Firefox

17574 readers

56 users here now

A place to discuss the news and latest developments on the open-source browser Firefox

founded 4 years ago

MODERATORS

k_o_t@lemmy.ml

Privacy-Preserving Attribution: Testing for a New Era of Privacy in Digital Advertising (blog.mozilla.org)

submitted 3 weeks ago by Vincent@feddit.nl to c/firefox@lemmy.ml

40 comments fedilink hide all child comments

An update on Mozilla's PPA experiment and how it protects user privacy while testing cutting edge technologies to improve the open web.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] LWD@lemm.ee 10 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

Mozilla is really going for a "third time's the charm" approach on collecting extra data, aren't they.

First they silently started sucking up extra user data without consent and without warning, something not even Google attempted.

Then, they got caught, and took to Reddit to paternalistically explain why they knew better than the user, and why a consent dialog would be confusing.

And now, over a month after the initial reports come out, Mozilla triples down. What a stupid, stupid, stupid decision.

Advertisement is a business. It's not charity and it's not a publicly owned resource. It doesn't keep the Internet free, because it makes a boat load of money doing what it does. It doesn't take an expert understanding of economics to see that any belief that advertisement allows for a free Internet is smoke and mirrors. The money comes from somewhere, notably from you.

Either advertisement works, and you pay for your content by being psychologically manipulated into paying more than you otherwise would on things you don't need, or it doesn't, and businesses pay for ineffective advertisement, leading to increased prices.

Advertisement is not free. It's a trick that looks free if you ignore the entire way it functions.

- commodoreboxer

[–] Vincent@feddit.nl 4 points 3 weeks ago

It's just more communication about the same thing. Started out with just a mention in the release notes and a checkbox in the settings, which clearly wasn't enough (hence your calling it "silently"), then a more elaborate response on Reddit, and now this more detailed blog post outside of Reddit's walled garden. And I'm sure it's not the last we'll hear of it. (I'd be curious about the experiment's results too, for example.)

load more comments (1 replies)