So all of this tracking is only necessary due to the web? What about retailers such as Target or Walmart? Their weekly fliers have been around longer than the web, yet they too are tracking us as much as they can in order to target their advertising. This has nothing to do with there being too many channels to choose from.
It is more likely due to the fact that advertisers have much more data available to them and much better ways to analyze that data now than they used to, so they can send these types of targeted (pregnancy ala Target) ads than they ever could before.
Advertisers in the Mad Men days would have done the same if they had the data and tech available to them back then. Don't blame them, it is their job to advertise and they are using everything in their means to make that effective.
My issue is with people saying that it's all because we're in some sort of new 'era' and that people are 'asking for it' because they are using free (+ advertising) services.
Target and Walmart are the counter-point, because they are doing the same sort of tracking on paying customers.
