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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

#31

Post by ants_everywhere »

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…

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

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

#32

Post by benou »

hagbard_c wrote: post #25
wkat4242 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty much yes though this one is far more privacy-minded, where FLoC was just a thinly-veiled attempt at business as usual. I turned it off immediately nonetheless. One thing to note though is that the switch doesn't exist in mobile Firefox. And it's not clear to me whether that means the feature doesn't exist at all or that I just can't turn it off?

Use Firefox Nightly on Android and you get access to about:config and with that this switch.

and for those wondering, looks like it is called "dom.private-attribution.submission.enabled"

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

#33

Post by voytec »

mrweasel wrote: post #13
voytec wrote: post #2

Google: ... Mozilla: How high?

Mozilla also needs this for their own ad business: https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/mozilla-anonym-raising-t...

> Mozilla also needs this for their own ad business

Mozilla wants it. I suspect that it's Google that _needs_ Mozilla to also run ads.

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

#34

Post by Symbiote »

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…

Those are normal quotes, not "scare quotes".

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

#37

Post by rvnx »

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…

"Privacy-enhancing/preserving", mhh, it's rather "Mozilla launches new tools to help advertisers stay compliant with latest regulations".

It's not to protect privacy, because to protect privacy there is already a solution: it's to block the ad hosts and not talk to them at all (anti-fingerprinting techniques don't work).

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

#38

Post by hypeatei »

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…

> it's that a browser vendor is lifting a finger for advertisers

This is it. We're polluting the web browser with even more bullshit so that companies can squeeze a few pennies out when someone visits a page.

It was bad enough when pages are loaded with tracking cookies and JavaScript but at least you can block those. Now we get browser functionality on by default cooperating with advertising networks. Insane.

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

#39

Post by shadowgovt »

mrweasel wrote: post #8

I was looking at this when I upgraded and that setting does not need to be there. If it was off by default, no one would feel the need to locate that check box and enable it. So just turn it off, remove it from settings and yank the code. The language is even rather vague and Mozilla seems to good a long way to avoid explaining that this is the alternative Google has designed for Chrome to replace tracking via third…

It's better for a browser feature the user has some control over to be the implementation point for this than incentivizing site owners to come up with novel tracking strategies.

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

#40

Post by account42 »

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 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. Opinions differ, but all major browser vendors are in the latter category.

That is a very very generous assumption of the browser makers' goals. Particularily when one of them IS an online advertising company and another one is almost exclusively funded by said advertising company. They do not deserve the benefit of the doubt.

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