Firefox Offers Recommendations with Latest Test Pilot Experiment: Advance

Post by JetSpiegel » Wed, Aug 08, 2018, 10:48 PM UTC

acdha wrote: post #58

JetSpiegel wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are Laserlike's ad targeting algorithms better than Facebook? The alternative to Facebook is not a smaller younger Facebook, it's open protocols. If you want to send all your browser history into a black box and get recomendations on what to read use Chrome.

Think about what you're describing: if the goal is to offer a new UI feature and see how users react, do you a) spend years standardizing a new protocol or b) use a single source to try it immediately while you independently explore the long-term options?

Post by pdkl95 » Wed, Aug 08, 2018, 11:17 PM UTC

smacktoward wrote: post #34

tapoxi wrote: post #21

I don't get how this relates to Mozilla's mission, I especially don't understand how technologies that are core to their mission (open communication with Thunderbird, open identity with Persona) are left abandoned. I'm not offended by the extension, I'm more befuddled why they're wasting their time and money on something very few people want. My friends/social network are going to suggest cool stuff to read, not some…

The really mystifying part is that one of the key value propositions of Firefox is "here is a browser that respects your privacy," and yet Mozilla keeps flirting with bolting things on to Firefox that actively undermine that value proposition. They repeatedly sabotage the success of their only product! It's astounding.

Post by taneq » Thu, Aug 09, 2018, 12:03 AM UTC

basch wrote: post #79

callahad wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nick Nguyen's post on Context Graph¹ touches on the motivation, but in short, we think the health of the Web is threatened by existing players building experiences that, like a casino, you can link into easily, but which are deliberately difficult to navigate away from. For example, Instagram has historically restricted² which users are allowed to include external links in their posts. That harms the Open Web and con…

It just seems like something that can happen client side. Say there are deemed 100 new interesting articles in a day, send those 100 links to the client, and let the client rank them. Thats how the recommendation by pocket works, right? Whenever I see these types of systems, I worry they try to hard to show us things more like our past, and dont try hard enough to shape our future. A recommendation engine should be m…

Post by zaarn » Thu, Aug 09, 2018, 7:38 AM UTC

tunap wrote: post #72

newscracker wrote: post #18

When I started reading the article I thought this was an enhancement to Pocket and that somehow, external data (context from other sites) downloaded periodically combined with local browser history, would help the extension to provide options on where to go next. But later I understood that the browser history is sent to a machine learning startup called Laserlike: “At Mozilla, we believe browser history is sensitive…

"I do commend Mozilla for being transparent..." I too commend Google for the same reasons set forth in plain-speak in the 1st two paragraphs of their EULAs. I also choose to forgo their services for those same reasons. Mozilla has forgotten their purpose & been over-taken by the data miners. Full stop.

Post by russdpale » Thu, Aug 09, 2018, 7:05 PM UTC

autoexec wrote: post #66

mgbmtl wrote: post #17

The important bit: "[...] we want people to clearly understand that Laserlike will receive their web browsing history before installing the experiment. We have also included controls so that participants can pause the experiment, see what browser history Laserlike has about them, or request deletion of that information." So, this is basically a better Stumble Upon, where you can delete the data they have on you. How…

I never trust that I can delete my collected data from anyone. At the point you hit the delete button your data has likely already been spread around to backups (including offline/offsite), been aggregated with other's data, shared with "partners" and sold to other companies and data brokers. The idea that a "delete" button can somehow undo all of that and keep your data out of others hands is absurd.