I agree that we need to change the way of thinking about this, but I disagree with your particular proposal.
The change we need is to realise that this is not a technical problem and it can't be solved by technical means.
On the one hand, some of the largest US corporations are interested in subverting people's privacy. Some of those corporations directly control our computers and software running on them. They also spend billions to keep ahead of any non-megacorp competition (there's a business reason why Google keeps extending Chrome at breakneck speed).
On the other, the underlying problem is a kind of a prisoner dilemma. Spying-driven advertising is ultimately zero (or negative) sum for society [1], but any "defecting" company will be punished by relative sales underperformance. It's a coordination problem and it requires disincentives for defectors, which is not something we can engineer our way out of.
The solution has to be well enforced privacy protecting laws. Think GDPR, but with actual teeth and antitrust action, not letting companies get away with malicious compliance like sham "consent" forms directly violating GDPR [2].
Unfortunately, even on this forum there is very little understanding of the necessity of regulation, and I doubt things will change much. It pays very well to destroy privacy and open web (remember AMP?), and there is very little financial gain in going the other way. In fact, it's professionally harmful, since enablers are more likely to gain and hold power over those who object.
My only hope is relative outsiders in the EU legislature.
[1]: We haven't seen an explosion of productivity attributable to FAANG, so ultimately customers have the same pool of disposable money that businesses are competing for. The businesses haven't shrunk their marketing budgets either, so if you step back and look at the before/after state of the system as a whole, nothing changed except the big shift of ad money from old platforms (including print media) towards FAANG.
[2]: GDPR requires consent to be informed and specific. Ask yourself, do you really understand what precisely your data will be used for when you look at a typical "cookie banner"? Have you ever received a notification asking you if you consent to your data being used in a new way, which is absolutely necessary under GDPR if a data controller (i.e., a business collecting your data) decides to onboard a new marketing SaaS? Have you ever heard of a substantial fine for a company collecting consent in a way that is not specific enough?
The change we need is to realise that this is not a technical problem and it can't be solved by technical means.
On the one hand, some of the largest US corporations are interested in subverting people's privacy. Some of those corporations directly control our computers and software running on them. They also spend billions to keep ahead of any non-megacorp competition (there's a business reason why Google keeps extending Chrome at breakneck speed).
On the other, the underlying problem is a kind of a prisoner dilemma. Spying-driven advertising is ultimately zero (or negative) sum for society [1], but any "defecting" company will be punished by relative sales underperformance. It's a coordination problem and it requires disincentives for defectors, which is not something we can engineer our way out of.
The solution has to be well enforced privacy protecting laws. Think GDPR, but with actual teeth and antitrust action, not letting companies get away with malicious compliance like sham "consent" forms directly violating GDPR [2].
Unfortunately, even on this forum there is very little understanding of the necessity of regulation, and I doubt things will change much. It pays very well to destroy privacy and open web (remember AMP?), and there is very little financial gain in going the other way. In fact, it's professionally harmful, since enablers are more likely to gain and hold power over those who object.
My only hope is relative outsiders in the EU legislature.
[1]: We haven't seen an explosion of productivity attributable to FAANG, so ultimately customers have the same pool of disposable money that businesses are competing for. The businesses haven't shrunk their marketing budgets either, so if you step back and look at the before/after state of the system as a whole, nothing changed except the big shift of ad money from old platforms (including print media) towards FAANG.
[2]: GDPR requires consent to be informed and specific. Ask yourself, do you really understand what precisely your data will be used for when you look at a typical "cookie banner"? Have you ever received a notification asking you if you consent to your data being used in a new way, which is absolutely necessary under GDPR if a data controller (i.e., a business collecting your data) decides to onboard a new marketing SaaS? Have you ever heard of a substantial fine for a company collecting consent in a way that is not specific enough?