i don't wanna see another ad on the web in my life, so i'll just keep on using ublock.
this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2024
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Yeah pretty much. The privacy invasion of ad companies is terrible for sure, but the whole seeing ads all over the damn place in the first place is also annoying enough that even if they were somehow completely tracker-free I would still block them.
This sounds a whole lot like privacy sandbox.
You know, Google Topics.
The thing nobody wanted.
And honestly, reading through the article here, I don't see many ways that it'll be much better. If advertisements are matched on your local machine, then data is still being amalgamated somewhere. This is similar to Google Topics and Microsoft Recall, two things people complain about. For good reason.
The online advertising industry is undergoing a significant transformation. With growing consumer concerns and increasing scrutiny from regulators, it’s evident that current data practices are excessive and unsustainable.
It's strange that Mozilla, a company that constantly positions itself as the ethical alternative to big tech, is saying "companies are being mandated out of unethical advertising."
Secure Environment: Data sets are matched in a highly secure environment
Without any further information, this means so very little. Is it done locally? On their servers? Who knows.
By combining Mozilla’s scale and trusted reputation with Anonym’s cutting-edge technology, we can enhance user privacy and advertising effectiveness, leveling the playing field for all stakeholders.
When advertising is the business, your attention is the product. Maybe I'm being too unkind to Mozilla here, but it's their press release and they can be as specific as they choose.
Anonym was founded with two core beliefs: First, that people have a fundamental right to privacy in online interactions...
This is the sort of meaningless fluff that you see at the front of every privacy policy, including that of the most invasive companies.
... and second, that digital advertising is critical for the sustainability of free content, services and experiences.
That's the only way to offer free services?! What about donation-based models? Maybe Mozilla could have set up something like what Brave has, except not based around a sketchy cryptocurrency.
In fact, GNU Taler exists for this very purpose.
Anonym was founded in 2022 by former Meta executives
Meta. The company known for loving user privacy.
I was hoping Mozilla would finally shut up about putting AI into everything, but in retrospect, maybe they should go back to that.
I'm reading through the Anonymco privacy policy. Some standouts:
We collect... IP address, social media user names, passwords and other security information,
Passwords?!
...your browsing and click history, including information about how you navigate within our Site and Services...
...We collect and verify resumes, employment eligibility, education, and employment history from job applicants. This includes information about your skills and qualifications for the position....
Okay, great, they know how employable you are
We may disclose Personal Information and any other information about you to government or law enforcement officials or private parties... to prevent or stop any illegal, unethical, or legally actionable activity...
They are leaving the door open to disclose your data to private mercenaries to prevent... Pre-crime, I think.
We use Google Analytics on the Site and Services to analyze how users use the Site and Services, and to provide advertisements to you on other websites.
THEY USE GOOGLE ON YOUR DATA.
This really sounds like Mozilla snapped up the first company with the right buzzwords that they could find, rather than looking for the best one. It sounds like a repeat of the OneRep privacy disaster, when they partnered with a corporation that sold people's data and used their ownership of it to basically demand ransom payments for its removal.
It's so much worse than I thought, and I already hated it.
Is it done locally? On their servers? Who knows.
You know it's on their servers. 🙂 Otherwise they would be beating so much around the bush.
That’s the only way to offer free services?! What about donation-based models? Maybe Mozilla could have set up something like what Brave has, except not based around a sketchy cryptocurrency.
Please correct me if I'm mistaken, but I thought Brave only gave donatable tokens to users as a reward for watching ads... ads which Brave curated for the user based on their activity. It's just targeted ad revenue with extra steps.
At first blush, it seems to me that both Brave and Anonym want to be the middleman for targeted advertising. What am I missing?
I think you can add your own money into Brave to tip people extra.
And the biggest difference is...
- Brave sold itself on this as a feature since day one
- Brave had the audience who wanted this
- The Brave software is a known factor; what's going to happen to Firefox is unknown.
I wonder if the process is open source or we just take their word that it's privacy preserving. Anyway, privacy is not the only problem with online advertising, so I'm not going to give up adblocking any time soon.
It's just an advertising company that knows to throw in some buzzwords.
Advertising can't be privacy preserving. What gives advertisement value is the fact that it's targeted.
Advertising signs next to a road are both targeted and privacy respecting, just like radio/tv.
They are worth nothing compared to targeted ads online that know your soul.
That's not what digital advertising is though.
The person I reacted to didn't talk about only digital advertising
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Contextual ads can be privacy preserving. As in Netflix ads in a entertainment page. The problem is targeting the ad on people, and not on content.
Anonym was founded in 2022 by former Meta executives [...]. The company was backed by [various venture capital corporations and multiple] strategic individual investors.
For maximum humor, run the bullshit.js bookmarklet.
Is there a way for one to use this on android FF?
Edit:
Found one. Bookmarking the following(got it from view-source:) worked:
javascript:(function(){var d=document,s=d.createElement('script');s.crossOrigin='anonymous';s.src='https://unpkg.com/@mourner/bullshit@1.3.0/bullshit.js';d.body.appendChild(s);}())
Websites that helped:
https://paul.kinlan.me/use-bookmarklets-on-chrome-on-android/
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/63614702/bookmarklet-functionality-missing-in-firefox-android#63620174
Thanks for sharing the link
Yes, but it's not very easy. I used ViolentMonkey with this userscript.
Edit: your method is really cool too
Great
I love how Mozilla seems to be trying so hard to kill itself. You don't see Google marketing Chrome as the browser that serves you ads and sends back telemetry.
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for anybody that wants to disable it, go to the settings and search for "Allow websites to perform privacy-preserving ad measurement"
(or through the dom.private-attribution.submission.enabled flag in about:config)
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/privacy-preserving-attribution
This is why i am not giving another penny to Mozilla ever again