this post was submitted on 14 Feb 2024

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Google Pulls the Plug: The End of Third-Party Cookies and What it Means | TWiT.TV (twit.tv)

submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

127 comments fedilink hide all child comments

This episode of Security Now covered Google's plan to deprecate third party cookies and the reaction from advertising organizations and websites.

The articles and the opinions of the show hosts are that it may have negative or unintended consequences as rather than relying on Google's proposed ad selection scheme being run on the client side (hiding information from the advertiser), instead they are demanding first party information from the sites regarding their user's identification.

The article predicts that rather than privacy increasing, a majority of websites may demand user registration so they can collect personal details and force user consent to provide that data to advertisers.

What's your opinion of website advertising, privacy, and data collection?

Would you refuse to visit websites that force registration even if the account is free?
What's all the fuss about, you don't care?
Is advertising a necessary evil in fair trade for content?
Would this limit your visiting of websites to only a narrow few you are willing to trade personal details for?
Is this a bad thing for the internet experience as whole, or just another progression of technology?
Is this no different from using any other technology platform that's free (If it's free, you're the product)?
Should website owners just accept a lower revenue model and adapt their business, rather than seeking higher / unfair revenues from privacy invasive practices of the past?

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (20 children)

Would you refuse to visit websites that force registration even if the account is free?

Lots of sites require a free account these days. I don't visit those sites.

What’s all the fuss about, you don’t care?

I care.

Is advertising a necessary evil in fair trade for content?

I like advertising - how else are you supposed to find out what products/services are available? Regularly visit every website of every company I might be interested in? That doesn't work.

It's data collection I dislike, nothing wrong with ads as long as they're a reasonably short interruption. Make ads relevant to the content, not the visitor.

Unfortunately under the current system I don't see ads, because the only way to block tracking is to also block most ads. Sorry, but ad networks have burned that bridge. It's going to take time to rebuild it.

Would this limit your visiting of websites to only a narrow few you are willing to trade personal details for?

A website would need to offer some really valuable service for me to "trade personal details". Even sites where I have an account (e.g. YouTube) I generally don't log into that account.

Is this a bad thing for the internet experience as whole, or just another progression of technology?

I think anything that gives users control over wether or not they're tracked is a good thing - and forcing people to sign up / agree to terms before using a site does that. If websites want my personal details to access them... that's fine with me. I just won't use those sites. Other people will make a different decision. It's how it should be.

I also think I'm not alone, and plenty of major sites will choose to just not do any tracking. I look forward to using those sites.

Is this no different from using any other technology platform that’s free (If it’s free, you’re the product)?

I reject that premise. Lemmy is free. I don't feel like "the product" when I use lemmy. The product is the content and the discussions. If Lemmy has a few ads on every page, I'd be fine with that. I think it'd be a good idea - as long as it's done right, without invading privacy.

Should website owners just accept a lower revenue model and adapt their business, rather than seeking higher / unfair revenues from privacy invasive practices of the past?

It's their business, choose whatever revenue model they want. Just be honest and open about it.

[+] [email protected] -26 points 9 months ago (16 children)

You had to sign up for a free account to post this comment don’t you?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago (10 children)

You had to jump over the point to post this one

[–] [email protected] -4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Did I? You signed up for an account where data collection is wide open to everyone.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Which was irrelevant.

The user had commented that they didn't want to sign up to browse content and then they further clarified that making a comment was worth signing up for sometimes.

But for some reason you are insisting the context doesn't matter? Either signup is always good or bad, we have to choose?

[–] [email protected] -3 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Overall I’m just tired of hearing how _____ is going to ruin the web, or how evangelical people get about not doing something on principle. Sites that “login-wall” their content aren’t going to succeed, but people refusing to create an account acting all doom and gloom are getting to be insufferable.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

people refusing to create an account acting all doom and gloom are getting to be insufferable

I'm not doom and gloom, I think this is a good step in the right direction.

Users should be able to control what websites have access to their data and a sign in process achieves that. Only sign into a site if you are happy with the website's privacy policy. I have an account on this website because it has in the privacy policy:

We do not sell or disclose user data under any condition, unless required by relevant data protection authorities, any other law enforcement authorities, or if the account owner requests the data themselves.

The thing that offends me the most about tracking across the internet is you are tracked wether you agree to a website's privacy policy or not. Usually you can't even read the privacy policy without being tracked.

Users who don't care about any of that can simply tap this button in Chrome (and Google could easily make it even more seamless if they want to, with a simple "share my stuff with every website I visit" setting):

There are also less invasive versions of that, such as the Passkeys standard, where you just share a unique id web the website - no name or email address. Passkeys are supported in every modern browser and the prompt is pretty similar to the screenshot above, minus the 'share your name/email/picture' bit.

Personally, I'm only going to sign into websites that I trust. 99.999% of the internet is run by companies i have never even heard of, so obviously I don't trust them. And some of the sites I have heard of (e.g. Twitter, Reddit), I definitely don't trust. But there are a few sites like lemmy.world which I trust and there are also plenty of websites websites that do even less tracking than Lemmy. Including a bunch that are ad supported... because you can show an ad to a visitor without knowing the personal details of that visitor.

As things stand right now, I run a browser extension that stops websites from tracking me and they do that by blocking all ads. I don't see that as a sustainable option - it means those websites are losing money whenever I visit the website. Far better, far more honest, if I just don't visit those websites at all. But I need to know what the website's tracking policy is before i can make that choice, so they need to start asking for permission.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago

Write your congress person to enact a GDPR-like Bill. Short of that, as you've said, idk how sites are going to make money. The current situation is majorly self-inflicted. We don't want to pay, so they have ads. We don't want to see ads, so they collect and sell data. Now that VC money has dried up, it's going to get worse and there's no other answer.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

the user just stated an opinion. you still didn't explain why the context didn't matter to you. sounds like you're one of those people who is annoyed by principals. maybe Lemmy is not for you.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

You may be right about the last point. My feed is full of posts from three days ago, talk of cutting off parts of the fediverse that seems to be the antithesis of federation, and other evangelical stances that are abandoned the second consequences come up. It was amusing at first, but it’s starting to seem like a waste of time. Idk.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

stances that are abandoned the second consequences come up.

So what you're saying is that people have to weigh pros and cons and they aren't binary thinkers like you. Great job buddy

[–] [email protected] -1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Oh, thanks for reminding me; Also people who misrepresent your position and write it off in one sentence. You have no idea what I'm talking about.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Just trying to illustrate to you what you're doing. You're ignoring the point, but the above responses are all very consistent in that way and in ignoring context entirely

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