Comment by bandrami

I don't think it has to go that far. I think there's a middle ground here that people would accept: show us ads, but make it a one-way firehose, like TV and billboards. If you need to advertise to pay for the site, put up all the banners you want. But don't try to single me out for a specific one.

If it could pay for network TV there's no reason it can't pay for a website.

(You could still do audience-level tracking, e.g. "Facbebook and NCIS are both for old people, so advertise cruises and geriatric health services on those properties")