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Firefox 128 enables "privacy-preserving" ad measurements by default

mstdn.social

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Re: Firefox 128 enables "privacy-preserving" ad measurements by default

#131

Post by no_way »

mrweasel wrote: post #110
no_way wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Web needs to make money. Giving tools to advertisers while making sure user privacy is preserved is better than free reign of tracking we have before, no? I myself do not like ads or tracking, but we need to be realistic and there needs a way to make web sustainable. How to do that and making sure that monopolies like Google are in check is a valid concern though, but in these conversations is the only point I hear.…

> Web needs to make money Absolutely, but as long as adverting is allowed to finance the whole bloody thing we're not going to improve anything. Advertising should be limited as to not influence content and that's currently not what's happing. As it stand, outside of "the small web" ads are the main attraction and any content that may be provided to us is done so to enable advertising, or at least not upset advertise…

I agree somewhat, but what about poorer regions of the world like parts of Africa or Asia, what is the solution for them? Most of the people there would not or could not pay for every website to use. It would be unfortunate if the web is inaccessible for most people.

Re: Firefox 128 enables "privacy-preserving" ad measurements by default

#132

Post by madeofpalk »

jampekka wrote: post #109
madeofpalk wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The scare quotes here are uncalled for: it is privacy-preserving It is net negative though. It is more privacy-preserving to just not implement this in the first place. It is baffling why Firefox ships with this on by default. Even Chrome prompted users with a (misleading) dialog box to turn it on or off.

> It is baffling why Firefox ships with this on by default. Not really. The reason is that Mozilla wants to make money by selling your data/preferences. Probably so that the incompetent CEO can get even more obscene "compensation". They just bought a spyware adtech company.

Do they get money from selling this?

Re: Firefox 128 enables "privacy-preserving" ad measurements by default

#133

Post by jksflkjl3jk3 »

PedroBatista wrote: post #69

I've been using Firefox for more than 20 years since the Phoenix days, even when it was cleary slower than Chrome (it still is but the diferences are minimal ) I'm not acting surprised, but I think it's more than time to start looking into a viable alternative. It's "Chromium" (?) still a thing? Do you guys know if there is a browser based on Firefox that doesn't have any of the BS Mozilla is putting into their brows…

I use Librefox [1] on desktop and Mull [2] on Android. They're both basically patch sets applied to Firefox that remove tracking, proprietary blobs, and come with better defaults for privacy.

[1] https://github.com/intika/Librefox

[2] https://f-droid.org/en/packages/us.spotco.fennec_dos/

Re: Firefox 128 enables "privacy-preserving" ad measurements by default

#134

Post by entuno »

0x0 wrote: post #19

Search in settings in firefox seems to have a bug. Searching for "adver" gives no hits related to this, despite this setting being under a header labeled "Website Advertising Preferences"

Yeah, I spotted that the other day and commented on the previous story about this.

It definitely works for other titles, but not for this new opt-out privacy related setting. How very convenient...

Re: Firefox 128 enables "privacy-preserving" ad measurements by default

#135

Post by lolinder »

account42 wrote: post #40
doe_eyes wrote: post #30

The scare quotes here are uncalled for: it is privacy-preserving. The approach allows measurement without disclosing who, specifically, did what with the ad. The best objection to these proposals isn't privacy, it's that a browser vendor is lifting a finger for advertisers. I guess the fundamental question there is if we prefer to outright shut down online advertising, or give it the tools it needs to be less bad. Op…

> The scare quotes here are uncalled for: it is privacy-preserving. It is strictly less privacy-preserving than not implementing this "feature" that has zero benefit to the user running the browser. At the very least it pings yet another third party, most likely it effectively leaks much more. > The best objection to these proposals isn't privacy, it's that a browser vendor is lifting a finger for advertisers. I gues…

> Particularily when one of them IS an online advertising company and another one is almost exclusively funded by said advertising company.

The second one also recently purchased an online advertising company, Anonym [0], placing them directly in the advertising game. They might have done so initially because they felt they needed this feature, but now their finances are tied up with the success of this platform in addition to Google's continued payouts.

[0] https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/mozilla-anonym-raising-t...

Re: Firefox 128 enables "privacy-preserving" ad measurements by default

#136

Post by ants_everywhere »

JW_00000 wrote: post #42
ants_everywhere wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't it the same old tools used by other ad companies, like differential privacy?

A major difference is that the data is stored in your browser, and aggregated anonymously by Mozilla (also using differential privacy). Using the techniques you refer to, the ad platforms both store the data and then aggregate it, possibly promising to add differential privacy. The advantages I see are: (1) you can verify which data is collected by the browser and when/how it is sent to Mozilla, because this code is…

I was under the impression that click data is stored in your browser under Webkit's Private Click Measurement. Am I misunderstanding?

For example, here's a 2021 blog post describing the protocol

https://webkit.org/blog/11529/introducing-private-click-meas...

Re: Firefox 128 enables "privacy-preserving" ad measurements by default

#137

Post by lolinder »

pasc1878 wrote: post #72
tgvaughan wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My problem with this is that ideally, software I deign to run on my computer acts with only my interests in mind. The overarching goal of these changes is not to preserve my privacy, but rather to help advertising companies to learn something about how I interact with their ads. I don't care that Mozilla's particular implementation is not as bad for my privacy as it could be, I only care that their motivation has swi…

Fine. Then pay for the tools you use rather than force them to get money from another source. The toolmakers work to earn a living.

Point me to the Firefox donation box or subscription (not the Mozilla donations, which don't fund Firefox, or a subscription to an unrelated service that has overhead of its own) and I'll start a monthly payment today.

(Before you spend too long looking: there isn't one. Mozilla doesn't want me to pay for Firefox, they want to get their funding other ways.)

Re: Firefox 128 enables "privacy-preserving" ad measurements by default

#138

Post by dtx1 »

doe_eyes wrote: post #30

The scare quotes here are uncalled for: it is privacy-preserving. The approach allows measurement without disclosing who, specifically, did what with the ad. The best objection to these proposals isn't privacy, it's that a browser vendor is lifting a finger for advertisers. I guess the fundamental question there is if we prefer to outright shut down online advertising, or give it the tools it needs to be less bad. Op…

I remember when Browsers were User-Agents and worked for the sole benefit of the user. These days they are Advertisement-Agents. And especially for Firefox to survive Mozilla should go down the road of being a user agent and a user agent only. What other use is there for firefox? It's not faster, it's soon not going to be more private and it is less secure than chromium based browsers.

Re: Firefox 128 enables "privacy-preserving" ad measurements by default

#139

Post by RockRobotRock »

doe_eyes wrote: post #30

The scare quotes here are uncalled for: it is privacy-preserving. The approach allows measurement without disclosing who, specifically, did what with the ad. The best objection to these proposals isn't privacy, it's that a browser vendor is lifting a finger for advertisers. I guess the fundamental question there is if we prefer to outright shut down online advertising, or give it the tools it needs to be less bad. Op…

Do you work for an ad company by any chance?
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