5 ms·

Mozilla's privacy preserving ad attribution: The future or an oxymoron?

26 points by ericholscher 2y ago

wkat4242 2y ago
I'm not interested. I just block ads altogether. and I never make any exceptions. I don't believe in this model anymore. The advertising industry has lost my complete respect with the things they've pulled in the past and are still doing. I turned off PPA of course but I don't see ads anyway so there's nothing to attribute.
dmitrygr 2y ago
> At some level, ad attribution is necessary. My man, let me introduce you to .. well ... all years before 2000-ish. TV ads has no tracking pixels, and radio ads had no utm strings... Somehow advertisers ... lived?
- aitchnyu 2y ago
  Automatic "what channel is TV tuned" telemetry has been around since 1970s AFAICT from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nielsen_Media_Research#Measuring_ratings https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nielsen_Media_Research#Measuri...
  - im3w1l 2y ago
    And it had to be installed separately if you wanted to participate.
- garciasn 2y ago
  Marketing is going back to utilize the same measurement technologies that were prevalent before digital tracking was ubiquitous, via Media/Market Mix Modeling (MMM): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_mix_modeling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_mix_modeling However, now we can process, hold, and model way more data, driving toward way more useful outputs; but, without any of the privacy implications that exist at a user-level. So, we now use MMM + user-level attribution (Multi-touch Attribution or MTA) as a hybridized modeling effort to provide what is known in the industry as 'Unified Measurement Modeling' in order to provide the most robust look at how marketing is working.
anotherhue 2y ago
This is happening because competition amongst browsers is so low. Fund your favorite alternative to solve the problem for good. Servo would be the most ironic.
- 1oooqooq 2y ago
  no this is happening because any project that succeed (e.g. Mozilla) is corrupted to the core by goggle's money. brave haven't even for off the ground and is already dealing with them what we need is decent leadership. not million dollar salary presidents. maybe if emacs had a seat at w3c :)
  - im3w1l 2y ago
    The reason they take the money is because they need the money. The reason they need the money is because they need so many employees. The reason they need so many employees is because it takes so much work to implement a modern web browser. The reason it takes so much work to implement a modern web browser is because the web has sprawling Living Standards. And users expect not just correctness but highly optimized jit.
    - 1oooqooq 2y ago
      for Mozilla thats not correct. and i think you know it but might have skin in the game? if honestly misguided, go ahead and take a look on where Mozilla waste money. it's hard to parse on their reports but it's all there. then see how much goes into actual browser vs how much they got by donations and revenue of the fund. the fat is not the browser. also they would still be getting user donation if they didn't go full dark side and burned that bridge.
      - im3w1l 2y ago
        If it's hard to parse why don't you tell me? How does their budget break down?
- InkCanon 2y ago
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

26 points by ericholscher 2y ago

I'm not interested. I just block ads altogether. and I never make any exceptions. I don't believe in this model anymore. The advertising industry has lost my complete respect with the things they've pulled in the past and are still doing. I turned off PPA of course but I don't see ads anyway so there's nothing to attribute.

dmitrygr 2y ago

> At some level, ad attribution is necessary. My man, let me introduce you to .. well ... all years before 2000-ish. TV ads has no tracking pixels, and radio ads had no utm strings... Somehow advertisers ... lived?

aitchnyu 2y ago
Automatic "what channel is TV tuned" telemetry has been around since 1970s AFAICT from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nielsen_Media_Research#Measuring_ratings https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nielsen_Media_Research#Measuri...
- im3w1l 2y ago
  And it had to be installed separately if you wanted to participate.
garciasn 2y ago
Marketing is going back to utilize the same measurement technologies that were prevalent before digital tracking was ubiquitous, via Media/Market Mix Modeling (MMM): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_mix_modeling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_mix_modeling However, now we can process, hold, and model way more data, driving toward way more useful outputs; but, without any of the privacy implications that exist at a user-level. So, we now use MMM + user-level attribution (Multi-touch Attribution or MTA) as a hybridized modeling effort to provide what is known in the industry as 'Unified Measurement Modeling' in order to provide the most robust look at how marketing is working.

anotherhue 2y ago

This is happening because competition amongst browsers is so low. Fund your favorite alternative to solve the problem for good. Servo would be the most ironic.

1oooqooq 2y ago
no this is happening because any project that succeed (e.g. Mozilla) is corrupted to the core by goggle's money. brave haven't even for off the ground and is already dealing with them what we need is decent leadership. not million dollar salary presidents. maybe if emacs had a seat at w3c :)
- im3w1l 2y ago
  The reason they take the money is because they need the money. The reason they need the money is because they need so many employees. The reason they need so many employees is because it takes so much work to implement a modern web browser. The reason it takes so much work to implement a modern web browser is because the web has sprawling Living Standards. And users expect not just correctness but highly optimized jit.
  - 1oooqooq 2y ago
    for Mozilla thats not correct. and i think you know it but might have skin in the game? if honestly misguided, go ahead and take a look on where Mozilla waste money. it's hard to parse on their reports but it's all there. then see how much goes into actual browser vs how much they got by donations and revenue of the fund. the fat is not the browser. also they would still be getting user donation if they didn't go full dark side and burned that bridge.
    - im3w1l 2y ago
      If it's hard to parse why don't you tell me? How does their budget break down?
InkCanon 2y ago

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]