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Amazon is blocking Google’s FLoC

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Re: Amazon is blocking Google’s FLoC

#91

Post by dannyw »

hahahasure wrote: post #66
WORMS_EAT_WORMS wrote: post #39

Trying to block this is a losing battle. The whole privacy-first angle is so disingenuous, too. Is there a way we can just obfuscate / ruin our data with them? Like a tool or browser extension I can run that clicks / visits a bunch of random links and totally trashes which "cohort" Google thinks I belong in. I'd pay for this more than paying to opt-out. Then serve me all the ads you want.

I'm surprised this hasn't happened yet. Also there's an issue that bots are detected easily.

That's because Chrome banned it.

Re: Amazon is blocking Google’s FLoC

#92

Post by tgv »

hahahasure wrote: post #65
gentleman11 wrote: post #9

If Firefox had larger market share, Chrome wouldn’t have been able to make this opt out for websites rather than opt in because it would have given them a bad public image. I don’t think it’s fair that some company gets to force every website maintainer (most aren’t extremely technical and just use Wordpress or something similar) on earth to muddle through documentation for their particular setups to 1) learn it exis…

Firefox just sucks. For some computers it works, but me and others have all sorts of breaking issues. I tried Firefox, it just sucks. Edit- shoot the messenger, it won't fix Firefox bugs or help their market share.

I've been using FF since forever (first Navigator, then a macos variant called Camino, and after it EOL'd, Firefox; tried quite a few others too, but always returned to FF). Never a problem, except of course with websites that don't test if it works on Firefox.

> shoot the messenger, it won't fix Firefox bugs or help their market share.

Your message doesn't really contribute to it either. If you hate Firefox with a passion and wish that Alphabet dominates the world and turns us all into clicking zombies, keep spreading it. Otherwise, better not.

Re: Amazon is blocking Google’s FLoC

#93

Post by tgv »

mabbo wrote: post #38

How long until Google counters by modifying Google Search's algorithm to lower the rankings of any website with headers that block FLoC?

Since it includes Amazon, I'm betting it'll be long. They'll rather invent something even nastier.

Re: Amazon is blocking Google’s FLoC

#94

Post by kevingadd »

fastball wrote: post #90
lisper wrote: post #88

Wow, the bias in this article is unbelievably blatant: "[Amazon is] preventing Google’s tracking system FLoC — or Federated Learning of Cohorts — from gathering valuable data reflecting the products people research in Amazon’s vast e-commerce universe" Compare with, e.g.: "Amazon is taking steps to protect its user's privacy by blocking Google's heavy-handed overreach in leveraging its Chrome browser to spy on user's…

Yeahhhh, but Amazon makes a ton off their own ad business and is trying to turn everyone's personal devices into a mesh network they own. They don't give af about user privacy.

IMO these two things are compatible. Their mesh network is incredibly gross but it's not a privacy violation, it's bad in other ways.

Re: Amazon is blocking Google’s FLoC

#95

Post by rovr138 »

dannyw wrote: post #89
seanhunter wrote: post #83

Someone should make a browser plugin that puts you into a seperate random cohort with every click. It could be called "Floc off"

Careful, google bans Web extensions that interferes with ads (AdNaseum). Only problem is ad blockers got too popular before they made Chrome.

I’m assuming you means from Chrome’s extension store (not sure why they call it)

While they can be installed manually with extra steps, there are also other browsers out there.

Re: Amazon is blocking Google’s FLoC

#96

Post by ysavir »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #80
gentleman11 wrote: post #9

If Firefox had larger market share, Chrome wouldn’t have been able to make this opt out for websites rather than opt in because it would have given them a bad public image. I don’t think it’s fair that some company gets to force every website maintainer (most aren’t extremely technical and just use Wordpress or something similar) on earth to muddle through documentation for their particular setups to 1) learn it exis…

I would love to use Firefox, but for some years now Firefox on the Mac (when I have a few dozen tabs open) causes multi-tens-of-seconds pauses whenever I do anything with the mouse like click or scroll. Some of these throw up a rainbow cursor; some just silently do nothing. And yes, I'm using the latest version of everything, including hardware. While Mozilla obsesses about eye candy, they lose market share because t…

If that's really the only thing keeping you from Firefox, which you would "love" to do, why not stop keeping dozens of tab open at a time?

Re: Amazon is blocking Google’s FLoC

#97

Post by jasonvorhe »

gentleman11 wrote: post #54
jasonvorhe wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They've been respecting robots.txt and tracking opt-outs for years, right? Just one whistleblower and it's over. Why risk it? Also: Afaik it's opt-in after it leaves Origin Trial phase [1]. [1] https://twitter.com/Log3overLog2/status/1384337637763387394?...

So they respect “do not track” headers?

No, but almost everyone ignored it and it never matured out of Candidate Recommendation:

> Efforts to standardize Do Not Track by the W3C in the Tracking Preference Expression (DNT) Working Group reached only the Candidate Recommendation stage and ended in September 2018 due to insufficient deployment and support. [...] Despite supporting it in its Chrome web browser, Google did not implement support for DNT on its websites, and directed users to its online privacy settings and opt-outs for interest-based advertising instead. The Digital Advertising Alliance, Council of Better Business Bureaus and the Direct Marketing Association does not require its members to honor DNT signals.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_Not_Track

Re: Amazon is blocking Google’s FLoC

#98

Post by MiddleEndian »

TheRealDunkirk wrote: post #42
c0nfused wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blocking FLoC is as easy as adding this header to the HTTP response: Permissions-Policy: interest-cohort=() Source: https://www.drupal.org/project/drupal/issues/3209628

So, wait. We add this into the headers, and just expect Chrome to respect it?

Reminds me of when people naively expected "Do Not Track" to be respected lol

Re: Amazon is blocking Google’s FLoC

#99

Post by 1over137 »

c0nfused wrote: post #19
deskamess wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you block it?

Blocking FLoC is as easy as adding this header to the HTTP response: Permissions-Policy: interest-cohort=() Source: https://www.drupal.org/project/drupal/issues/3209628

>Blocking FLoC is as easy as adding this header to the HTTP response:

That's "easy"?! How does my mom do that for her WordPress site?

Re: Amazon is blocking Google’s FLoC

#100

Post by M2Ys4U »

rovr138 wrote: post #95
dannyw wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Careful, google bans Web extensions that interferes with ads (AdNaseum). Only problem is ad blockers got too popular before they made Chrome.

I’m assuming you means from Chrome’s extension store (not sure why they call it) While they can be installed manually with extra steps, there are also other browsers out there.

Don't worry, Google will just "accidentally" break compatibility for those extensions in a way that's totally not just anticompetitive behaviour, because they've never done that sort of thing, like breaking other Google properties undermine Firefox before, no sir.
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