In the beginning, the web was a free bonanza. Now every site tries to sign you up for a monthly subscription. — There was a time when it seemed like everything was free on the internet. Free email. Free hosting. Free software. Free cloud storage. Free photo storage. Every social media site was free as was every search engine and every news site. The software that powered the servers running the web…

It’s Apple’s world. We all just have to try and live in it. — Apple’s glitzy developer conference this June, WWDC, gave us our annual peek at the latest and greatest software the company is bringing to our devices, from iOS 15 to major updates to macOS, iPadOS, and more. This year, as with other years, privacy improvements across Apple’s operating systems were front-and-center…

The old model is dying — Earlier this year, Apple announced sweeping changes to their privacy policies, which sent shockwaves through the online advertising world. Beginning with iOS 14.5, which was released in April, Apple implemented Ad Tracking Transparency (ATT), a feature that requires apps that wish to track users for advertising purposes to ask for…

An industry veteran on why recent moves from the tech giants should be the impetus for a federal privacy law — Jules Polonetsky remembers the moment that shattered his naivete about the internet. “I was the consumer affairs commissioner for New York City 20 years ago when some company I’d never heard of came in with a big billboard,” he recalls. “It said, ‘Welcome to Silicon Alley,’ sponsored by DoubleClick.” I’d…

Apple’s new privacy measures will test the theory that underlies Facebook’s business model — Facebook recently launched an ad campaign to defend personalized advertising against Apple’s new privacy measures. The campaign, called “Good Ideas Deserve to Be Found,” touts targeted ads as a boon for small businesses. …

The web as we know it relies on advertising, but that model is headed for a crash. Fortunately, we can build something better from the… — Online, ads are everywhere. They bombard you when you try to read the news. They pop up between your friends’ Facebook updates. They’re disguised to look like regular results on Google. And one, maybe two play before every video you watch on YouTube — with more peppered throughout.