Skip to main content

Firefox's move to support privacy-preserving ads backfired.

https://news.itsfoss.com/firefox-ppa-ad/

#firefox #privacy


Firefox's New Controversial Feature: Is it a problem?

The feature may be a necessary evil, but what do you think?
Sourav Rudra (It's FOSS News)
#Firefox #privacy
in reply to It's FOSS

nickelson
nickelson
• •
Basically: "oh no, please tolerate to our 'lesser' evil because of Gooooooogle"... How about no? 😀
in reply to It's FOSS

FOSStastic
FOSStastic
• •

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions".

It reminds me a whole lot of Do Not Track, which also had good intentions, but ended up just introducing yet another vector to use for fingerprinting.

I also disagree with the claim that internet ads inherently require tracking.

No other form of advertising provides direct feedback about someone's interests or the products someone purchased after seeing or hearing an ad.

Advertising can be unidirectional, it doesn't need tracking.

in reply to It's FOSS

sarcastictoast
sarcastictoast
• •
The bold move to make PPA opt-out, even on existing installations, risks uniquely fingerprinting users who opt out. An opt-in approach would limit this risk. Moreover, PPA doesn't change existing tracking, also based on my understanding of DAP. And the comment by Bas Schouten is absolutely informal fallacy - claiming "Privacy features, in Firefox, are not meant to be opt-in." is just presenting it as true privacy feature and those for opt-in are essentially wrong.
in reply to It's FOSS

TheZorse
TheZorse
• •

I'm normally opposed to opt-out, and I hate ads. But I hate even more that ads are not ads, they're tracking devices.

I totally get that websites cost money, and those who make the sites and the content should be able to get paid, so if there's a privacy preserving way to serve ads, it's better to implement it than not to. And it's true that no one would opt in to this thing.

So I was thinking that, in my totally non-expert and unsolicited opinion, the best situation would be to make it opt out but PROMINENTLY show the user how to do so along with why they might consider giving the new way a chance.

Lo, thar be cookies on this site to keep track of your login. By clicking 'okay', you are CONSENTING to this.

⇧