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How to turn off Google's "privacy sandbox" ad tracking, and why you should

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Re: How to turn off Google's "privacy sandbox" ad tracking, and why you should

#41

If you care at all about privacy and the future of a free Internet, this really should be that watershed moment that makes you take your head out of the sand. Seriously. Uninstall Chrome today and switch to something else. It’s only if enough people do it that they lose their grip and influence.

Also, switch to something non-Chromium if at all possible. Which brings us in the paradoxical situation that if you want there to be any choice left at all in browsers then you're pretty much forced to choose firefox.

You seem to think that a choice of two things isn't a choice. If/when Firefox disappears and you only have chrome, that is what I would call not having a choice.

To repeat: if you can choose between two things then you've got a choice.

Re: How to turn off Google's "privacy sandbox" ad tracking, and why you should

#42

If you care at all about privacy and the future of a free Internet, this really should be that watershed moment that makes you take your head out of the sand. Seriously. Uninstall Chrome today and switch to something else. It’s only if enough people do it that they lose their grip and influence.

Also, switch to something non-Chromium if at all possible. Which brings us in the paradoxical situation that if you want there to be any choice left at all in browsers then you're pretty much forced to choose firefox.

...which leads to yet another paradoxical situation: 80-90%+ of Mozilla's yearly revenue comes from google [0]. they keep firefox afloat (with 3% market share) with the sole purpose of avoiding antitrust action vs. chrome. IMHO if Firefox starts gaining traction big G takes the gloves off and employs different tactics to protect the vertical integration.

[0] https://www.pcmag.com/news/mozilla-signs-lucrative-3-year-go...

Re: How to turn off Google's "privacy sandbox" ad tracking, and why you should

#43
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is better for privacy than third party cookies which they are getting rid of.

Getting rid of third party cookies is basically the status quo. IIRC if you use Safari or Firefox with default settings, third-party cookies are turned off. This feature compared to that status quo is worse for privacy. I think this might be the first time I’ve seen something that promises enhanced privacy instead doing directly the opposite, outside of the realm of malware and scam apps. Imagine if there was a “save…

As mentioned by a sibling comment Google will be sued for antitrust reasons if they remove third party cookies as some other ad businesses rely on them. So in order to remove third party cookies Google must provide an alternative for other advertisers to use instead.

Re: How to turn off Google's "privacy sandbox" ad tracking, and why you should

#44
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, switch to something non-Chromium if at all possible. Which brings us in the paradoxical situation that if you want there to be any choice left at all in browsers then you're pretty much forced to choose firefox.

...which leads to yet another paradoxical situation: 80-90%+ of Mozilla's yearly revenue comes from google [0]. they keep firefox afloat (with 3% market share) with the sole purpose of avoiding antitrust action vs. chrome. IMHO if Firefox starts gaining traction big G takes the gloves off and employs different tactics to protect the vertical integration. [0] https://www.pcmag.com/news/mozilla-signs-lucrative-3-year-g…

The more people that use Firefox, the more revenue Mozilla will earn as there are various ancillary services they sell and integrate into Firefox, along with things like sponsor links.

Re: How to turn off Google's "privacy sandbox" ad tracking, and why you should

#45
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does a "free" internet look like without ads? Serious question, because right now ads pay for a lot. Ads are why we have reddit and twitter - two sites that I think a lot of people like. Ads are why I could run a wordpress blog as a young student. If you assume "the current internet is good, but we want to improve privacy" what Google is doing makes sense. Advertisers can still say "ok that person likes cars I'l…

You can do ads without tracking.

You can even host them on your own server, and vet them for quality and security.

Re: How to turn off Google's "privacy sandbox" ad tracking, and why you should

#46

If you care at all about privacy and the future of a free Internet, this really should be that watershed moment that makes you take your head out of the sand. Seriously. Uninstall Chrome today and switch to something else. It’s only if enough people do it that they lose their grip and influence.

Hear hear. Of course, on my workstation Chrome is "the recommended browser for internal applications" and firefox is a developer special request which is not allowed to support add-ons

Re: How to turn off Google's "privacy sandbox" ad tracking, and why you should

#47

If you care at all about privacy and the future of a free Internet, this really should be that watershed moment that makes you take your head out of the sand. Seriously. Uninstall Chrome today and switch to something else. It’s only if enough people do it that they lose their grip and influence.

What does a "free" internet look like without ads? Serious question, because right now ads pay for a lot. Ads are why we have reddit and twitter - two sites that I think a lot of people like. Ads are why I could run a wordpress blog as a young student. If you assume "the current internet is good, but we want to improve privacy" what Google is doing makes sense. Advertisers can still say "ok that person likes cars I'l…

Even today, a Wordpress blog costs about as much as a coffee per month. And that would be less without all the crap needed to serve ads and track users and monetize everything.

I can't wait to find out what an ad-free Internet looks like. Maybe more like when I was a student, and stuff got put up because people were interested rather than as a side hustle. Perhaps cheap subscriptions or microtransactions for quality, curated content such as news services, because they no longer have to compete with free crap. Or some other novel business model will emerge, making a new generation of people rich, thanks to human ingenuity. An ad-full Internet is harmful, polluting our minds to the point people consider it normal and making them afraid of what could only be positive change.

Re: How to turn off Google's "privacy sandbox" ad tracking, and why you should

#48
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does a "free" internet look like without ads? Serious question, because right now ads pay for a lot. Ads are why we have reddit and twitter - two sites that I think a lot of people like. Ads are why I could run a wordpress blog as a young student. If you assume "the current internet is good, but we want to improve privacy" what Google is doing makes sense. Advertisers can still say "ok that person likes cars I'l…

You can do ads without tracking.

True, you absolutely can. They'll potentially make much less money, and I don't know that that's sustainable but I think it's at least an alternative worth talking about.

I think the other question would be "can you do tracking without violating privacy". To me, "" is not a privacy violation.

Re: How to turn off Google's "privacy sandbox" ad tracking, and why you should

#49

If you care at all about privacy and the future of a free Internet, this really should be that watershed moment that makes you take your head out of the sand. Seriously. Uninstall Chrome today and switch to something else. It’s only if enough people do it that they lose their grip and influence.

Switched to Firefox from Chrome a few months ago and most days I barely notice. I see no disadvantage to switching.

Re: How to turn off Google's "privacy sandbox" ad tracking, and why you should

#50
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, switch to something non-Chromium if at all possible. Which brings us in the paradoxical situation that if you want there to be any choice left at all in browsers then you're pretty much forced to choose firefox.

You seem to think that a choice of two things isn't a choice. If/when Firefox disappears and you only have chrome, that is what I would call not having a choice. To repeat: if you can choose between two things then you've got a choice.

GP is saying that yes, you have a choice now, but if you want to preserve that choice, you should use Firefox.
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