so much of what is nasty and vile about ads and tracking is a response to people building "click bots." The system was vulnerable from the start, so why'd we decide on it as a business model?

I think Google and Facebook are convinced they can clever (don't talk to a Haskel programmer at Facebook, the smugness is lethal) their way out of fraud. I think that's hubris.

<snip> If you go back and read Orwell, you'll notice that Oceania was actually quite good at data security...

Our own Thought Police is a clown car operation with no checks or oversight, no ability to keep the most sensitive information safe, and no one behind the steering wheel <unsnip>

Great article, slerehwon. Thanks for sharing it