But there's a big difference. The paper copy didn't harvest data from you, didn't infect you, didn't spy on you or steal resources from your computer or internet bandwidth.

All the advertiser knew about you was you were a subscriber to FT, and maybe what the _average_ demographic of an FT subscriber was. Nothing about you personally.

The paper copy did do that, just not as individualized. People would choose which publications to put their ads in based on data collected about their subscribers.

The job of ad men has always been just as much about were to put the ad as much as what the ad was.