Firefox shows ads for Booking.com in New Tab page
1–10 of 92 posts
Re: Firefox shows ads for Booking.com in New Tab page
#2This is deeply upsetting to me because I have continually pushed Firefox to friends and family as the only alternative to Google's strongarm dominance of our virtual lives.
I have no other alternative to recommend my social circle and feel, daily, increasingly helpless to do anything about a future determined to shake down the miracle of humanity for pocket change.
Mozilla Corp--the for-profit business arm of nonprofit Mozilla Foundation--has sold out its users before in a partnership with German ad company Cliqz and again in a marketing blitz for Mr. Robot. No amount of outrage from its users has changed their behavior. Perhaps because we are locked into a browser duopoly, Mozilla Corp feels privileged to continue to abuse user trust.
How do we take back user privacy when the world's computing window becomes poisoned by those impassioned for money? It is deplorable behavior.
Re: Firefox shows ads for Booking.com in New Tab page
#3This is deeply upsetting to me because I have continually pushed Firefox to friends and family as the only alternative to Google's strongarm dominance of our virtual lives. I have no other alternative to recommend my social circle and feel, daily, increasingly helpless to do anything about a future determined to shake down the miracle of humanity for pocket change. Mozilla Corp--the for-profit business arm of nonprof…
> It was not a paid placement or advertisement.
I would like that people were more explicit in why they despise ads. For me it is because they are unsecure, often outside the control of the site owner and heavily rely on tracking.
For a long time my impression of Mozilla is that they are trying to "sanitize" ads on the web by experimenting on advertisements that are non-tracking by design.
(this does not cover cliqz, I never found a good reason for that and honestly think they should be more transparent about it or cancel it)
Clearly we see that Mozilla has no interest in being an holy warrior against advertisements, but as said above ads can work while respecting privacy.
> How do we take back user privacy when the world's computing window becomes poisoned by those impassioned for money? It is deplorable behavior.
non-profit or for-profit every company still needs money to keep existing
Re: Firefox shows ads for Booking.com in New Tab page
#4This is deeply upsetting to me because I have continually pushed Firefox to friends and family as the only alternative to Google's strongarm dominance of our virtual lives. I have no other alternative to recommend my social circle and feel, daily, increasingly helpless to do anything about a future determined to shake down the miracle of humanity for pocket change. Mozilla Corp--the for-profit business arm of nonprof…
> It was not a paid placement or advertisement. I would like that people were more explicit in why they despise ads. For me it is because they are unsecure, often outside the control of the site owner and heavily rely on tracking. For a long time my impression of Mozilla is that they are trying to "sanitize" ads on the web by experimenting on advertisements that are non-tracking by design. (this does not cover cliqz,…
It's not the fact that Mozilla sanitizes or does not sanitize the ads to prevent user tracking. It's the fact that there was never any explicit knowledge that ads like this would even show up on the browser homepage, which violates further trust in Firefox and Mozilla.
Re: Firefox shows ads for Booking.com in New Tab page
#5This is deeply upsetting to me because I have continually pushed Firefox to friends and family as the only alternative to Google's strongarm dominance of our virtual lives. I have no other alternative to recommend my social circle and feel, daily, increasingly helpless to do anything about a future determined to shake down the miracle of humanity for pocket change. Mozilla Corp--the for-profit business arm of nonprof…
> It was not a paid placement or advertisement. I would like that people were more explicit in why they despise ads. For me it is because they are unsecure, often outside the control of the site owner and heavily rely on tracking. For a long time my impression of Mozilla is that they are trying to "sanitize" ads on the web by experimenting on advertisements that are non-tracking by design. (this does not cover cliqz,…
Reasons to despise ads?
> they are unsecure, often outside the control of the site owner and heavily rely on tracking.
- They attempt to influence me into buying things I do not want or need.
- They take up some of my attention, a resource that I consider very valuable.
- They create perverse incentives to create content that advertising buyers appreciate (particularly worrisome when we are talking about a browser, that I have to rely on to not sell out my privacy).
- The are often promoting things that are often objectively bad for me (e.g. energy drinks).
- They apply all sorts of psychological tricks, many with negative consequences (e.g. implying that I look bad).
The fact that Mozilla wasn't paid for this means very little. This is clearly Mozilla experimenting with a new channel of advertising that could be monetized in the future if successful.
Re: Firefox shows ads for Booking.com in New Tab page
#6Don't actually have a problem with this, even though I have an ad blocker installed, since in Mozilla's statement they said they don't share any data to display the ad, and I have far more trust in Mozilla than other organisations. As long as there is a way to switch it off, it's all good with me.
Re: Firefox shows ads for Booking.com in New Tab page
#7This is deeply upsetting to me because I have continually pushed Firefox to friends and family as the only alternative to Google's strongarm dominance of our virtual lives. I have no other alternative to recommend my social circle and feel, daily, increasingly helpless to do anything about a future determined to shake down the miracle of humanity for pocket change. Mozilla Corp--the for-profit business arm of nonprof…
> How do we take back user privacy when the world's computing window becomes poisoned by those impassioned for money? It is deplorable behavior.
Would enough users pay money for a browser?
Re: Firefox shows ads for Booking.com in New Tab page
#8It’s okay though because it’s Mozilla and we trust Mozilla.
Re: Firefox shows ads for Booking.com in New Tab page
#9This is deeply upsetting to me because I have continually pushed Firefox to friends and family as the only alternative to Google's strongarm dominance of our virtual lives. I have no other alternative to recommend my social circle and feel, daily, increasingly helpless to do anything about a future determined to shake down the miracle of humanity for pocket change. Mozilla Corp--the for-profit business arm of nonprof…
> How do we take back user privacy when the world's computing window becomes poisoned by those impassioned for money? It is deplorable behavior. Would enough users pay money for a browser?
Technically with moves like this, we already are. The question should instead be phrased: would enough users opt into giving money instead of being advertised to, and that's much trickier. You'd lose some opportunity cost with an ad or not model and having to support that, but I think a nontrivial amount of people would rather spend money than be advertised to.
Re: Firefox shows ads for Booking.com in New Tab page
#10This is deeply upsetting to me because I have continually pushed Firefox to friends and family as the only alternative to Google's strongarm dominance of our virtual lives. I have no other alternative to recommend my social circle and feel, daily, increasingly helpless to do anything about a future determined to shake down the miracle of humanity for pocket change. Mozilla Corp--the for-profit business arm of nonprof…
> How do we take back user privacy when the world's computing window becomes poisoned by those impassioned for money? It is deplorable behavior. Would enough users pay money for a browser?
There are definitely enough users who would donate money to support a fork of a browser that pursues their interests. Not enough who would support Mozilla though.