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EU privacy agency urges more safeguards to curb U.S. tech giants

reuters.com

71–80 of 171 posts

Re: EU privacy agency urges more safeguards to curb U.S. tech giants

#71
They should just ban the gathering of personal information without consent, and ban any UI that makes it easier (or as easy) to opt in.

On the day the legislation takes effect all users should be assumed to have opted out, regardless of any terms of service or non-negotiated contract.

The only exceptions should be things strictly necessary to do business (e.g., contact info for a bank account holder.)

Re: EU privacy agency urges more safeguards to curb U.S. tech giants

#72
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is these ads are not exactly effective either. I mean you'll read about the guru's with 90% conversion rate at 0.50c per click or some garbage like that but when you run them yourself, with what is considered a normal company (not a unicorn) you somehow find yourself with a They are crazy cheap though and essentially act like a TV/Radio ad. It's about getting repeated exposure, even if it's not a direct con…

Could it just be that online advertising is simply oversold? I don't know about others but I'd click an ad maybe once every 6 months at best. Maybe there is logic behind constant feed although on a number of occasions I actively avoid products for bombarding me (looking at you grammerly).

I do believe online advertising is a bit of a bubble right now. Lots of bullshit unprofitable VC-funded companies burn tons of money on advertising (more than what they'd ever earn from the potential customer) in an attempt to establish monopolies which in turn inflates the value of advertising companies.

Re: EU privacy agency urges more safeguards to curb U.S. tech giants

#73
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is these ads are not exactly effective either. I mean you'll read about the guru's with 90% conversion rate at 0.50c per click or some garbage like that but when you run them yourself, with what is considered a normal company (not a unicorn) you somehow find yourself with a They are crazy cheap though and essentially act like a TV/Radio ad. It's about getting repeated exposure, even if it's not a direct con…

It’s not like the current tracking adds are super efficient always. I searched for a new washing machine, found one I liked, bought it, and spent the next 3 months looking at washing machine adds.

The cost of keeping it like that is next to none so there's very little motivation to fix it too. I've done many remarketing ads and generally speaking setting it up to avoid recent buyers is pointless in the grand scheme of daily work.

Re: EU privacy agency urges more safeguards to curb U.S. tech giants

#75

People. Just. Delete. Your. Cookies. Regularly. I am baffled about the crazy amount of debate and technical solutions to a problem that was solved the moment Cookies were invented. In the 1990s I suppose.

That would mean getting every single cookie banner, insterstitial ad, newsletter begging screen, country selection, TOS confirmation, etc, on every single visit.

That's what I do. I use Firefox, set to delete cookies, cache, and history when I close the browser, and also uBlock Origin. I close the browser frequently, often between sites, certainly before/after visiting my banking site or anything like that.

Re: EU privacy agency urges more safeguards to curb U.S. tech giants

#76

People. Just. Delete. Your. Cookies. Regularly. I am baffled about the crazy amount of debate and technical solutions to a problem that was solved the moment Cookies were invented. In the 1990s I suppose.

>People. Just. Delete. Your. Cookies. Regularly. Do you think you are clever? Like this ad trackers can't just switch to use local storage, fingerprinting or other methods to go around your clever solution? You can't use tech to solve this, Google, Facebook and the others will tech around your fix.

I am not being clever, but sometimes the clever people need an idiot to see what is in front of them. ;) ok tell me what are anonymous browser windows good for? Local storage is not deleted then? If yes, use that.

Re: EU privacy agency urges more safeguards to curb U.S. tech giants

#77
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is these ads are not exactly effective either. I mean you'll read about the guru's with 90% conversion rate at 0.50c per click or some garbage like that but when you run them yourself, with what is considered a normal company (not a unicorn) you somehow find yourself with a They are crazy cheap though and essentially act like a TV/Radio ad. It's about getting repeated exposure, even if it's not a direct con…

Could it just be that online advertising is simply oversold? I don't know about others but I'd click an ad maybe once every 6 months at best. Maybe there is logic behind constant feed although on a number of occasions I actively avoid products for bombarding me (looking at you grammerly).

From a marketing pro's perspective you assume that because you have data - reach, impressions, est. click-through rates etc - that you can find a 'quick win' aka get rich rich quick.

So inevitably you try it, then you get some 'tips', then you read a marketing guru's success story, then you start getting ads for ebooks all of which have the best strategy and you really feel that you have no choice but to go for it. It's the FOMO/what if complex magnified by professional requirements to grow at all costs.

From now on I consider online advertising like gambling. You think you can win but the house always win's because you spend more money on A/B testing, copy edits and new keywords all of which create very few leads or deals. You always think you can win too, 8 years later I still go back to online ad's because I feel that there's just that juicy copy, design, content combo round the corner.

Re: EU privacy agency urges more safeguards to curb U.S. tech giants

#78
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is these ads are not exactly effective either. I mean you'll read about the guru's with 90% conversion rate at 0.50c per click or some garbage like that but when you run them yourself, with what is considered a normal company (not a unicorn) you somehow find yourself with a They are crazy cheap though and essentially act like a TV/Radio ad. It's about getting repeated exposure, even if it's not a direct con…

It’s not like the current tracking adds are super efficient always. I searched for a new washing machine, found one I liked, bought it, and spent the next 3 months looking at washing machine adds.

Clearly more tracking needs to be done in order to connect your conversion to your purchase.

Not only will they stop showing ads of washing machines after the purchase, knowing the make and model will help them gauge when to start targeting repair ads as well as start targeting replacement machine ads. They will also know whether you will stick to the current manufacturer or which you will switch to, and which model you will buy. You will be able to live with the comfort of knowing that your entire future of washing machine purchases is planned out and concentrate your energy on more important things in life (such as lobbying for better privacy protections).

Re: EU privacy agency urges more safeguards to curb U.S. tech giants

#79
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why not, your browser or operating system remembers all your logins for you

2FA slows down the entire log-in process a non-trivial amount - even more so if it's implemented over SMS.

hm, then just use a dedicated browser for those logins? use a Firefox for logged in stuff for example, Safari for the other stuff.

Re: EU privacy agency urges more safeguards to curb U.S. tech giants

#80
post #68
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We'll probably disagree on this, but I think we're well past the point where this is "absolutely necessary". Some of best engineering talent in the world is spent on engineering the internet to 1) misuse human psychological affinities to lure you in and keep you in and 2) build large profiles of you to make as much money from (1) as possible. Targeted advertising and the incentives it creates should be banned as a be…

The technical solution wasn't even tried, I will agree with you after that fails. Also for example subsidy for Firefox and other independent browsers (of Google/MS/...) could be tried. Law should be the last resort.

I'm curious what the technical solution is you're proposing. I was considering OP's context of a technical solution that's "clearing your cookies regularly". Surely that's both not sufficient (not by a long shot) and being tried at some scale [1]? So probably you mean something else, but I'm not sure what.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_browsing

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