While advertising has the benefit of being the everyman’s business model, allowing revenue to be generated by almost any type of product, it also has the significant downside of undermining user agency. As described in the podcast, the most nefarious type of advertisement is the one that you don’t recognize as an ad. Internet advertising has become increasingly sophisticated–covertly collecting data to create perfectly tailored and, in many cases, concealed advertisements that are presented to users who may not realize the true price that they are paying for a free service or product. This lack of transparency, and the inability to opt out of this system in many cases, leaves internet users exposed and left with very little agency around the usage of their data.
Our product would be perfectly positioned to collect highly personal information from users’ calendars and messaging tools, leaving us able to place highly personalized, effective ads. That is exactly the reason that we’re choosing to find other streams of revenue so that we can protect our users.
