDPR restrictions.

      • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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        1 year ago

        If it’s anything like Twitter, it resigns you up to them anyway. There’s no “turn off all” as far as I could see. The missus has to run some JS to untick all the boxes for her. Next week she’ll go back and it will have ticked more.

    • FaceDeer@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I still dabble over there, but I had long forgotten that they have ads because I use uBlock Origin.

  • TheBlue22@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    1 year ago

    Correct me if im wrong, but didn’t EU ban this kind of practice?

    If true, reddit would be fucked on the European market

  • Ultimatenab@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Get Mozilla Firefox and add uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger and Ghostery plugins.

    For over the top action, but a Raspberry Pi with an ethernet port and install PiHole and change your router DNS to the IP address of the PiHole and bask in glory that 99.999% of the crap out there, will not come or go out of your household.

    • The Doctor@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      It boggles the mind that there are people who still don’t use adblocking measures these days.

  • Arotrios@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    "I met a traveller from an antique land,
    Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
    Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
    Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
    And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
    Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
    Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
    The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
    And on the pedestal, these words appear:
    My name is Spezymandias, Admin of Kings;
    Look on my Reddit, ye Mighty, and despair!
    Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
    Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
    The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

    • LallyLuckFarm@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      I’m pretty sure it’s everyone who uses their app, since every third post and every fourth comment on it is an ad of some sort (or at least that’s how it seemed). I’m sure anyone on old.r with an adblocker is unaffected but during the brief time I had their app installed there were enough ads to render it unusable and unnavigable.

  • AndreTelevise@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    For those who are paranoid about this - some of you have a Facebook account, and half of you have a Google-filled smartphone. Privacy is important, but IMO there should be a balance between convenience and privacy - unless you actually do stuff that requires the utmost privacy or you need to stay fully anonymous everywhere as much as possible.

    Division of identity - that is, having unique profiles/identities for different types of things you do on the web, using alias emails and anonymous email for certain things etc. - is a more viable strategy than trying to be 100% anonymous on the web.

    Commercial social media that is free does and will track your activity on the site, whether for personalized ads or for algorithm purposes. Lemmy and Mastodon don’t because they’re FOSS, and don’t run on ads (99.9% of the time).

    • png@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 year ago

      Apple is not considerably better for privacy either by rhe way. They just pay more for marketing that says they’re more private than the rest of big tech.

    • SokathHisEyesOpen@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Commercial social media that is free does and will track your activity on the site

      I don’t think many people have an issue with this. It’s all the bullshit they pull to track you off the site that is the problem, and they do a lot of that.

      Edit: and the selling of that information to third parties that you would never consent to. That’s also a huge issue.

  • FeelThePower@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    funny as im seeing this while nuking my old reddit account. havent used it since they took apollo from me and honestly i won’t miss it. they are just digging their own grave at this point.