I suspect that I have ADHD and I get distracted really easily on the web. It can be pretty frustrating when I'm trying to get something done, like submitting an application form, and I end up elsewhere. Ads compete for your attention and distract you. Well targeted ads compete for your attention most effectively. So to me, targeted ads are even worse than irrelevant ads. Well targeted ads also require the ad agencies to surveil me...
This gets to one problem area the article doesn't dig into - the expectation that everyone has access to, and chooses to, use the internet.
If you find the internet distracting and frustrating to use, you should be able to get those same basic tasks like an application form done in other ways.
The internet is definitely convenient, and there are tasks that are going to be unique to the internet, but we shouldn't be locked in. We're ruining financial transactions in the same way, the idea that places refuse to accept cash assumes that everyone is interested in using a bank account and credit card company.
