Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google engineers want to make ad-blocking (near) impossible

stackdiary.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

311–320 of 486 posts

Re: Google engineers want to make ad-blocking (near) impossible

#311

Post by o1y32 »

px43 wrote: post #121
KnobbleMcKnees wrote: post #11

A good and measured article marred only by a silly, clickbait title. Unless there is a plan to allow attesters that are independent bodies then this is absolutely a threat to the open internet, or what's left of it. The biggest dead canary for me is the lack of calling this out explicitly by Google or Apple. We're left to assume that Google is hand-wavingly saying "don't worry we can take care of that" when the priva…

[flagged]

Your hand wavy description of manifest v3 which conveniently skips the core issues makes me skeptical of your position and intent. Sounds like users and developers are the problem here -- I never see anyone else talk about Chrome with such a positive tone. Manifest v3, privacy sandbox and now the "integrity" nonsense should say enough about Chrome and Google.

Re: Google engineers want to make ad-blocking (near) impossible

#312

Post by BLKNSLVR »

testtestabcdef wrote: post #84
d--b wrote: post #34

I think they are signing the end of chrome dominance. People are going to flee to Firefox.

That won't happen. "Normies" don't care. At all. They just want the fastest thing and are happy to watch ads popping up all 5 minutes all day.

The "normie" internet is some kind of hell, but they seem to be content.

"We" need to do more / better to educate them!

I tried to implement pi-hole for some extended family members. They asked me to turn it off within a week because they couldn't watch advertising videos to earn a new 'life' on candy crush (or something closely resembling that).

I can't relate to "normies" anymore, it's too late for me...

Re: Google engineers want to make ad-blocking (near) impossible

#313

Post by bogwog »

evnix wrote: post #180

I did my part, my website shows "Not available on Chrome, Use a more modern and open browser instead... and some explainer text" if most of us Devs do this, this change would have no chance. What would be even nicer is If someone can build a JS file that the rest of us could include to show a hard blocking pop up just to show how the future web might look like, supported with a nice explanation and link to good video…

I think I might do that for my own sites lol

Re: Google engineers want to make ad-blocking (near) impossible

#314

Post by jvolkman »

suyash wrote: post #206
nfriedly wrote: post #57

I hate to say it, but if you used Chrome to read this, then you're part of the problem. Awful stuff like this wouldn't stand a chance if Google didn't have such a near-monopoly position. For the sake of the open internet, please switch to a different browser. IMO, Firefox is best*, but even something chromium based is probably fine. Just not Google Chrome. * On desktop - Firefox is a bit weaker on Android, with an ex…

If you're using Apple products, your first preference should be Safari. I use that all the time, it's faster, leaner and syncs tabs/history/bookmarks greatly between different Apple devices.

Apple products already support attestation, as was discussed yesterday.

https://httptoolkit.com/blog/apple-private-access-tokens-att...

Re: Google engineers want to make ad-blocking (near) impossible

#316

Post by codedokode »

gettodachoppa wrote: post #283
mozball wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mozilla should really double down on Mozilla VPN. Judging by all the NordVPN ads on every major youtuber's video, the profit margins must be astronomical (or their business model must be suspicious). It should provide a good income stream for Mozilla. The entire space is shady and filled with dubious actors. It is just begging to be disrupted by a trustworthy organization. I can't think of a single candidate other th…

VPNs are barely gonna make a dent in their income. What do you think the market is for VPNs? 99% of people don't know what VPN means. Of the remaining 1%, most don't need a VPN for anything personal. It's literally just a handful of geeks who need VPN (mainly for secure piracy, or accessing different regional Netflix catalogs), and maybe a few dozen journalists living in dictatorships. Mozilla needs to gut spending.…

VPN is not only for geeks. VPNs (free ones) are popular in Russia because Instagram is blocked.

Re: Google engineers want to make ad-blocking (near) impossible

#317

Post by px43 »

ryukoposting wrote: post #220
px43 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> assume positive intent This rule applies to discourse , not perspectives . I also wouldn't call many of these concerns "fantasies," because anyone with a basic understanding of public-key cryptography can tell you exactly how this technology, even its most basic form, could be used to: - Create an absolute monopoly on browsers. - Give the holder of the browser monopoly the power to control who can/can't crawl the w…

> Create an absolute monopoly on browsers.

Your premise is broken. How is this even possible in an open source ecosystem? Chrome was built to be forked, and there are several healthy forks that are thriving. There is zero chance of there being a browser monopoly any time soon. Basically every proprietary browser is now dead.

Re: Google engineers want to make ad-blocking (near) impossible

#318

Post by piva00 »

rovr138 wrote: post #124
piva00 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a difference between a struggling worker earning a low salary, with low prospects of finding a better position being asked to do unethical things on behalf of their employer, and a Google engineer earning multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. I have refused to implement unethical code when I earned US$8.8k/year and supported my mother (living in Brazil, beginning of my career), I believe a Googl…

>Might need another job but c'mon, you have Google in your CV, jobs will come, stop being a greedy pig. Anyone sick at home? Anyone with a visa? Any debt? Student loans? Kids? You wouldn't just need any other job, you'd need another comparable job. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_handcuffs

Anecdote again: my mom was sick at home when I earned US$8,8k/year and refused to implement code to defraud customers.

I'm very sure if you are earning US$300k/year and depending on every job you get to be comparable or better you have set yourself to be fucked for life... Again, with Google on your CV you can get another job for a visa, or to pay student loans, if you depend on earning US$300k/year to just live your life you have much bigger problems.

You are trying to make it look like someone with one of the highest paid white collar jobs in the world is struggling to live and depends on earning that amount. Let's be real, it's a very, very very very small subset of people earning on that bracket that actually might have enough issues in their lives that require earning that amount (huge amounts of medical and student debt, supporting a family with disabilities [spouse, kids, etc.], etc.).

They might exist in this case, yes they might, but making that possible exception into a "think of the poor golden handcuffed employee who is being forced by some freak life situation to do this hugely unethical thing in name of their employer" excuse is not reality, in reality it's just much more likely these are people that want to keep their cushy job ingratiating their employer by making the web worse for everyone else. Greedy. Pigs.

Re: Google engineers want to make ad-blocking (near) impossible

#319

Post by onion2k »

There's an elephant in the room. That is the question "Is internet content so good that people will consume it even if they're forced to see adverts?" Google thinks it is. I don't. The impact of this tech will only shrink audiences when their ad blockers stop working. It won't persuade people to carry on watching or reading with adverts switched back on.

Re: Google engineers want to make ad-blocking (near) impossible

#320

Post by bob1029 »

nfriedly wrote: post #57

I hate to say it, but if you used Chrome to read this, then you're part of the problem. Awful stuff like this wouldn't stand a chance if Google didn't have such a near-monopoly position. For the sake of the open internet, please switch to a different browser. IMO, Firefox is best*, but even something chromium based is probably fine. Just not Google Chrome. * On desktop - Firefox is a bit weaker on Android, with an ex…

What does HN think about Mozilla adding some premium tier of the browser itself for a small subscription fee? I already subscribe to MDN out of sheer principle, and would be OK substituting some bullshit like Hulu if it would help even more... I am willing to pay the true cost of the "open" web, whatever it is. Just tell me how much and where to sign.

Money is going to be a required tool to fight back against google, whether we like it or not. Capitalizing on the lesser evil to fight the bigger evil is not a terrible idea in my estimation.

Post reply on HN