3 ms·

> I think it's more like hundreds than handfuls. Could you be a bit more explicit here? I'd be curious how these entities coordinate themselves, since I don't

by mihaic 4y ago

> I think it's more like hundreds than handfuls. Could you be a bit more explicit here? I'd be curious how these entities coordinate themselves, since I don't have hundreds of cookies set by any website, so there must be few networks to correlate this data (FB, Google, some IAB groups, who else?). Going after those networks would seem like the obvious next step then. Thanks for the link. It seems like an honorable direction, but it's a bit nebulous on how browsers would be incentivized to implement with good intentions.

jefftk 4y ago
> I don't have hundreds of cookies set by any website Are you sure? These are third-party cookies, and it's not easy to get a full list. One way to do it is to go to a major publisher (NYT, CNN, etc) with devtools open and networking enabled. Filter to third party requests and look for ones sending cookies. Trying this on the NYT front page I saw 3p requests with cookies to amazon-adsystem.com, doubleclick.net, prebid.media.net, rubiconproject.com, adnxs.com, 3lift.com, openx.net, google.com, scorecardresearch.com, casalemedia.com, pubmatic.com, bluekai.com, adsrvr.org, bing.com, twitter.com, everesttech.net, criteo.com, dotomi.com, bidswitch.net, mfadsrvr.com, agkn.com, pswec.com, adtdp.com, demdex.net, bidr.io, adition.com, brand-display.com, intentiq.com, w55c.net, pippio.com, rlcdn.com, and adsymptotic.com before I got bored and stopped counting. Some of these might not be for personalized advertising, but most of them look like it. > browsers would be incentivized to implement with good intentions. Browsers compete on privacy, and what they do is open source. So while their incentives aren't perfect, external groups (and competing browsers!) can help keep them honest by paying attention and calling attention to bad decisions. A great example of this was Mozilla's thorough and careful privacy analysis of FLoC (https://blog.mozilla.org/en/privacy-security/privacy-analysis-of-floc/ https://blog.mozilla.org/en/privacy-security/privacy-analysi...), and looking at Topics (https://github.com/patcg-individual-drafts/topics https://github.com/patcg-individual-drafts/topics) Chrome seems to have spent a lot of time addressing that feedback.
dtagames 4y ago
The data from multiple sources is collected by aggregators. In theory, its "anonymous" because it doesn't have your name and address on it. But in reality it contains hundreds of data points including everything from your TV watching habits (from your smart TV and streaming services) to your credit card history (sold by the card companies and retailers) and much more. Customers who match the criteria selected by advertisers can be targeted for other ads -- on different websites, streaming channels, by mail, etc. So this is how advertisers have access to information about you which they, themselves, did not collect.

by mihaic 4y ago

jefftk 4y ago

> I don't have hundreds of cookies set by any website Are you sure? These are third-party cookies, and it's not easy to get a full list. One way to do it is to go to a major publisher (NYT, CNN, etc) with devtools open and networking enabled. Filter to third party requests and look for ones sending cookies. Trying this on the NYT front page I saw 3p requests with cookies to amazon-adsystem.com, doubleclick.net, prebid.media.net, rubiconproject.com, adnxs.com, 3lift.com, openx.net, google.com, scorecardresearch.com, casalemedia.com, pubmatic.com, bluekai.com, adsrvr.org, bing.com, twitter.com, everesttech.net, criteo.com, dotomi.com, bidswitch.net, mfadsrvr.com, agkn.com, pswec.com, adtdp.com, demdex.net, bidr.io, adition.com, brand-display.com, intentiq.com, w55c.net, pippio.com, rlcdn.com, and adsymptotic.com before I got bored and stopped counting. Some of these might not be for personalized advertising, but most of them look like it. > browsers would be incentivized to implement with good intentions. Browsers compete on privacy, and what they do is open source. So while their incentives aren't perfect, external groups (and competing browsers!) can help keep them honest by paying attention and calling attention to bad decisions. A great example of this was Mozilla's thorough and careful privacy analysis of FLoC (https://blog.mozilla.org/en/privacy-security/privacy-analysis-of-floc/ https://blog.mozilla.org/en/privacy-security/privacy-analysi...), and looking at Topics (https://github.com/patcg-individual-drafts/topics https://github.com/patcg-individual-drafts/topics) Chrome seems to have spent a lot of time addressing that feedback.

dtagames 4y ago

The data from multiple sources is collected by aggregators. In theory, its "anonymous" because it doesn't have your name and address on it. But in reality it contains hundreds of data points including everything from your TV watching habits (from your smart TV and streaming services) to your credit card history (sold by the card companies and retailers) and much more. Customers who match the criteria selected by advertisers can be targeted for other ads -- on different websites, streaming channels, by mail, etc. So this is how advertisers have access to information about you which they, themselves, did not collect.