> Targeted advertising needs to be [...] banned across the board
You say that like an absolute that is enforceable. Advertising has been targeted since advertising exists. Advertisers have been choosing radio or billboard-slots for well over 100 years (well, radio for 100, print and billboards probably for centuries), using data or educated guesses to reach a target demographic. As advertisers now choose on which sites (or not) their ads should appear, in order to reach their target demographic. Of course, they can choose by a few more criteria now. How ubiquitous should a specific ad be, so that it would not be "targeted" advertisement?
I think we need legislation, but it's not black and white. There's a huge grey line that spans all of advertising history.
Edit: just to be clear, choosing whether to advertise in a newspaper (and which) on radio (and which channel), or on facebook, is already targeting for a desired audience.
I suppose I should clarify: User targeting should be banned across the board. Content targeting should not: Feel free to put ads next to particular news articles, sites, or TV shows.
It's no so cut and dry though. If you've ever watched golf on TV you will notice that the most prominent advertising is for insurance companies (User) not golf equipment (Content). They are advertising to the cohort of users that watch golf on tv (rich business people).
That's still content targeting: They're basing the ads they place next to content based on the expected audience for that content. Everyone watching that content sees that ad, no problem.
We get into issues when we're dealing with ads being placed based on who is viewing the content.
> You say that like an absolute that is enforceable.
It is possible to make it technically impossible. Not allowing third-party cookies is one way. This alone would only allow targeting by the coarse location derived from the IP and by the user agent string.
You say that like an absolute that is enforceable. Advertising has been targeted since advertising exists. Advertisers have been choosing radio or billboard-slots for well over 100 years (well, radio for 100, print and billboards probably for centuries), using data or educated guesses to reach a target demographic. As advertisers now choose on which sites (or not) their ads should appear, in order to reach their target demographic. Of course, they can choose by a few more criteria now. How ubiquitous should a specific ad be, so that it would not be "targeted" advertisement?
I think we need legislation, but it's not black and white. There's a huge grey line that spans all of advertising history.
Edit: just to be clear, choosing whether to advertise in a newspaper (and which) on radio (and which channel), or on facebook, is already targeting for a desired audience.