An update on Mozilla’s PPA experiment and how it protects user privacy while testing cutting edge technologies to improve the open web.
Here’s my takeaway on the article:
Blablablablablablabla (…) bla.
-> Deactivate it.
And website operators will be compelled to adopt this, how? They will likely just use PPA and also all of the tracking tools, or straight up not give a shit about PPA. Mozilla does not have the influence to affect real change. Until such a time, all of this is just worthless posturing.
Firefox already blocks all trackers by default. I think Mozilla is trying to be the good guy by providing a more private option that’s available to people that don’t use Firefox. It seems pretty naive, but I think their heart is in the right place.
At the end of the day, this is just another setting to toggle off on a fresh install for those of us against all tracking and advertising on the web.
There’s also the bit where if it doesn’t work out no real harm is done (to users - there’s obviously reputation damage to Mozilla now): people who already block things by default are not affected at all, and no new information is shared about those who don’t. Whereas the upside if it does work out is enormous. In other words, low risk, high gain. Even with low odds, that’s a path worth exploring.
Mozilla by itself doesn’t have the influence to change it, but with Mozilla’s help (i.e. this experiment), others do. Specifically, legislators can have more freedom to implement strict privacy-protecting measures if they have proof that an alternative is available that doesn’t cost lots of voters their jobs.
But you can’t provide that proof if you don’t run the experiment.
Wait, what solution are you proposing? That every browser becomes a centralized point of data collection for advertisement companies, and that the government mandates it?!
Google and Brave already want to do that, Mozilla is just stepping into the fray as a browser with less than 3% of a market share. There is nothing compelling to advertisers about a proprietary Mozilla solution.
No, of course not :) I am proposing that governments curb privacy-invasive tracking, i.e. that the only way advertisers will have left to measure the impact of their ads, is non-invasive methods like PPA.
Just use librewolf or mullvad browser…
Maybe this should have been the initial announcement before they pushed it onto users. Though obviously some of the backlash is due to inept media going (as usual) for clickbait instead of research and actual reporting.
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.
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.)
Advertisement is not free. It’s a trick that looks free if you ignore the entire way it functions.
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.
I think thats kind of obvious that the money has to be coming from somewhere. The ads are what funds large parts of the internet. Someone is paying for it, either the people buying stuff because of the ads or the businesses buying the ads.
Whichever way it is, maybe both, it has the side effect of distributing the cost of the Internet. The alternative without ads would be everyone paying for every little thing on the internet, does anyone think, that that scenario is realistic? That would also mean the cost is solely on the people and nothing coming from corporations.
