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New browser signal could make cookie banners obsolete

dataprotectioncontrol.org

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Re: New browser signal could make cookie banners obsolete

#261

Post by axismundi »

Use /etc/hosts based blocking, e.g. https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts

This way you become mostly invisible to the ad and malware industry, no matter which browser you use.

Have JavaScript toggle next to address bar and keep JavaScript off by default. Most cookie banners will disappear.

Use Reader mode for daily news browsing. Most things will disappear except for main content. And it makes Internet less addictive.

The difference between swimming and drowning is subtle - flailing your limbs frantically vs relaxed movement. To many complex solutions will make us drown.

Consider swimming instead :)

Re: New browser signal could make cookie banners obsolete

#262

Post by young_unixer »

JCWasmx86 wrote: post #150
mkreis wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. Why would anyone who wants to track users implement this standard and abandon their dark patterns?

It would have to be enforced by legislation (As opposed to the dark patterns with cookie banners). If any company doesn't implement this fully compliant with the spec, fine them every year with 2-25% of the yearly revenue.

We've sunk so low that even the "hackers" want the government to force people to use specific protocols on the Internet.

Re: New browser signal could make cookie banners obsolete

#263

Post by exporectomy »

jraph wrote: post #230
exporectomy wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then Google came along promising no intrusive banner ads or popups. They would make their money from quieter personalized ads that knew what you wanted because they had more data about what you were doing. People loved the idea. It was going to save the internet from the horrible advertising industry.

Actually, I seem to remember that these ads were contextual at first, not related to any profile they would have built for you but only related to the content of the page. Which is entirely different. Ads are still manipulative (by design), but at least purely contextual ads don't track you.

Oh that's right. With gmail, people assumed they would be based on your email contents but sure if Google actually ever did that.

Re: New browser signal could make cookie banners obsolete

#264

Post by freediver »

411111111111111 wrote: post #154
leokennis wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This exactly. This is also why I never feel "ashamed" when sites ask me to please disable my ad blocker because when I block ads they'll go out of business. Or why I'll always decline even "user respecting" ads on sites. We're fighting the ad and tracking industry here, the internet equivalent of a gang member with a shiv and a length of pipe. I'm not going to fight nicely. I'll deny you any chance and any method I g…

Just a small reminder for people using Firefox and ublock origin: you can remove almost all cookie prompts by enabling the annoyances filters in the addon settings

Want to add that uBlock Origin is not only exclusive to Firefox. If you prefer a WebKit-based browser you can use Orion on Mac with uBlock Origin.

Re: New browser signal could make cookie banners obsolete

#265

Post by aembleton »

pacman2 wrote: post #248
aembleton wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't care about cookies also provides a filter list that you can add to uBO - https://www.i-dont-care-about-cookies.eu/abp/

How does this work? What is the advantage?

It uses cosmetic filtering to block out the elements of the page that make up the cookie banners. The advantage is that you don't need to install another addon and it works on Firefox for Android.

Re: New browser signal could make cookie banners obsolete

#266

Post by jraph »

exporectomy wrote: post #263
jraph wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, I seem to remember that these ads were contextual at first, not related to any profile they would have built for you but only related to the content of the page. Which is entirely different. Ads are still manipulative (by design), but at least purely contextual ads don't track you.

Oh that's right. With gmail, people assumed they would be based on your email contents but sure if Google actually ever did that.

They did. They actually stopped not long ago (2017): https://variety.com/2017/digital/news/google-gmail-ads-email...

Re: New browser signal could make cookie banners obsolete

#267

Post by qwerty456127 »

permo-w wrote: post #87
qwerty456127 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why do they still think we want tracking cookies? Some people do. I would like to see relevant ads (of good special offers especially) if somebody could guarantee the ads are going to be humble and unintrusive), the goods advertised are of high quality and no-scam, the information they get from tracking can not be seen by any 3rd party (including legal authorities) and used for any purpose other than good recommend…

I’m sure you’re right that a small minority doesn’t mind being tracked and provided personalised ads, but there are other problems too. Advertising brings poor incentives for businesses, even worse than usual. Engagement is king, and product satisfaction is hardly relevant

I'm curious about the poor incentives for businesses advertising brings. I never imagined business is possible without advertising. If I were starting a business, I would probably target the people who don't block ads (despite the fact I myself do and help all my friends and relatives to).

Re: New browser signal could make cookie banners obsolete

#268

Post by permo-w »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #267
permo-w wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m sure you’re right that a small minority doesn’t mind being tracked and provided personalised ads, but there are other problems too. Advertising brings poor incentives for businesses, even worse than usual. Engagement is king, and product satisfaction is hardly relevant

I'm curious about the poor incentives for businesses advertising brings. I never imagined business is possible without advertising. If I were starting a business, I would probably target the people who don't block ads (despite the fact I myself do and help all my friends and relatives to).

Unless I’m misunderstanding you, I think you’re slightly misunderstanding me. It brings poor incentives for companies that make their money from selling advertising space. It does not bring poor incentives for businesses that advertise (besides the desire to censor content, but that’s a different issue).

If you’re still not clear on why it brings poor incentives, or you disagree, think about it this way:

For a company like Netflix, their customers are the people who use their service, and their product is their service. i.e. they’re selling how much you like their content. They don’t care about how long or addictively you watched it, as long as you pay every month. This is healthy.

For a company than runs a TV channel, their customers - for the most part - are advertisers, and their product is their viewers. They’re selling the viewership of their channel to companies. I.e. they’re selling how long and intently they can keep you watching their channel, and how easily they can get you to open your wallet. This is clearly unhealthy.

This applies heavily to the digital media environment too. I can give more examples, if it’d help

Re: New browser signal could make cookie banners obsolete

#269

Post by jeofken »

permo-w wrote: post #84
jeofken wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When working in that industry, the cope is thinking people are ok with it, because it’s the “price” of free web content, and consumers are choosing it over anything with a paywall. I hope free software micropayments payperview can be part of the web! Maybe with GNU Taler or Offset by Freedomlayer[0] [0] https://www.offsetcredit.org/

I agree. Wouldn’t we all love to go back to the old old internet, where people did things a) because they wanted to, or b) because you paid them to. Both of these things make sense and are how the world has worked for a long, long time. This vague, nebulous money from ads and tracking has all the wrong incentives. It’s not “make the best hammer” anymore, it’s “make an addictive hammer that you’ll never want to leave…

It’s easy to say “ban this”, but what does it mean? Government laws are nothing without enforcement, and enforcement ultimately means sending armed men to people, and if they resist and protect themselves, ultimately threatening to kill them. Ads are bad, but such force is not justified.

The same with the stipend - we actually have this is my country Sweden, called “press support”. It’s a massive political tool because of the bias of the gov agency workers who administrate it. It has also been used by one party (C) to make a newspaper empire, making the party one of the richest in the world, in large part by milking these press support stipends. The same party recently had multiple pedophilia scandals, which they don’t write about in their own publications.

“Man plans, God laughs” and this applies to any attempt to centrally plan economics.

I personally hope Offset by Freedomlayer can be the solution to micropayments online. If only I could incentivise the author of it to make an iOS version

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