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Ad tech firms test ways to connect Google’s FLoC to other data

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Re: Ad tech firms test ways to connect Google’s FLoC to other data

#31

Post by stefan_ »

NilsIRL wrote: post #25
samizdis wrote: post #8

The EFF launched its site Am I FLoCed? [1] on April 9 for Chrome browser users to check whether they've been recruited/co-opted into Google's FLoC testing programme, started in March. Not sure how it works, but the EFF doesn't seem totally confident that it can detect those affected: "This page will try to detect whether you've been made a guinea pig in Google's ad-tech experiment." [1] https://amifloced.org/

FLoC has a well defined API like (all) standards: https://wicg.github.io/floc/ There's no reason why the website would not be reliable at detecting whether FLoC is enabled on your browser. You can also used https://floc.glitch.me/ which was linked in one of the blog posts from google.

In the sense that you can call "side channel for ill-specified data Google wants to leak" an "API".

Re: Ad tech firms test ways to connect Google’s FLoC to other data

#32

Post by colesantiago »

All Ad tech, spyware, and data collection firms/startups (and even startups collecting any PII data) with little care for the GDPR or the CCPA are extremely evil.

No regards for privacy at all, this rampant data harvesting and spying must stop now.

Re: Ad tech firms test ways to connect Google’s FLoC to other data

#34

Post by ehnto »

randomperson_24 wrote: post #5

Why is it that all anti-Google posts just approach the first place on HN in such a short amount of time.

It's not anti-google, it's against a thing Google happens to be doing. Google holds an incredibly powerful position on the internet, so when they do something that could be bad it affects a lot of people. In this case, you could argue it affects pretty much everyone who uses the internet.

You don't get to be the biggest entity on the internet and keep the cutesy hacker facade, they've got an enormous responsibility to the community now.

Re: Ad tech firms test ways to connect Google’s FLoC to other data

#36

Post by mavhc »

ece wrote: post #20

Honestly, who asked for FLoC and the MS alternative (edit: it's PARAKEET)? Why can't ad servers just follow my Do Not Track preferences? Serve me a random ad, or a context based ad if I have Do Not Track set... seems a lot simpler no? Those using ad-blockers are going to use them anyway, but some assurance that I won't be tracked would go a long way towards me turning off ad-blockers on the sites I don't frequent, an…

Do Not Track failed because a) the worst sites would just ignore it and b) Microsoft tried to use it as a weapon against Google by setting it as default

Re: Ad tech firms test ways to connect Google’s FLoC to other data

#37

Post by mavhc »

ehnto wrote: post #34
randomperson_24 wrote: post #5

Why is it that all anti-Google posts just approach the first place on HN in such a short amount of time.

It's not anti-google, it's against a thing Google happens to be doing. Google holds an incredibly powerful position on the internet, so when they do something that could be bad it affects a lot of people. In this case, you could argue it affects pretty much everyone who uses the internet. You don't get to be the biggest entity on the internet and keep the cutesy hacker facade, they've got an enormous responsibility t…

Also sensationalist posts get more attention than nuanced non biased posts

Re: Ad tech firms test ways to connect Google’s FLoC to other data

#38

Post by dvfjsdhgfv »

pmurt7 wrote: post #27

We need to collectively switch to Firefox and Brave.

I finally made the total switch to FF last year and it's fine; the stuff got imported from Chrome correctly. Containers are a good bonus. I keep a copy of Chrome at hand but I used it maybe once a month or two to test some random website, that's all. There is no single reason to remain on Chrome for me, I just regret it took me so long. No crashes, no noticeable performance differences, no quirks. I'm very grateful Firefox exists.

Re: Ad tech firms test ways to connect Google’s FLoC to other data

#39

Post by hypertele-Xii »

mavhc wrote: post #36
ece wrote: post #20

Honestly, who asked for FLoC and the MS alternative (edit: it's PARAKEET)? Why can't ad servers just follow my Do Not Track preferences? Serve me a random ad, or a context based ad if I have Do Not Track set... seems a lot simpler no? Those using ad-blockers are going to use them anyway, but some assurance that I won't be tracked would go a long way towards me turning off ad-blockers on the sites I don't frequent, an…

Do Not Track failed because a) the worst sites would just ignore it and b) Microsoft tried to use it as a weapon against Google by setting it as default

Do Not Track failed because nothing actually enforced companies to respect it. It has to be law for any effect.

Re: Ad tech firms test ways to connect Google’s FLoC to other data

#40

Post by ahmedalsudani »

pmurt7 wrote: post #27

We need to collectively switch to Firefox and Brave.

Correction: they never injected ads, but they do remove ads and replace them with "attention tokens", which is an opt-out system for publishers. See also https://tech.hindustantimes.com/tech/news/this-popular-brows.... In short, please look into the questionable aspects of Brave.

Brave is perhaps the most ethically challenged browser out there. Hopefully they have stopped doing this, but they were injecting their own ads instead of what the publisher put on their website.

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