Interestingly enough, I knew that I had the DuckDuckGo Extension already. But then when I checked for it in my icon list of extensions, it wasn't there... Went to the Google Chrome Web Extension Store, it said that I had this extension and it was Disabled!!! I don't remember disabling it myself... maybe I did, or was it Google? I did re-enable it though. Start your conspiracy theories...
DuckDuckGo Extension to Block FLoC, Google’s New Tracking Method in Chrome
201–210 of 259 posts
Re: DuckDuckGo Extension to Block FLoC, Google’s New Tracking Method in Chrome
#202Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well ... it is a good idea. When I reread some of my comments, I realize that I often drop words. A fair number of times the meaning is the opposite of what I intended to say. Those cases usually contradict the rest of my post so people should be able to figure out the intended meaning, but it would be nice if it didn't happen in the first place.
I’ve noticed that iPhone autocomplete has at least some rudimentary intelligence built in - at the “Spell a word a certain way a few times and it begins to not correct it” level. It’d be nice for that to improve (instead of always replacing “an” with “and”).
Microsofts SwiftKey has the same, it's incredible. And according to the app you can (and I have) opt out from sharing my typing data.
Whwn I first encountered SwiftKey I just didn't understand how it could be as good as it is at predicting what I want to type. Even switching between Swedish and English (just by typing words from either language).
Whenever I use someone else's phone (to show them how to use something) I feel handicapped, I guess I'm clumsy on the keyboard.
Re: DuckDuckGo Extension to Block FLoC, Google’s New Tracking Method in Chrome
#203Earlier quoted context omitted.
This seems a little silly. Nobody calls it Google Chrome Vivaldi or Google Chrome Brave. Why the hate for Edge?
Google Chrome Vivaldi or Google Chrome Brave - these are completely correct names, until they will fork Blink and start making different decisions from Chrome. I mean really different, not just setting different defaults in the code Google provides, like with Floc. PS: and speaking of Chrome mods - Edge is arguably the better one out of all of them. At least with MS we know their policies and main source of revenue,…
Vivaldi uses the Blink rendering engine from the Chromium project, itself just a fork of WebKit, but the application code is not from Chrome or Chromium (no code comes from Chrome, AFAIK.)
So 'Google Blink Vivaldi' at best.
Re: DuckDuckGo Extension to Block FLoC, Google’s New Tracking Method in Chrome
#204Honestly, I'm grateful for Google implementing this. This means 3rd party cookies go bye bye and since It's Chrome everyone will rewrite their service to work w/o 3rd party cookies. Now i just have to block FLoC and sites will keep working for me. I might be ego, but i really couldn't give two shits about "the majority". I care about if I (and people in my close surroundings) can stay private or not.
Re: DuckDuckGo Extension to Block FLoC, Google’s New Tracking Method in Chrome
#205Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most likely what you mean setting interests in the browser settings (general interests) and the FLoC cohorts are on much different scales. A FLoC cohort will probably contain a few thousand people, combined with any other data points will probably be enough to uniquely identify you.
Sure, I don't advocate FLoC itself (because I don't want to be uniquely identified through fingerprinting) but I'm not sure I understand why particular FLoC cohorts actual meaning being discovered is considered bad. I actually feel like I want that to happen so I could probably tweak my cohort consciously.
Besides the privacy implications, do you really want to only be served content that you have shown a previous interest in? Eventually this will lead to you living in an internet bubble that only ever shows you the same things. Would you be happy with that?
Re: DuckDuckGo Extension to Block FLoC, Google’s New Tracking Method in Chrome
#206Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm honestly ok with ads, I am not ok with "personalised" ads
It always surprises me when people say that they're fine with personalised ads, even going so far as saying that if they're getting ads they want them to be personalised. I guess I _can_ understand why, they want them to be potentially useful if they're seeing them... To me though, sure, show me ads, fine, whatever, but don't build them around a profile of me to try to manipulate me directly based on my potential int…
> It always surprises me when people say that they're fine with personalised ads
I think there's a bit of a language barrier. What advertisers mean when they say "personalized" or "relevant" is not the same as what their audience means when they use the same words. I find advertisers often mean "what you looked at but didn't buy," but I think most consumers mean "what is likely to interest me."
Re: DuckDuckGo Extension to Block FLoC, Google’s New Tracking Method in Chrome
#207Earlier quoted context omitted.
> lots of lonely white men We don't need that kind of rhetoric on HN. Part of the reason I suspect Bing/DDG return right-leaning content is because grassroots US internet culture itself slants slightly to the right (as it slanted to the left back 10 years ago). Whereas Google pushes authoritative sources heavily, which tend to skew corporate-left. Corporate content is less likely to push flagrant untruths (unlike gra…
It is a plain statement of fact that far-right politics and privacy-focused tech culture in the US are dominated by white men. It is a reasonable inference to suppose that this would explain why DDG tends to overly promote far-right search results. You really don’t need to be a social justice warrior to understand my point. It is a shame if either of these completely uncontroversial statements offends you, but HN in…
I'm not here to be offended, only to disagree with the framing (and provide the additional context I think is more productive for this conversation). You can make those comments all you like.
The ultimate reason I disagree is that the users of DDG don't seem to influence their algorithm. I don't believe DDG is treating users like Google (and shaping results based on interests of the userbase).
Re: DuckDuckGo Extension to Block FLoC, Google’s New Tracking Method in Chrome
#208uBlockOrigin already blocks FLoC in their privacy list and there are ideas to integrate it further as I understand [1]. So for all of us using that extension, there's no need to install DDG as well. [1] https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uBlock-issues/issues/1553
This was a bit confusing for me to read at first. DDF is of course a search engine and doesn't need to be installed. DDG now also has an extension which blocks FloC (a feature which the uBlockOrigin extension seems to not have full support for - correct me I could be wrong, but that looks like an open issue?) So you can install the DDG extension now, or install the uBlockOrigin extension - but possibly have to wait f…
Issue was just closed -
Re: DuckDuckGo Extension to Block FLoC, Google’s New Tracking Method in Chrome
#209I’m OK with ads and I’m even OK with personalised ads. I’m not OK with companies correlating my browsing with my real world identity or giving that data to governments. Has anyone figured out some clever cryptography to enable personalised ads without the privacy concerns?
Isn't FloC exactly that? All the data stays on your device and it only gives an identifier of a pretty big group of people to the websites?
How private is FloC + IP though?
Re: DuckDuckGo Extension to Block FLoC, Google’s New Tracking Method in Chrome
#210Earlier quoted context omitted.
The "solution" of installing an extension is a bit shortsighted. Google can and will just remove the possibility for extensions to block FLOC in the future, when it's deemed profitable to do so.
That's what people have been saying for years about ad blockers. Did it happen yet?
It's not profitable yet because people can still switch to other browsers. When chrome has a monopoly, they will be gone in a heartbeat.
Also, look into what chrome recently did to the APIs adblocker extensions use, even in the current market google is already making adblockers less potent in chrome.