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The Vivaldi browser will not support Google’s FLoC

vivaldi.com

111–120 of 216 posts

Re: The Vivaldi browser will not support Google’s FLoC

#111
Vivaldi and Brave both have built-in ad blockers. FLoC is a feature specifically designed to support advertising. Regardless of the privacy qualities of FLoC, it would be kind of pointless in these browsers anyway?

(Disclosure: I work on ads at Google, speaking only for myself)

Re: The Vivaldi browser will not support Google’s FLoC

#112
post #101
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correctemento, for non technical users Chrome is the window to the internet (it used to be Internet Explorer).

Why'd they go out and download another browser if they don't understand the concept of a browser? Only Android comes with the Google browser as default browser as far as I know. I think whatever the setupper of the computer dictates whatever Internet is, and secondarily the OS vendor if the new user doesn't have a tech friend. I don't think Chrome is somehow == Internet for these people specifically. (Personally I ca…

Old folks don't download Chrome, their sucker children do. Those who are too frail to lift the koolaid cup to their mouths shall be aided by their brethren.

But also Chrome isn't super hard to install anyway and the dark patterns "help" with the process. Go on Google.com with MS Edge and it'll tell you Chrome will give you a faster, more betterer Internet. It must be pretty convincing to hear that from the de facto arbiter of the world wide web and all you have to do is follow the pretty blue buttons. I was able to install Roblox when I was 10 with less guidance.

Re: The Vivaldi browser will not support Google’s FLoC

#113
post #101
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correctemento, for non technical users Chrome is the window to the internet (it used to be Internet Explorer).

Why'd they go out and download another browser if they don't understand the concept of a browser? Only Android comes with the Google browser as default browser as far as I know. I think whatever the setupper of the computer dictates whatever Internet is, and secondarily the OS vendor if the new user doesn't have a tech friend. I don't think Chrome is somehow == Internet for these people specifically. (Personally I ca…

> The Google homepage on the other hand...

The Google homepage for years said that web users should install Chrome and now almost everyone believes it.

Re: The Vivaldi browser will not support Google’s FLoC

#114
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I jump between Vivaldi and Firefox, and I love both browsers. Currently I use Vivaldi more than Firefox. Here's what I like in both: Firefox: - Multi-account Containers extension is amazing. I only use it for a handful of accounts, but it is very simple to use. This is probably the feature I miss most in Vivaldi. - The interface integrates better with my DE (Cinnamon), and overall feels less cluttered. Vivaldi has so…

Actually, the lack of multi-account containers probably kills it for me. They've become such an important part of my workflow these days.

There's the profiles in Vivaldi. That's what I use and I found it to be better than Firefox's multi account containers because I don't have to choose the container each time I open the site.

Re: The Vivaldi browser will not support Google’s FLoC

#115
post #41
post #10

I’m sure there has to be a better way to introduce the audience to FLoC. I’m over five paragraphs in and the article hasn’t properly articulated what is FLoC and _why_ it is bad. Just that it is bad.

I'll take a stab. Suppose your browser told every website you visited that you had the identifier "FAANG", and your friends web browser told every website they visited: "FAA_G" (b/c obviously they don't have netflix). Per the linked article, the browser is filling in the blanks "___N_" as you visit each website, but it's telling each website not _what_ site you visited, but that you are in the groups of "FAA_G" vs. "…

> but those group segregations are not coming from particular "networks of websites", but instead from the browser itself.

Wait, I thought the whole point was that third parties could define what a "cohort" is, and the browser would handle determining whether or not you belong in them?

Re: The Vivaldi browser will not support Google’s FLoC

#116
post #81
post #32

I don't see how the entire FLoC concept can succeed. There is zero incentive for Chromium forks, let alone any other browser vendor, to implement/leave-in this technology. For other browser vendors, it is zero-effort to not support it. For Chromium forks, implementing it is zero effort but also comes with the same negative gain it would have for other vendors (that end-users are blind to). Unless you consider "more r…

100% of a browsers revenue comes from advertising. Nobody pays $24.95 for a boxed copy of Netscape Navigator anymore. In negotiating an exclusive search advertising deal, not supporting FLoC will decrease the overall value of the browsers users to the ad network.

Brave runs their own ad network. So does Edge. Firefox makes their money through search engine placement and donations. I don't think these browsers being less valued on another company's ad network is actually a loss for them.

Re: The Vivaldi browser will not support Google’s FLoC

#117
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FLoC is a granular identifier that groups users into cohorts of a few dozen thousand based upon their recent browsing history, allowing advertisers to uniquely identify users with only a few additional bits of information _and_ more easily collaborate to identify a user's browsing history. That wasn't hard.

I just don't like how FLoC was implemented. No opt-in or opt-out consent. Written completely by Google employees. Not approved by Privacy Interest Group, Web Technical Architecture Group, or WICG. No control over which cohort you are in, despite being able to add this feature. If it was complemented with a Privacy Budget API– each privacy-losing API call costs budget and there is a limit– to eliminate other factors f…

How exactly could it be implemented though? EFF and Firefox immediately started a session attacking anything similar to it and demanding that ALL targeting ads stop.

There doesn't seem to be space for dialog or a common standard here, either Google does it or they fail and Firefox and privacy wins the world!

Re: The Vivaldi browser will not support Google’s FLoC

#118
post #67
post #32

I don't see how the entire FLoC concept can succeed. There is zero incentive for Chromium forks, let alone any other browser vendor, to implement/leave-in this technology. For other browser vendors, it is zero-effort to not support it. For Chromium forks, implementing it is zero effort but also comes with the same negative gain it would have for other vendors (that end-users are blind to). Unless you consider "more r…

> I don't see how the entire FLoC concept can succeed. It probably doesn't need to. What is important is that Google can show authorities that they tried to track less, honest guv! It's the market that won't let us!

If third party cookies (what FLoC is meant to replace) are indeed going away, Google will be in a tough spot.

Re: The Vivaldi browser will not support Google’s FLoC

#119
post #18

Doesn't Vivaldi allow 3rd party cookies by default? Because if they do it seems a bit hypocritical to dislike a potential for abuse of FLoC when the ability to abuse 3rd party cookies is far simpler and more direct.

Disabling third party cookies apparently still has the potential to break certain websites, in particular those having to do with external authentication providers and authorization flows.

Re: The Vivaldi browser will not support Google’s FLoC

#120
post #101
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correctemento, for non technical users Chrome is the window to the internet (it used to be Internet Explorer).

Why'd they go out and download another browser if they don't understand the concept of a browser? Only Android comes with the Google browser as default browser as far as I know. I think whatever the setupper of the computer dictates whatever Internet is, and secondarily the OS vendor if the new user doesn't have a tech friend. I don't think Chrome is somehow == Internet for these people specifically. (Personally I ca…

Only Chrome on Android alone accounts for a big percentage of web traffic. Android is the most used mobile operating system, and nowadays there are more users that browse with a mobile device than users that use a PC.

Beside that, a lot of people is induced by Google to install Chrome. A lot of Google services doesn't work so well in browsers that are not Chrome. One of them is Google Meet, that is used in my country by a lot of schools. This is of course by design, there are no reasons Google couldn't make a software that works in all browsers.

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