this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2024
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[–] [email protected] 26 points 4 months ago (2 children)

This increments a counter anonymously as opposed to explicit tracking.

They are very different and this feels like a hit job of outrage blogs.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 4 months ago (2 children)

There's nothing anonymous about it. They are the ones collecting the data. They are the ones who are trying to get into the advertising market, using their user base as hostages. They bought an advertising related company run by Meta dropouts. They force ITSG and LetsEncrypt into the spotlight every chance they get, even though their involvement in this subject is nowhere to be seen. They are lying. They don't have your interests at heart, and they haven't for some time.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Better than what? My existing connection where I control all connections to Garbage People through DNS blocking? If you really believe this bullshit, please reevaluate

[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 months ago

Your browser is collecting it, and submitting limited info to a counter.

This is still much better.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

The specifics don't matter for me, I use adblockers anyway so I was never "eligible."

Slipping such a major feature in as an opt-out setting is where the outrage should come from.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I can understand that, but there’s still a lot of misinformation

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Perhaps, but no small amount of that misinformation has come from Mozilla themselves.

(At least from the Reddit thread) They're trying to frame this as "this is just an experiment to prove that aggregated advertising can work so we can arguments during policy drafting later on!" I don't believe that's their intention for a second.

This feels like Mozilla trying to monetize a previously un-monitizable audience while using their position in the community as an "in." First they buy their own ad company, then they install these features to make it seem safe to turn off ad blockers, all while attempting to guilt critics with statements like "it's the only way we can really make a change!" Or "if we don't do this, FF may go away forever."

The whole thing just feels slimey to me, especially after reading how theyve tried to explain away the whole controversy in the reddit post

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

I mean I buy most of those statements….

Today they’re only alive because they’re taking Google’s dirty money, what happens if that dries up?

And while it’s not ideal, it’s better than most alternatives, and they really need privacy protecting legislation.