The most urgent question raised by this book does not, however, relate to the eternal debate over whether advertising is good, bad, or a necessary evil. The most pressing question in our times is not how the attention merchant should conduct business, but where and when. Our society has been woefully negligent about what in other contexts we would call the rules of zoning, the regulation of commercial activity where we live, figuratively and literally. It is a question that goes to the heart of how we value what used to be called our private lives.

Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, loc. 1136