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Tracking started with single site tracking and worked well with a simple cookie. There was no overhead and no bloat like heatmaps and 5-level nested scripts th

by mhkool 11y ago

Tracking started with single site tracking and worked well with a simple cookie. There was no overhead and no bloat like heatmaps and 5-level nested scripts that display an invisible pixel. It was not evil except that users did not know that they were tracked. Then the evil started with multi-site tracking. Trickery was required to implement cross-site tracking and the advertisers became too obsessed with 'knowing the user' that they overdid it. I would like to see proof that today's excessive tracking really pays off with higher click rates. A lot of trickery uses javascript and there are only a few users who disable javascript since almost all sites uses it and sites get (seriously) crippled if javascript is disabled. I therefore am waiting for a browser vendor who recognises this problem and comes with a 'Javascript light' where only a small subset of javascript -- just enough to build great responsive websites -- is supported. Javascript light will not allow to generate heatmaps, invisible pixels and upload system information. Surely you will say 'web programmers need system information' but this can be provided in a different way, i.e. browsers can send a header with the information that they want to give. Another evil are the social networks since they have their 'like' button on almost every website that you visit and hence know exactly what a user does 24 hours per day. Just like the 'do not track me' feature, the web needs a new 'no like buttons for me' feature.

Jgrubb 11y ago
What features would this light version of Javascript support and what features would it not support. Obviously `new Image()` is out, as is any kind of cookie support right? So that means no ability to log in? I don't think any browser vendors would bother spending developer time on a project that would severely break pretty much every site out there. Not to mention, you must realize that any and all methods that were available would eventually be exploited for tracking users in the absence of the usual methods. This is a situation that is only going to be "fixed" with legislation and regulation.
- mhkool 11y ago
  I am not against legislation but also not optimistic about politicians being able to make a proper law. You are correct, 'new Image' in javascript would be out. And the question is, if that really hurts. Do you want to dynamically create an image in javascript and let the decision-making happen inside the browser of an end user? Or can the 'new Image' functionality of javascript be considered bloat because the decision to put an image somewhere on the page can be made perfectly well on the web server? And we can go on, should it be possible to do a POST from javascript code, or should a browser only allow/do a POST when a user presses a button?

by mhkool 11y ago

Jgrubb 11y ago

What features would this light version of Javascript support and what features would it not support. Obviously `new Image()` is out, as is any kind of cookie support right? So that means no ability to log in? I don't think any browser vendors would bother spending developer time on a project that would severely break pretty much every site out there. Not to mention, you must realize that any and all methods that were available would eventually be exploited for tracking users in the absence of the usual methods. This is a situation that is only going to be "fixed" with legislation and regulation.

mhkool 11y ago
I am not against legislation but also not optimistic about politicians being able to make a proper law. You are correct, 'new Image' in javascript would be out. And the question is, if that really hurts. Do you want to dynamically create an image in javascript and let the decision-making happen inside the browser of an end user? Or can the 'new Image' functionality of javascript be considered bloat because the decision to put an image somewhere on the page can be made perfectly well on the web server? And we can go on, should it be possible to do a POST from javascript code, or should a browser only allow/do a POST when a user presses a button?