I noticed a pop up on my iPhone advertising a Xmas special sale. The thing is that I didn’t give that app permission to do that.
Yes they had permission to send notifications for things that were relevant to their product, but using their app to show unrequested sales went too far. I deleted the app.
If you force your customers to endure ads to use your product, they won’t use your product. Brave browser nicely blocks YouTube ads and the day it doesn’t, I will stop watching Youtube.
There are too many sources for content and information to feel that you have no choice in how your environment is. We control very little in the world, but one thing I can control is the number of ads that I see.
Now you will say to yourself, but you can’t stop ads that are part of a TV show or service. Yes I can. I don’t watch them live. I watch prerecorded shows and then I have the choice what I watch or not. For almost all of my adult life I didn’t own a TV. I didn’t need to watch more TV after overdosing on TV as a kid.
There is a point where you don’t want to be marketed to anymore. I have reached that point long ago. I have put myself on do not call lists, I unsubscribe to every jerk who includes me in their newsletter I didn’t ask for, and I make it clear that companies don’t have a right to contact me. I am not just a consumer, I am the designer of my environment and life.