&quot;Evil&quot; is a ridiculous word to use in the first place; but for what it&#x27;s worth, in my opinion, a platitude like &quot;[ads are] not perfect, nor evil,&quot; glosses over the fact that ads often are vectors for attacks that rely on deception, ignorance, and unwitting surveillance, which definitely has an ugly moral flavor. The business model may not be inherently evil (what is?), but it sure seems to be a convenient technology for deliberate abuse via fraud and malware.