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DuckDuckGo Extension to Block FLoC, Google’s New Tracking Method in Chrome

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Re: DuckDuckGo Extension to Block FLoC, Google’s New Tracking Method in Chrome

#241

Post by qwerty456127 »

nottorp wrote: post #205
qwerty456127 wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I would prefer to be served content that I have actively declared interest in + some random content occasionally.

We are already living in such bubbles by the way. At least people who consciously choose their bubbles probably tend to be more aware of that.

Re: DuckDuckGo Extension to Block FLoC, Google’s New Tracking Method in Chrome

#242

Post by Yizahi »

jefftk wrote: post #181
Yizahi wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When Google will remove ability to switch Floc on or off from the code of Chrome browser and all it's mods.

Brave would hard fork Chromium rather than go along with something like that

I've seen enough corporations in my life to understand that unless we are talking about PR disasters (and Floc is not it) it is more convenient for corps to spin up some short announce why it something is actually "good for you" instead of doing hard to do and expensive actions like real code fork. People will grumble a bit and forget in a week.

Re: DuckDuckGo Extension to Block FLoC, Google’s New Tracking Method in Chrome

#243

Post by Yizahi »

gcthomas wrote: post #203
Yizahi wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Chromium is an extremely convenient excuse for Google, but we all know that it is nothing more than a trailing version of Chrome with some modifications. Chromium is not a hard fork of Chrome and never was. Every significant change Google wants appears there too. Yes code, does come into Chromium first but that's just and extra step, meaningless really. Google carefully checks that anti monopoly laws wouldn't affect their second main cash cow.

Re: DuckDuckGo Extension to Block FLoC, Google’s New Tracking Method in Chrome

#244

Post by account42 »

freebuju wrote: post #184
foxhop wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe tracking people is unethical and I believe Googles FLoC is unethical because it sole purpose is for tracking. Browser Cookies are inherently more ethical when used properly. More of my public thoughts here: https://www.remarkbox.com/remarkbox-is-now-pay-what-you-can....

You are asking for sanity and ethics on the net. From advertisers. You must be insane. I don't like this FLoC proposal either but to me I see it as a small leap in saying goodbye to mass cross-site spying that has been uncontrollably rampant with no present working solutions.

You are asking for sanity and ethics on the net. From advertisers. You must be insane.

FLoC will not mean that advertisers will stop tracking you in every other way they can. All it does is provide additional information.

Re: DuckDuckGo Extension to Block FLoC, Google’s New Tracking Method in Chrome

#245

Post by account42 »

ArneBab wrote: post #58
1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Under terms of an agreement, FF sends search bar queries to a "search engine that makes money from selling ads." The search engine belongs to an online ad services company. FF belongs to Mozilla Corporation. The agreement is between the ad services company and Mozilla Corporation. Mozilla Corporation pays the salaries of the developers who maintain FF. Almost all of Mozilla Corporation's income, certainly 100% of the…

They try to get away from that model, though. Not very successfully (how to get people to pay for a browser?), but they try.

> "(how to get people to pay for a browser?)"

For starters, they could let people donate towards browser development.

Re: DuckDuckGo Extension to Block FLoC, Google’s New Tracking Method in Chrome

#246

Post by account42 »

dazc wrote: post #26
zenincognito wrote: post #2

No thank you. I appreciate what DDG is trying to do but in the end, a search engine that makes money from selling ads trying to protect me from another search engine that also sells ads is just feeding the ecosystem. I am going to put my money into FF no matter how annoying some of the things in it are.

There are varying degrees of selling ads though. DDG and Google both sit at opposing ends of this spectrum.

At the moment. Google also used to be known for providing better, mostly text based, ads that didn't spam you with popups or blinking animations. That did not stop them from becoming evil.

Re: DuckDuckGo Extension to Block FLoC, Google’s New Tracking Method in Chrome

#247

Post by johnchristopher »

gkbrk wrote: post #52
johnchristopher wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In what way is the site "optimized for privacy-respecting browsers" ? The browser is the thing being optimized. Does it mean to say that the website operators will intentionnaly not respect privacy of Chrome users but they will for Firefox ? “Chrome users might experience issues” but what issues ? It reads like a dishonest TOS like the one used by service providers using catch-all statements to cover their backs. It…

You could fill a website with privacy-invasive scripts from Google, like 100 copies of Google Analytics and another 100 copies of Google Adsense. This would make it optimized for privacy-respecting browsers which block these, and the website would become slower on Google Chrome thanks to Google's own scripts. Without going to such absurd lengths, a lot of the APIs Google came up with to complicate the web and slow do…

> You could fill a website with privacy-invasive scripts from Google, like 100 copies of Google Analytics and another 100 copies of Google Adsense. This would make it optimized for privacy-respecting browsers which block these, and the website would become slower on Google Chrome thanks to Google's own scripts.

Degrading the user experience for one browser does not mean it's optimized for another. Nothing has changed for privacy-respecting browser, there is no optimization, there is no code specifically targeting privacy-respecting browsers. But there is code targeting non privacy-respecting browsers and this code is in the website, not the browser. So the responsibility falls on the website author to respect its user's privacy, not the browser.

Am I being pedantic ? I have issues with the verb 'optimize' in this context.

Re: DuckDuckGo Extension to Block FLoC, Google’s New Tracking Method in Chrome

#248

Post by account42 »

dx034 wrote: post #8
erdo wrote: post #5

Even without privacy considerations though, duckduckgo seems to give me better results, I've been using it as my default search engine for years

Are you based in the US? I found them really bad for localized results outside of the US, even when local mode is enabled (although that's annoying to do manually). In the end I used !g for so many search queries that I switched back again.

Funny, my main annoyance with google results lately is how much they push localized results when I don't want them at all.

Re: DuckDuckGo Extension to Block FLoC, Google’s New Tracking Method in Chrome

#249

Post by freebuju »

account42 wrote: post #244
freebuju wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are asking for sanity and ethics on the net. From advertisers. You must be insane. I don't like this FLoC proposal either but to me I see it as a small leap in saying goodbye to mass cross-site spying that has been uncontrollably rampant with no present working solutions.

You are asking for sanity and ethics on the net. From advertisers. You must be insane. FLoC will not mean that advertisers will stop tracking you in every other way they can. All it does is provide additional information.

FLoC is a tracking mechanism. By replacing 3rd party cookies, this generally speaking means less tracking. 3rd party tracking + FLoC = bad bad. FloC only = less bad.

Re: DuckDuckGo Extension to Block FLoC, Google’s New Tracking Method in Chrome

#250

Post by lensi »

quantumwoke wrote: post #87

I hate Google Chrome with a passion after years of anti-consumer and anti-privacy tactics and now exclusively use and recommend the Brave browser [0]. [0] https://brave.com/

Just remember, you will still be supporting the monoculture of the Chromium engine
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