[GoLUG] What is a 'Free' Internet?

[Barry Fishman]

On 2023-07-04 03:26:25 -07, Syeed Ali wrote:
> On Tue, 04 Jul 2023 03:41:26 +0000
> David Billsbrough <kc4zvw at earthlink.net> wrote:
>
>> Google Search's Death by a Thousand Cuts
>> July 2, 2023
>> 
>>   https://matt-rickard.com/google-searchs-death-by-a-thousand-cuts
>
> Scraping and it's use in search engines or AI should be recognized as
> illegal and the data then purged.
> ...

I, for one, depend on search engines to get a perspective on what is
going on in the world.  Although I do subscribe (and pay for) several
news sources, I rely on (multiple) search engines to trace back to
original sources of information.  This is especially important for those
who don't have the time, money, or access to great libraries, to trace
though a long list of references.

The claim against search engines are usually based around two arguments.

1) That the scraped information make visiting the site less needed and
therefore robs the original publisher of advertising of subscription
income.

2) That private information about individuals is made available, or can
be identified by putting together multiple sources of information, which
although not secret individually but taken together, or merged with
other public information can be use to deduce what the person would not
like published.

The first issue to me is somewhat debatable.  Personally, I almost
always follow the links, and is often stopped by a paywall.  I then go
to one of the sites I subscribe to look for the information there.  I
also use an ad blocker since I don't think tracking is a valid way of
making money.  Tracking may improve the effectiveness of ads, but
generating profiles on people just makes the second issue I listed
worse.

The second issue is far more complex.  It existed well before the
Internet, but Internet make it far more acute.  With search engine
scraping, at least I have a view that it is going on. Otherwise it would
be still done by governments and illegally.

But rather that attack search engines that are really our view into the
bad practice, I would rather focus on the less visible financial benefit
of such activity.

The use of tracking to support advertising is a real driver of the
problem.  Pre-internet newspapers could get money using a mixture of ads
and subscriptions.  But web source could be more lucrative using
intermediary ad providers who payed the web sources to provide links to
ads with tracking cookies. The ad provider could then build a profile of
individual users. They could then provide sellers better control over
who is likely to buy the product, so the ads would be more effective
(although more expensive).  Print newspapers could no longer compete
with (even free) online ones.

It also became financially profitable for individuals who could attract
interest to themselves with attractive search engine query targets or
social site posting links, often with incorrect information, and the use
targeted ads to pay for their websites.

Another driving factor is the lack of government control over
monopolies.  Corporation could start buying each other or merging, and
then use that market control to make even more money.  Search engines
and social sites could build/buy their own data driven ad agencies.
This profiteering makes the more catchy simple view of the world more
profitable over the less click friendly nuanced perspectives.  As things
become more profitable, the more public benefit aspects deteriorate.

Legislators seem to focus more on the symptoms that the driving forces.
Shifting the beneficiaries of this corruption to their political backers
rather that try to solve anything.

-- 
Barry Fishman