The biggest threat to their business model comes from the General Data Protection Regulation, new data privacy rules set to go in effect in the EU in May. There are 734 million EU residents who will soon be able to opt out of helping Facebook and Google make money. For the first time, the online business model of surveillance capitalism is coming under the microscope. In the mid-1990s, businesses and news organizations used the traditional advertising model for content production previously used by television, newspapers and magazines when they went online. “The goals of the advertising business model do not always correspond to providing quality search to users,” they wrote.

Source: Huffington Post January 27, 2018 16:52 UTC