5 ms·

So, basically Flash lives on because advertisers are still looking for a way to track us without our permission. Gee thanks.

gue5t 11y ago
All closed technology, on some level, exists to perpetuate coercion. This is the thesis of the free software movement.
- matthewmacleod 11y ago
  I think that's a rather extremist view.
  - liquidise 11y ago
    have you read his profile?
    - deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]
  - thescriptkiddie 11y ago
    It's also true. Even at the most benign level, non-free software exists to coerce you into running unverifiable code on a machine you own. Less benign non-free software coerces you into paying for a license, signing an EULA, participating in a botnet, etc.
- ORioN63 11y ago
  > All closed technology, on some level, may be used to perpetuate coercion. Maybe this way? There are surely many examples of closed technology that isn't phoning home. The problem is that you don't get many garanties.
  - icebraining 11y ago
    I don't think coercion is necessarily limited to phoning home.
elorant 11y ago
They don't need Flash to track us. Google does it just fine without it.
- bduerst 11y ago
  The difference is whether or not you can detect it effectively.
dplgk 11y ago
It's much easier to author and publish an animated ad using Flash than HTML/JS.
- phkahler 11y ago
  >> It's much easier to author and publish an animated ad using Flash than HTML/JS. I thought you just put a video tag and point it at the URL of a video file. What else is missing? ;-)
  - dplgk 11y ago
    100% Browser support. And if you consider the only people that click ads are probably running IE 4, then browser support is pretty important.
tensafefrogs 11y ago
You can still track users just fine without Flash - the VPAID spec calls for allowing cross-domain "Friendly" scripting access, which is horrible for users.[1] The only problem with Javascript adoption was the availability of Javascript based ads and support for this VPAID style tracking. [1] http://www.iab.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/VPAID_2_0_Final_04-10-2012.pdf http://www.iab.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/VPAID_2_0_Fina... - VPAID 2.0 spec, section 8.1.3: "The VPAID ad unit is rendered within a friendly IFRAME (FIF) and can access the DOM of the page in which the player is rendered."

gue5t 11y ago

All closed technology, on some level, exists to perpetuate coercion. This is the thesis of the free software movement.

matthewmacleod 11y ago
I think that's a rather extremist view.
- liquidise 11y ago
  have you read his profile?
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
- thescriptkiddie 11y ago
  It's also true. Even at the most benign level, non-free software exists to coerce you into running unverifiable code on a machine you own. Less benign non-free software coerces you into paying for a license, signing an EULA, participating in a botnet, etc.
ORioN63 11y ago
> All closed technology, on some level, may be used to perpetuate coercion. Maybe this way? There are surely many examples of closed technology that isn't phoning home. The problem is that you don't get many garanties.
- icebraining 11y ago
  I don't think coercion is necessarily limited to phoning home.

elorant 11y ago

They don't need Flash to track us. Google does it just fine without it.

bduerst 11y ago
The difference is whether or not you can detect it effectively.

dplgk 11y ago

It's much easier to author and publish an animated ad using Flash than HTML/JS.

phkahler 11y ago
>> It's much easier to author and publish an animated ad using Flash than HTML/JS. I thought you just put a video tag and point it at the URL of a video file. What else is missing? ;-)
- dplgk 11y ago
  100% Browser support. And if you consider the only people that click ads are probably running IE 4, then browser support is pretty important.

tensafefrogs 11y ago

You can still track users just fine without Flash - the VPAID spec calls for allowing cross-domain "Friendly" scripting access, which is horrible for users.[1] The only problem with Javascript adoption was the availability of Javascript based ads and support for this VPAID style tracking. [1] http://www.iab.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/VPAID_2_0_Final_04-10-2012.pdf http://www.iab.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/VPAID_2_0_Fina... - VPAID 2.0 spec, section 8.1.3: "The VPAID ad unit is rendered within a friendly IFRAME (FIF) and can access the DOM of the page in which the player is rendered."