I am not sure that article has a valid premise. I mean 30 bucks a month to avoid ad targeting? Wouldn't many users just LEARN. I pay zero and nobody as far as I can tell has any hope to target me with ads. I haven't seen an ad in so long that I'll just take your word for it that they still get sent. LOL!!
Why would anyone pay more to be spared from seeing AT&T ads when they will still be overwhelmed by ads from all other sites they browse? (assuming they don't use an ad blocker)
Can't these people just pay 6 bucks a month for a VPN (or find a free one if they're cheap), save the $30, and screw their ad plan?
The whole premise is bizarre, when they should be paying you (in aggregate) probably a few $k for the information and control they're extracting. My assessment is that the cost of the services & technology that's provided in return is of the order of $100s. What's worse is, you can pay the money and still get your info gouged. I think there's a big danger of a form of sub-prime and multiple reselling of debt going on here, that is to say, people are reselling information about you multiple times, and I can see a big crash in a few years time. Good. Free is way too expensive for many of these services.
