Reddit said Wednesday that the platform is revamping its privacy settings with an aim to make ad personalization and account visibility toggles consistent. Most notably though, it is removing the ability to opt out of ad personalization based on Reddit activity.
The company said that it will still have opt-out controls in “select countries” without specifying which ones. It mentioned in a blog post that users won’t see more ads but they will see better-targeted ads following this change.
“Reddit requires very little personal information, and we like it that way. Our advertisers instead rely on on-platform activity—what communities you join, leave, upvotes, downvotes, and other signals—to get an idea of what you might be interested in,” Reddit said.
The company is essentially removing the option to not track you based on whatever you do on Reddit.
Additionally, Reddit is consolidating two toggles on showing ads based on activity and information from partners into one toggle. So there is no way to separate those two settings now.
Reddit is seemingly removing toggles for getting post recommendations based on “general location” and activity on partner sites and apps. It’s not clear if this means those parameters will be used for post suggestions by default and there is no way to turn them off.
The social network said it will also roll out controls to limit certain advertising categories such as alcohol, weight loss, dating, gambling pregnancy, and parenting.
The company noted that ad-limiting controls will possibly show you fewer ads from mentioned categories if the toggles are turned off, but won’t possibly filter out all ads. Reddit justified this by saying it uses manual tagging and machine learning to label ads, so there is a chance that it is not 100% accurate.
Reddit is also simplifying its location customization setting under a single menu, which will be easily accessible through settings on apps and on the web.
The social platform has made several changes to increase monetization. It infamously made changes to its data API terms that led to many third-party clients shutting down and subreddits protesting in retaliation. Last week, it rolled out a new creator rewards program to incentivize people to post more and better content on the platform. But it also introduced a change that made it easier for users to purchase Gold rewards.
In an interview with The Verge in June, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman responded to IPO rumors and said “Getting to breakeven is a priority for us in any climate.”
Totally in shock! Company that said they didn’t give a shit about their users 2 months ago keeps not giving a shit about their users!
I remember that when I was at reddit I used to think from time to time “I wonder what’s the next weird shit they are going to do”. Luckily I don’t need to bother now.
I don’t even care about Reddit apart for the moments I need to have curated answers
surprised Pikachu face
Every time I read something new about Reddit, Twitter, and Facebook I find myself more and more pleased with the decision to disengage them. I’m sure they continue to collect data on me as best they can, but not using their services, blocking social trackers, and using payment options that can’t and don’t link my profile to their ad platforms is a big help.
I thought this was a legal requirement in the EU. Though it’s not my headache anymore.
The company said that it will still have opt-out controls in “select countries” without specifying which ones. It mentioned in a blog post that users won’t see more ads but they will see better-targeted ads following this change.
The “select countries” getting opt-out probably include EU members.
just a hunch, but i think old’s days are numbered, too… and it’s a fairly low number.
100%. We know this for a fact because they specifically said they weren’t touching it. I expect it’s gone by the end of the 2024 at the latest.
And people will cry, but ultimately still continue to use Reddit.
And they will continue to post to r/LeopardsAteMyFace
@eighthourlunch Feeling called out huh?
They still touched it though… to add ads.
Is it used by a significant portion of redditors tho?
It probably was, but I would imagine a lot of the dedicated users of old are also those who have fled Reddit recently. Reddit might feel there would be less backlash to removing old now.
Yup. I left at the end of June, and would have left immediately if they had fucked with old.reddit at any point. I only see the site now when it comes up in search results and seeing what Reddit looks like now instantly assuaged any doubts I had about leaving.
I find it useful at times as a research resource but every time, I stop it from loading and change the URL to old. When they break that, I don’t think I will use it anymore unless it holds the only solution to my question
I was pointing to a giant mass of people on r/all. Reddit was a beacon to all us techies and weirdos who like this format and do care enough to untick tracking. But I doubt anyone I talked to there was ever subscribed to r/funny, r/memes or other top subs, and they were the most active subs, have most users. Scrolling it like Insta, that way.
Those who were curious about what they can change in preferences are power users, more likely to choose 3rd party apps, to create content, comment or mod. Those as you said more likely to leave to Lemmy. And I feel they are actually a small minority compared to those who didn’t know opt-out was even an option or why it matters.
munches popcorn
Yup, watching the world burn does have its days
Jokes on them, I don’t have any activity there now
I only kept my account active for the reminder bot and I intend to check every few months
Yeah, I have a reminder set for 2025, which seemed a long way away when I set it
I wonder how I’ll get the notification now the app that used to notify me no longer works
The turn these tech companies take to IPO at the highest valuations, it’s ridiculous. If investors won’t let you IPO according to the values that made you a company, investors shouldn’t have been investing in your company.
and when you fail to meet the ridiculously high numbers, the only solution is to push more ads towards your users!
Looks like another migration wave may be underway… 🤞🌊
If you’re interested in keeping your bookmarks and the subreddits (communities) you’re subscribed to before deleting your account(s), I made a free tool to help you store and offload that data.
It’s called Reddit Account Manager, and it’s 100% free.
You can also use it to manage your Lemmy accounts, of course.
What’s Reddit?
Centralized Lemmy clone.
eww
You ever use Digg? It’s like that but with more fascism.
I think it’s like an unfederated Lemmy. Don’t know why anyone would use something like that
A couple weeks ago, I had a ten year old account on Reddit that just wouldn’t let me back in. I tried changing the password, but the link and the form it gave me didn’t work. I tried several times, no luck.
I contacted support several times. They were worse than useless. If that’s how they treat their most loyal content creators now, why on earth would I ever go back?
Oh well. It was fun until it wasn’t.
Reddit, it was fun… until it wasn’t
Unlike Twitter or other news sites, reddit already has a sorting algorithm: voting, and personalized feeds defeats the entire point of reddit, since now everybody gets a different front page, which is good for selling targeted ads but bad for promoting genuine engagement where people naturally talk to each other about what everyone wants to talk about.
I don’t think the leaderships at reddit understands their own product at all, but that’s not a surprise at this point.
By the way, anyone notice that circlejerks are pretty rare here compared to reddit?
The things that happen on each kind of online platform are to a large extent a result of how the platform is structured. Lemmy and Reddit are structured in pretty much exactly the same way.
As the userbase of Lemmy grows, it will become more like Reddit, whether people like it or not. I wish we had a social media platform structured like a traditional phpBB-style web forum, with thread bumping and all.
deleted by creator
Fuck Spez
I’m sure the legion of bots that comprise their user base won’t mind.
What is this “Reddit” you speak of, and why should I care about them?
I’d heard it’s some kind of shitty Lemmy clone. 'Tis a silly place.
I wonder what kind of ads the piracy type of subreddits will be getting.
Micky Mouse-themed gummies with chemical castration as a side-effect.
