Personally, it's not the personalized advertising itself that bothers me. It's the personal data collection and analysis required in order to implement it. That shouldn't ever be done without an explicit opt-in.
Because it violates my privacy, wastes my time, attention and communication bandwidth and advertisers money --- which in turn promotes price inflation that effects everyone.
Visit automobile dealership web sites and you'll have auto ads following you all over the internet for months --- long after you're already bought a car.
I have never in my entire life seen a relevant ad.
You know, one that encourages me to spend quality time with my family, or one that brings to my attention techniques I can use to achieve inner peace.
Instead, all I get are uniformly unnecessary and unpleasant entreaties to purchase things which I don’t want or need, which I already know about, or which I could find out about with minimal effort.
Advertisers because customers are more likely to buy things.
Nobody benefits from showing me car ads *after* I have already bought a car.
...what they actually don't like is ads.
No, it's *personalized* ads --- ads that are totally divorced from any logical or reasonable context.
It's stupid to assume that I'm still interested in buying a product from last week when I'm viewing a totally unrelated web site. Personalized ads are just plain dumb most of the time.
What is capitalism to one can be exploitation for another. Some examples where personal data can be used to exploit the consumer - Some online business actually used to show higher rates to Apple iDevice users. Advertising companies can also your personal data to psychologically push you to make impulsive purchases. If financial corporations know that you suddenly need a loan, they can push you to take a loan at a higher interest.
Not all advertising, just *personalized* advertising.