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I suspect the comments here are largely missing the point. IMHO, Mozilla isn't offering "Track THIS" as a solution to being tracked, instead it's a demo of how

I suspect the comments here are largely missing the point. IMHO, Mozilla isn't offering "Track THIS" as a solution to being tracked, instead it's a demo of how tailored one's ads are, so one will be offended enough to turn off 3rd party cookies.

apetresc 7y ago
I think it may backfire. In my opinion, the dangers of "tracking" and "customization" are dramatically overblown and I suspect the average user has a much more sinister idea of what it all means than the reality. Some people are going to try this demo and realize "Huh, so 'surveillance capitalism' really just means that I see better ads?" Most non-technical people have this dystopian illusion when they hear about all of Facebook/Google/Amazon's fabled super-advanced-magic-tracking that there's either a human or a near-sentient robot listening in to every facet of their lives and forming a judgmental, human opinion of them as a person. Once they realize this shit is so basic that opening up a few browser tabs of stuff you don't actually like is enough to trick it, I think their apathy will increase, not decrease.
- inanutshellus 7y ago
  Hm, interesting. For my part, I see a difference between the utility of tracking purchases and that of personality-categorization that social media sites use.... but you do have a point. What do you suggest?
- danShumway 7y ago
  Anecdotally, I had to explain to a family member recently how they got Twitter ads for an event they dropped a friend off at, even though they didn't personally search for or attend the event. They were confused by how this happened, and they knew I was the weird privacy person in the family to ask. They proposed the simple, obvious solution: "Twitter is listening to my microphone." I countered with, "No, Twitter knows you're friends with this person, and because they have access to both of your location data, they know you were visiting this person at the same time that they searched for and went to this event." My family member said that my explanation didn't make them feel any better, at all, and then deleted Twitter off of their phone. I don't know if that person is typical or not, but I will say that when you see something yourself it can sometimes make you feel more vulnerable and disturbed than when you hear about it second hand. Tracking is so ubiquitous that there's kind of an abstract, "but really it's not so bad" quality to it. People joke about the super-advanced-magic-tracking, but they don't really believe it on an emotional level. Or they believe it's super competent and dehumanized and subtle. I think projects like this have the potential to maybe make it feel more tangible. Hyper-advanced systems feel more theoretical and less dangerous than, "hey, I'm literally just watching you browse the web." In my (again anecdotal) experience, magical systems are dismissable, but people get worked up over, "somebody's looking in my window."
  - alteria 7y ago
    There's a whole Reply All podcast episode where one of the hosts tried convincing listeners that Facebook wasn't listening to their microphones. It goes to show that people aren't too aware of just how much data Facebook/tech has about them, and occasionally that data can make extremely accurate predictions. https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/z3hlwr/ https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/z3hlwr/

apetresc 7y ago

I think it may backfire. In my opinion, the dangers of "tracking" and "customization" are dramatically overblown and I suspect the average user has a much more sinister idea of what it all means than the reality. Some people are going to try this demo and realize "Huh, so 'surveillance capitalism' really just means that I see better ads?" Most non-technical people have this dystopian illusion when they hear about all of Facebook/Google/Amazon's fabled super-advanced-magic-tracking that there's either a human or a near-sentient robot listening in to every facet of their lives and forming a judgmental, human opinion of them as a person. Once they realize this shit is so basic that opening up a few browser tabs of stuff you don't actually like is enough to trick it, I think their apathy will increase, not decrease.

inanutshellus 7y ago
Hm, interesting. For my part, I see a difference between the utility of tracking purchases and that of personality-categorization that social media sites use.... but you do have a point. What do you suggest?
danShumway 7y ago
Anecdotally, I had to explain to a family member recently how they got Twitter ads for an event they dropped a friend off at, even though they didn't personally search for or attend the event. They were confused by how this happened, and they knew I was the weird privacy person in the family to ask. They proposed the simple, obvious solution: "Twitter is listening to my microphone." I countered with, "No, Twitter knows you're friends with this person, and because they have access to both of your location data, they know you were visiting this person at the same time that they searched for and went to this event." My family member said that my explanation didn't make them feel any better, at all, and then deleted Twitter off of their phone. I don't know if that person is typical or not, but I will say that when you see something yourself it can sometimes make you feel more vulnerable and disturbed than when you hear about it second hand. Tracking is so ubiquitous that there's kind of an abstract, "but really it's not so bad" quality to it. People joke about the super-advanced-magic-tracking, but they don't really believe it on an emotional level. Or they believe it's super competent and dehumanized and subtle. I think projects like this have the potential to maybe make it feel more tangible. Hyper-advanced systems feel more theoretical and less dangerous than, "hey, I'm literally just watching you browse the web." In my (again anecdotal) experience, magical systems are dismissable, but people get worked up over, "somebody's looking in my window."
- alteria 7y ago
  There's a whole Reply All podcast episode where one of the hosts tried convincing listeners that Facebook wasn't listening to their microphones. It goes to show that people aren't too aware of just how much data Facebook/tech has about them, and occasionally that data can make extremely accurate predictions. https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/z3hlwr/ https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/z3hlwr/