My personal problem with the model is not how much they make, but rather the intentionally hidden relationship they develop with the user.
If the relationship is - you get the article, we get to show you an ad that gives us a chance to sell you something and make money on it, which is ~$0.00008 - that would be clear.
Even if the relationship was - you get the article, we get the above plus we'll collect some bits of information about you that we explicitly list. The ad itself will give us ~$0.00008, and the collected data another ~$0.000007 - that would be ethical imho.
But the real model is - we give you an article, and in return you sign a blank document that allows us to collect all the possible data and try to maximize the amount of money we can make on it. You step into it today, but we are not comfortable putting any price point on this agreement because we bank on the idea that in the future we'll make more as we increase our grip over understanding of user behavior and improve our ability to monetize it in any, potentially unethical way.
The reason companies hide the nature of the relationship is because their business models are built around the assumption that the data collection will generate increasing amount of revenue in the future.
And since there's no way for you to understand the relationship, or step out of it, you're entering it with information disadvantage, and there's no turning back.
I hope you can see how this approach is by design hostile to users and the Internet as a public plane.
Even if the relationship was - you get the article, we get the above plus we'll collect some bits of information about you that we explicitly list. The ad itself will give us ~$0.00008, and the collected data another ~$0.000007 - that would be ethical imho.
But the real model is - we give you an article, and in return you sign a blank document that allows us to collect all the possible data and try to maximize the amount of money we can make on it. You step into it today, but we are not comfortable putting any price point on this agreement because we bank on the idea that in the future we'll make more as we increase our grip over understanding of user behavior and improve our ability to monetize it in any, potentially unethical way. The reason companies hide the nature of the relationship is because their business models are built around the assumption that the data collection will generate increasing amount of revenue in the future. And since there's no way for you to understand the relationship, or step out of it, you're entering it with information disadvantage, and there's no turning back. I hope you can see how this approach is by design hostile to users and the Internet as a public plane.