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Comment by vlucas | Hacker News Reader

> There is no contract or promise between me and the website that I am visiting that I will be captive to their ads or behavior tracking, implied or otherwise

If you ask any website without a paywall, they will almost ALL tell you their content is free. Some even advertise and market that enthusiastically. A visit still helps them - it is still counted in server-side stats (which is used to sell ads), and I am exposed to their brand, which is a large part of what marketing is all about. There are also other forms of advertising which are not blocked - things like sponsored posts, guest posts, mailing list opt-in forms, referral links, etc.

You also conveniently ignored my question on whether or not forcing me to watch an ad or forcing me to accept behavior tracking is moral on their part. This is not a one-sided equation.

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"If you ask any website without a paywall, they will almost ALL tell you their content is free. "

Come on. No they don't, vlucas. They say "welcome, enjoy, support our sponsors." They do not say "it's free; do whatever you want with our content now that the packets have been transferred."

They do indeed say the content is free. Of _course_ they are not going to say "do whatever you want with our content". That's not what I said or implied at all.

> A visit still helps them - it is still counted in server-side stats (which is used to sell ads

This is totally nonsensical. If they have no prospect of recouping the expense they incurred from your visit then you are not helping them, you are worse than worthless to them, you simply cost them money.

> Are you saying it is moral for publishers to track my usage behavior, and to force me to watch any ad they want me to?

You aren't being forced to watch anything. You have the option of leaving their site and living without their content.

Your attitude is the definition of entitlement.

> You aren't being forced to watch anything. You have the option of leaving their site and living without their content.

> Your attitude is the definition of entitlement.

I also have the option of completely ignoring the ads or covering them up, which is essentially the same thing as blocking with a plugin. This is not a binary equation. This is the essence of my very first comment here.

There is nothing morally wrong about not paying attention to an ad, zooming in so you don't see it, covering it up, not watching a video, muting commercials, etc. No publisher or advertiser has the expectation that 100% of people will pay attention to their ad. The ratios are closer to 1%. Nobody has that expectation expect the people trying to make this into a moral argument.

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