How is the Internet going to pay for itself? This question has raised its head for decades.

Internet’s lifeblood is advertising. Some 20 years ago, there was an upheaval in advertising industry. The traditional media such as newspapers and magazines were emasculated by Internet. TV advertising too was threatned to be dislodged from its primary position as the advertising of choice for reaching large audiences.

Brands made their presence felt by digital advertising across the websites. The added advantage was precise targeting of these ads by considering the specific interests of people.

Social media expanded rapidly giving the widest possible reach. People could use the social media without paying any cost. In return, people were tracked by using technologies such as cookies. Their personal data was used to do target marketing and advertising. It resulted into a $350 billion digital advertising industry.

However, digital privacy has been assaulted. The world was becoming privacy-conscious. Apple introduced a pop-up window for iPhones in April 2021 asking people for their permission to be tracked by different apps. Google came out with a plan to disable tracking technology in its Chrome web browser. Facebook has engaged their engineers to develop a new method of showing ads without relying on their personal data.

Personal information is thus sacrosanct. What is the alternative? How to survive in a privacy-conscious internet world? Maybe, people should pay for the internet content by way of subscription fees. Actually we have to decide the nature of the web.

It will reduces to the issue of how much ad tracking should be dialled back. Apple phones are premium products, and its customers must have the right to block tracking. Google calls this a privilege to Apple customers. Internet may look different to Apple customers.