Wherever I go, I often see the sentiment “This website has ads, so it’s trash” pop up in conversations. And honestly I don’t quite get why. 90% of the internet has always had ads, you just scroll past them and mind your business. At least they’re personalized now so you can pick a topic you like instead of diapers and miscellanous spammy trash as there once were.
There may have always been sites with ads, but they didn’t always track and profile you behind your back - that’s what’s wrong with online ads, not that there’s something wrong with advertising per se.
And if they’re personalised then that’s a whole level worse because that means that A: they’ve profiled you and B: they can now be much more effective at influencing you. Don’t buy the story that any of that is for your benefit.