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I mean, the old adage is: google knows what you browse facebook knows who you know amazon knows what you buy but for a browser company, isn't a browser exte
by fault1 5y ago
I mean, the old adage is:
google knows what you browse
facebook knows who you know
amazon knows what you buy
but for a browser company, isn't a browser extension better than some other way to opt out? otherwise they would have to associate you to an account.
- Volker_W 5y agoI can't find the source right now, but IIRC, google checks your @gmail mails for shopping receipts and build a list of stuff you bought.
- HarveyKandola 5y agoI believe this is why Amazon order confirmation emails nowadays don’t state what you purchased!
- hericium 5y agoAlso, increasing number of "you've got a ticket response, log in to read" e-mails sent to non-Gmail customers. Thanks Google.
- Coding_Cat 5y agoAnd facebook also tracks what you browse. (And Amazon lets people die in a storm.)
- shtack 5y agoCan confirm to some degree as I built this system almost 10 years ago. Back then it was used for rich data in 3 apps that were all turned down years ago. I've been out of Google for a long time, so I don't know if it's still around or what it would be used for anymore.
- Closi 5y ago> but for a browser company, isn't a browser extension better than some other way to opt out? otherwise they would have to associate you to an account. Well the better way would have been to honour the browsers 'Do Not Track' headers, but Google pretty much ignored these, presumably because it would have caused too much impact, which is one of the reasons it failed. But now, Google could support 'Global Privacy Control' by implementing it in Chrome and honouring GPC headers across Google! That's the obvious way to support an opt-out considering there is an emerging standard and that they own a browser. But... again, it's probably better for them to ignore this from a commercial perspective and in their best interests if GPC fails, so better to implement some shitty add-in that discourages people from opting out (if you want to opt out of tracking from 100 companies, are you expected to have 100 different plugins?).
- Volker_W 5y ago> Well the better way would have been to honour the browsers 'Do Not Track' headers, If the GDPR would make ignoring DNT illegal, that would be great. Is there anyone who honours the DNT header?
- Closi 5y agoYou are right, nobody honoured the DNT headers - it needs legislative action (preferably GPC as it's the better standard). Apple even pulled support in Safari as pretty much no advertisers were using it to stop tracking, but some advertisers were (ironically) using the header setting for additional fingerprinting.
- hericium 5y ago> Is there anyone who honours the DNT header Sure - creeps. It distinguishes you from other viewers so is used as another vector to abuse your privacy.
- ItsBob 5y agoYou're assuming that "opt-out" is the right thing here! It's not. All this stuff should be opt-in: I shouldn't have to tell people to leave me alone.
- fault1 5y agomaybe, but you are likely using their software or services, so in some sense, it's "first party" data, where at least historically, some expectation of privacy has not been as strong since you are in effect, having direct interaction with a business. at least, this is how it's been argued in the US in the past.