331–340 of 345 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Far from authoritarian, dealing with business models that seem fine on an individual level but that are detrimental to society as a whole is precisely the type of problem that governments are supposed to solve.
I don’t disagree. But that’s literally the definition of authoritarian. Doing things because you have the authority to, because $REASONS. It’s all flowers and sunshine when you agree with what they are doing but it’s incredibly easy to abuse the power. And suddenly, like compounding interest, you have dictatorship.
It very much is not.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm so confused when I read takes like that. The only way advertising can be sustainable under capitalism is if every $1 spent on advertising generates >= $1 of profit for advertisers, keeping in mind that ad networks take a share of revenue, say 30%. This means that you as a consumer have to spend at least $1 (likely more - profit not revenue) for every $0.70 of value you receive in "free" services. Being supportive…
They only need to make money in aggregate, they might make $0 out of you, but $2 out of someone else.
Judging by how much hyper-consumerist behavior I see in myself and my coworkers, we’re not. Everyone is constantly buying shit they don’t need and then justifying it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Far from authoritarian, dealing with business models that seem fine on an individual level but that are detrimental to society as a whole is precisely the type of problem that governments are supposed to solve.
I don’t disagree. But that’s literally the definition of authoritarian. Doing things because you have the authority to, because $REASONS. It’s all flowers and sunshine when you agree with what they are doing but it’s incredibly easy to abuse the power. And suddenly, like compounding interest, you have dictatorship.
Ads are private sector propaganda. They’re manipulative material attempting to exploit the weakness of the human mind to get YOU to spend money you don’t actually want to spend. Yes, YOU.
We know things that exploit the weaknesses of the human mind, like nicotine, have the potential for extraordinary evil when left to the hands of the private sector. We haven’t all come to this consensus on advertisement, but we will.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
By their own admission, "not only does Google collect your name and email address, Google also collects your physical address, your exact location, your contacts, advertising data, product interaction, search, and browsing history." [1] And that's Chrome (a Safari wrapper at that moment) on iOS. You may assume they collect at least as much on platforms they own. [1] https://techstartups.com/2021/03/18/google-finally-…
But Chrome is not "collecting" this information secretly. Users are voluntarily giving this information to associate with their Google account. Chrome "collects" your physical address because it gives you the option of saving what "Home" is to your account, and a lot of people like that feature, so they use it.
They’re subtly, in millions of ways, most predating the Internet, manipulated into making that choice. And, more importantly, believing they willingly made that choice.
Consumer behavior is complex and is the result of hundreds of years of technology and economic growth. If I plop some hypothetical human who is on his first day on Earth, he probably wouldn’t make that choice.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Name 10 then. Name 3? Name any! I don't think 98% of readers here have any possible candidates in mind. We don't have any idea what might be better, or why.
Gemini, ipfs. There are new browsers that could choose different designs re surveillance: servo, ladybird. There have been attempts at modernizing older protocols like gopher. Not the most inquisitive wunderkind, are we?
Gemini and gopher both seem semi competitive with the web in that they target users. (Ipfs is just a transport; there's value there of course but it leaves more questions than suggestions.) But I really doubt the web is going to be disrupted or even budged by efforts that are so explicitly ultra-minimal, so bare bones text.
Folks complain about the document model of the web being used for apps, which I personally feel is incredibly silly, that hypermedia being able to sing & dance like it does & having so many different framework styles validated the Extensible Web Manifesto https://github.com/extensibleweb/manifesto idea of HTML + platform APIs as a low level platform, putty we can forever reshape & mold to different architecture & use. If folks really want to get beyond the web though, the answer is definitely not just chopping off the capabilities, doing drastically less. We'd need a more bold encompassing media form, that's obviously better. I'm curious as hell to find out what that might look like but I see very few such bold ideas.
Its crazy to me that the only vision, the only rabble rousing of note seems to be to do vastly less. Maybe we could ask Flutter why they think they deserve to be the future, why the apps their are better than web, but I expect more revolting disgusting "it's better for devs" "pixel perfect" answers without any actual progress for the user, with a status quo of what software is, and no principles & or fundamental enablement or interconnection wins. Its not gonna weave something better than the www. Too many visions are inwards, retreating, and so few imagine better connecting, richer media forms, looking outward beyond the singular developer distilled down app experience that made the web the force that rewrote computing that it is, that makes the web so utterly unique & special (& something great wealth should be funding & cherishing).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
But Chrome is not "collecting" this information secretly. Users are voluntarily giving this information to associate with their Google account. Chrome "collects" your physical address because it gives you the option of saving what "Home" is to your account, and a lot of people like that feature, so they use it.
Voluntary is a tricky word. Choice isn’t binary, in fact it’s not even discrete. They’re subtly, in millions of ways, most predating the Internet, manipulated into making that choice. And, more importantly, believing they willingly made that choice. Consumer behavior is complex and is the result of hundreds of years of technology and economic growth. If I plop some hypothetical human who is on his first day on Earth,…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
By their own admission, "not only does Google collect your name and email address, Google also collects your physical address, your exact location, your contacts, advertising data, product interaction, search, and browsing history." [1] And that's Chrome (a Safari wrapper at that moment) on iOS. You may assume they collect at least as much on platforms they own. [1] https://techstartups.com/2021/03/18/google-finally-…
But Chrome is not "collecting" this information secretly. Users are voluntarily giving this information to associate with their Google account. Chrome "collects" your physical address because it gives you the option of saving what "Home" is to your account, and a lot of people like that feature, so they use it.
Besides which, we probably differ a great deal about "voluntarily giving." To me, it sounds like the defense of the mob. "These people gave us their money voluntarily. Ask them!"
> Chrome "collects" your physical address because
Because it reads your IP address and Wifi access point, and can compare that to a list of known ip addresses and access points, which they collect with their Maps cars.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Let's not forget their attempt to push web attestation through WEI https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/#kitt-is-a-de...
Malicous bots are a serious issue that trouble site operators. Trying to come up with solutions to such problems doesn't mean they don't care about the web. If it allows web sites to spend less time moderating and users to spend less time reading spam that would be a win win for both parties.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Voluntary is a tricky word. Choice isn’t binary, in fact it’s not even discrete. They’re subtly, in millions of ways, most predating the Internet, manipulated into making that choice. And, more importantly, believing they willingly made that choice. Consumer behavior is complex and is the result of hundreds of years of technology and economic growth. If I plop some hypothetical human who is on his first day on Earth,…
At some point, the user has to take responsibility. If you ask Google to save your home address, you can't then turn around and go "Chrome is collecting my physical address!!"
This requires a reframing of how responsibility is thought about in the US, but we do think this way sometimes. We kneecapped many industries we’ve felt have influenced poor choices in individuals.