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Firefox Will Soon Block Third-Party Cookies

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Re: Firefox Will Soon Block Third-Party Cookies

#31

Post by jchrisa »

ihsw wrote: post #28
chewxy wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a general rule of thumb that a person has to look at/interact with/be cognitively aware of an ad at least 7 times before any action can be taken. Showing ads across sites is just one more way to do that. In fact I would rather have relevant ads show up than irrelevant ads. I will admit that many companies out there do overdo their retargeting campaign though. That's what the company does that is mistaken, no…

The psychological requirements to achieve that task and your personal preferences are irrelevant, it is underhanded and obscene. I will not deny that this is a technological solution to a social problem, and yes it is mismatched, but web browsers need to be managed by responsible stewards that protect their users from abuse (it is abuse).

It's just the nature of the global namespace. Makes the world look small.

Although I can see how this would have some short term appeal to use Firefox. I may give it another spin hope it's fast and stable.

Re: Firefox Will Soon Block Third-Party Cookies

#32

Post by freshhawk »

chewxy wrote: post #18
jacquesm wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I can't stand retargeting, if there is one turn-off I have when visiting websites it is being hounded from site to site by an ad. That signals to me to never ever buy that product. That it is 'exciting' to those in the advertising industry is a signal all by itself. Once a while ago I googled for a bit around the time I was buying a car. For weeks afterwards I got hounded by car ads for some brand. Needles…

There is a general rule of thumb that a person has to look at/interact with/be cognitively aware of an ad at least 7 times before any action can be taken. Showing ads across sites is just one more way to do that. In fact I would rather have relevant ads show up than irrelevant ads. I will admit that many companies out there do overdo their retargeting campaign though. That's what the company does that is mistaken, no…

> That's what the company does that is mistaken, not the technology

The technology of low level internet surveillance in order to facilitate advertising? And you wonder why people don't like it?

I worked in advertising for quite a while and no longer do, I understand why you love retargeting and why you are sad to see it go. I'm sure that you were sad to see popup blocking become mainstream as well, popups and popunders had fantastic results. They were more hated but orders of magnitude less evil than 3rd party cookies.

You are expecting people to change their behaviour or preferences and make sacrifices solely in order to be easier to advertise to ... isn't learning never to fall into that trap day one of advertising 101?

Browsers are thinking about what their customers actually want, you are thinking about what makes it most efficient to control those customers ... of course you disagree. And of course you are wrong.

Re: Firefox Will Soon Block Third-Party Cookies

#35

Post by alan_cx »

melvinram wrote: post #12
_delirium wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an internet user , retargeting is honestly one of my #1 targets. I find it super-creepy that some websites show me things based on other websites I visit, and I want a way to stop it.

Would you rather see ads for things that are completely irrelevant? Relevance requires data. Edit: I do believe the user should have more control over what companies are allowed to retarget with an easy opt out mechanism implemented by every ad network as well as a way to limit the frequency. I've experience companies going WAY overboard on their retargeting and it feels stalker-ish.

In short, yes. It never bothered me that TV didnt target me. Same on the web.

Re: Firefox Will Soon Block Third-Party Cookies

#36

Post by ihsw »

patrickaljord wrote: post #7
jacquesm wrote: post #2

Excellent. Now we need to block third party javascript and then we have a chance at a more secure web. After all, any third party javascript could be done by an underwater call between the server and the provider of the service.

Not sure blocking all ads will help the web. All those free sites you visit need to get their money from somewhere.

It would establish the web as a safe and secure platform, and I think that's in the best interest of the web.

To hell with your personal ambition to underhandedly monetize other people's users.

EDIT: I changed my statement from 'monetize your users' to specify 'other users' as that more accurately reflects the impact of Mozilla's change. Third-party cookies are used for tracking users that aren't yours.

Re: Firefox Will Soon Block Third-Party Cookies

#37

Post by melvinram »

_delirium wrote: post #13
melvinram wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you rather see ads for things that are completely irrelevant? Relevance requires data. Edit: I do believe the user should have more control over what companies are allowed to retarget with an easy opt out mechanism implemented by every ad network as well as a way to limit the frequency. I've experience companies going WAY overboard on their retargeting and it feels stalker-ish.

I'd like things relevant to the site I'm currently visiting, not based on an attempt to construct a personalized profile of me specifically. The former is reasonable contextual advertising (you visit a sci-fi site, you get ads for sci-fi books), while the latter starts feeling like someone compiling an FBI file on my preferences. Apart from the creepiness, it also helps me mentally compartmentalize and context-switch…

I see your point but it's hardly an effective usage of resources.

In my experience, retargeting ads produce higher CTRs than generic ads. This means that a publisher is able to derive 2-10x more revenue from the same ad space if they used retargeting ads instead of contextual ads.

I agree that some level of self-regulation is in order. Users should have a way to control the level of retargeting they experience and from whom, but to remove the entire mechanism that enables retargeting will only hurt the web because ROI on ad dollars will be lower. Lower ROI = less being spent on online advertising. Less spent on ads = less revenue for publishers. Less revenue for publishers = less investment from publisher to drive more revenue, which will likely mean lower quantity and quality of content created.

Re: Firefox Will Soon Block Third-Party Cookies

#39

Post by [deleted] »

NelsonMinar wrote: post #8

I blocked third party cookies in Chrome for awhile and finally gave up. It broke a surprising number of things, particularly Disqus embeds. Also the Instapaper bookmarklet although I admit that's a nerdy special case. Hopefully Firefox will have a way to let the user enable the few places where third party cookies are desired. That's a hard user interaction to get right. (Disqus apparently now works without third par…

[deleted]

Re: Firefox Will Soon Block Third-Party Cookies

#40

Post by melvinram »

ricardobeat wrote: post #22
chewxy wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? You visit say... kogan.com.au, they know what fridges you look at. That's intent to buy. You're cookied as #12412214. In the backend, that cookie ID is labeled as FridgeLover. The next website you go to that has an ad slot, when the ad call is made, your anonymized information is submitted, and if the advertiser wins the bid, the advertiser shows you ads of fridges, because the advertiser remembers that cookie I…

"It's relevant" is not a good excuse. Using pieces of my email (like google) or my own friends (like facebook) is the result of that line of thought and extremely invasive and creepy.

"It's relevant" is the ultimate "excuse" to show an ad.
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