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EU privacy agency urges more safeguards to curb U.S. tech giants

reuters.com

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Re: EU privacy agency urges more safeguards to curb U.S. tech giants

#141

Post by fhood »

spaetzleesser wrote: post #116
8fingerlouie wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not like the current tracking adds are super efficient always. I searched for a new washing machine, found one I liked, bought it, and spent the next 3 months looking at washing machine adds.

With a lot more AI the smart people at Google, Amazon and Facebook may find out one day that there are products you buy rarely versus products you buy repeatedly. Like washing machines vs potato chips. It makes sense to show ads for potato chips but with washing machines you should stop after purchase. I much preferred the time when kiteboarding sites had static kiteboarding ads instead of the current situation where…

You know I think Amazon may have gotten better about that in the last little bit. I don't recall being flooded with recommendations for something I just purchased recently.

Re: EU privacy agency urges more safeguards to curb U.S. tech giants

#142

Post by CodeGlitch »

The web is broken. No amount of regulation by the EU will fix things. I can only hope for something new which is designed from the ground up to protect the users. I'm not smart enough to know what that looks like, perhaps IPFS or similar?

In the mean time I'll block all ads and third party cookies and hope for the best.

Re: EU privacy agency urges more safeguards to curb U.S. tech giants

#143

Post by caddywompus »

apples_oranges wrote: post #15

People. Just. Delete. Your. Cookies. Regularly. I am baffled about the crazy amount of debate and technical solutions to a problem that was solved the moment Cookies were invented. In the 1990s I suppose.

Problem is, there are a ton of ways that these companies track you, not just through session cookies.

Some of the methods are explained here:

https://pixelprivacy.com/resources/browser-fingerprinting/

Re: EU privacy agency urges more safeguards to curb U.S. tech giants

#144

Post by eivarv »

afdgadfgadfh wrote: post #86
dillondoyle wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see this a lot but I find that it can't be true on the whole for many many. We buy ads for political clients. On FB I could get a positive immediate roi for donations. Scaling huge is hard (i got one client to over $1 million last cycle for context). Admittedly but you could go a lot bigger if you look at ROI down the line with email donations. And we're not alone. I don't think the many many direct to consumer bra…

Where is the control for the experiment? What is the ROI on non-targeted ads?

Exactly. Not to mention that lots of people do lots of stupid stuff – so appealing to it's popularity doesn't tell us much either.

Re: EU privacy agency urges more safeguards to curb U.S. tech giants

#145

Post by bserge »

apples_oranges wrote: post #15

People. Just. Delete. Your. Cookies. Regularly. I am baffled about the crazy amount of debate and technical solutions to a problem that was solved the moment Cookies were invented. In the 1990s I suppose.

Just. Don't. Care. About. Ads.

Re: EU privacy agency urges more safeguards to curb U.S. tech giants

#146

Post by justapassenger »

TechnoTimeStop wrote: post #130
yulaow wrote: post #5

At this point honestly I just wish for a general ban on tracking ads of any kind. Just give me good old contextual ads and remove some MBs of js, with the only purpose of tracking me, from most websites of the internet.

It is crazy to think Facebook is still able to operate as they do. I mean look at the stock price. Ridiculously out of reality. This will come crashing down soon enough.

> Ridiculously out of reality

Their P/E ratio is 27. It’s below P/E ratio for SP500, which sits right now at 40, and includes tons of beyond ridiculous companies like Tesla, with P/E ratio over 1200.

There’s lots of wrong with Facebook, but calling their stock overpriced isn’t one of those things.

Re: EU privacy agency urges more safeguards to curb U.S. tech giants

#147

Post by exporectomy »

8fingerlouie wrote: post #55
melomal wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is these ads are not exactly effective either. I mean you'll read about the guru's with 90% conversion rate at 0.50c per click or some garbage like that but when you run them yourself, with what is considered a normal company (not a unicorn) you somehow find yourself with a They are crazy cheap though and essentially act like a TV/Radio ad. It's about getting repeated exposure, even if it's not a direct con…

It’s not like the current tracking adds are super efficient always. I searched for a new washing machine, found one I liked, bought it, and spent the next 3 months looking at washing machine adds.

You seem to imply that the alternative would be more effective. What ads did you see in the 3 months prior to buying it? Maybe they were equally bad or worse but you forgot because of the psychological impact of the washing machines.

Re: EU privacy agency urges more safeguards to curb U.S. tech giants

#148

Post by KDJohnBrown »

beaconstudios wrote: post #135
KDJohnBrown wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to see the outcome of a lack of protectionism, look no further than the devastation of the steel, automobile and other manufacturing industries in the ‘70s and ‘80s which effectively wiped out the middle class.

hey I'm no fan of naked neoliberalism either, but I promise you an EU facebook would suck just as much and in the same ways as US facebook. Profit motives still exist for huge corporations in Europe. every tool has its use, but protectionism is not the way to solve big tech's bad incentives.

Why is protectionism bad? Why is it better to allow trade imbalances which sucks your nation’s financial and intellectual wealth to others with nothing in return?

Re: EU privacy agency urges more safeguards to curb U.S. tech giants

#149

Post by petre »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #98
petre wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would the EU enforce such a ban? They actually need to prove company X was tracking its users if it goes to court.

How about we make them prove they are not tracking users instead?

That's presumption of guilt and then we all have a problem.

Re: EU privacy agency urges more safeguards to curb U.S. tech giants

#150

Post by petre »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #101
sefrost wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How could I prove my blog doesn't track you?

Allow experts to audit your blog, including the code running on the servers. Hosts should submit to similar audits.

Audits. Sounds much like scientology, only at EU level.
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