I don't think that targeted advertising is a bad thing at all, however, the freedom that different companies and websites have in regards to tracking and redistributing peoples' information is.
Targeted advertising, as I have said, is not bad at all. While I'm not one who pays attention to advertisements on websites and even uses addons to block advertisements and banner ads, I would much rather have things relevant to my interests being sold to me instead of heart medication, snake oil, and Hoverround wheelchairs. On some radio stations I listen to, the political talk shows have advertisements obviously targeted at the elderly or middle aged and I hate listening to them with a passion. They're completely irrelevant to anything I'm concerned with and usually aren't particularly entertaining or witty.
In terms of users' information being tracked, I would say it is fine if it were being used and attributed to others anonymously, however, as seen with www.spokeo.com (or rather spookeo), somewhere, someone is not taking our data anonymously.This would be fine again since we probably consent to this in one form or another, but to have it available publicly to search and privately to purchase for whatever purpose doesn't sit well with me.
You make an interesting point about the way that the internet can succeed in targeting very select audiences in a way that radio or TV can't. While perhaps the radio stations in question have a mostly older audience, certainly they are failing to appeal to you in their ads when they target that audience. I wonder, though, why exactly data on Spokeo doesn't sit well with you - how is it different?
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