I've always thought that if online advertising as a business model had been entirely banned from the internet in the 90s, the internet would've looked like a much better place today.
And micropayments would've taken off in a big way.
The only reason why micropayments doesn't really exist today isn't due to technical reasons, it's because advertising is too dominant, and because consumers got trained on expecting everything on the internet to be "free", not realizing they're the product.
There are many indirect ways to get information though. Better would be to ban "discrimination" of customers/humans (no loyalty programs for long term customers/whales or people who know people), and ban of usage of all personal information for decision making except short pre approved lists. Most industries would do fine with "payment received", some maybe could make legitimate cases for also "delivery address" or perhaps "age". Would probably also be good for efficient competition on merit, which should appeal to the groups with enough wealth to use it to accumulate wealth.
Humans are only now figuring out pointy shoes are bad for people's feet. This species is wrong about almost everything when it comes to its own well being and like pointy shoes - it's a completely unnecessary self-own that barely benefitted anyone.
I think advertising runs a little deeper into our identity and history than you are thinking. If you have a sign in your window describing your wares, that's advertising. If you're standing on a street corner inviting customers to enter, that's advertising. If you're doing nearly anything to make the world know that your business exists, you're advertising. I'd rather not live in a world where "ad cops" see fit to intrude and opine on such activities. Attacking PII brokers, on the other hand, would do far less collateral damage.
