Google gets its way, bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome

Chrome got blacklisted by our IT dept because of this.

"Ads are attack vectors."

Switching away from Chrome is something that is always worth repeating, but just FYI this happened last September and isn't "new". If you're on Chrome and are only just now realizing this, it's been your reality for the last 5 months.

The Federated Learning of Cohorts and now the Topics API are part of a plan to pitch an "alternative" tracking platform, and Google argues that there has to be a tracking alternative—you can't just not be spied on.

lmao what the fuck kind of dystopia are we living in

"Did any user in the world want a user-tracking and ad platform baked directly into their browser? Probably not, but this is Google, and they control Chrome, and this probably still won't make people switch to Firefox."

WELL I HOPE YOU FUCKS LIKE SOME WEIRD ASS PORN AND SHITPOSTS

posted in 9/7/2023, 3:35 PM

Why are we posting news from September?

What's with Lemmy and reposting really old things?

Does this only affect Chrome or all Chromium based browsers? Are Brave and Edge going to be implementing this too?

All google products are spyware. Although technically they should be called "trackingware".

Duck duck go has become a pretty good viable alternative to google using it full time now.

Another beautiful day of ditching chrome for Firefox a long time ago

It's also already built into Google Play Services. Remember this when they claim a monopoly is good for "security" reasons.

I'm totally unable to switch from chrome, the chrome icon is really the only one that works, all others are just too hard to see

It's getting harder to remain compassionate towards people who keep using chrome.

next up: every page requires shitty chrome or login with google.

then the big shrug and all continue using chrome, iphone, amazon and the other evils.

if you are using any of the above YOU are the problem.

thoughts and prayers. wasch mich, aber mach mich nicht nass.

const google = "be evil";

September news?

Only a matter of time when Chromium operating subsystem start to be incompatible with Firefox.

So, all those years creating "web standards" are for nothing, as turned out with too many standards no one is able to implement them, leaving only one existing browser to still operate. We won't even know if websites are compatible with a standard anymore, because Chrome interpretation might me different from any other.

don't be google

eww icky also this article is old

Mozilla is making a great pivot to integrate AI into Firefox. Totally what people want. /s

I was just thinking about it and I had switched to Firefox back when I left Reddit over the whole API thing and joined Lemmy.

If your version of Chromium has the ability to disable 3rd party cookies then it's not affected by this, yet, but eventually they will program an "alternative" way to provide this data to advertisers so definitely start shopping for a new browser I guess.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Unlike the glitzy front-page Google blog post that the redesign got, the big ad platform launch announcement is tucked away on the privacysandbox.com page.

The blog post says the ad platform is hitting "general availability" today, meaning it has rolled out to most Chrome users.

This has been a long time coming, with the APIs rolling out about a month ago and a million incremental steps in the beta and dev builds, but now the deed is finally done.

Users should see a pop-up when they start up Chrome soon, informing them that an "ad privacy" feature has been rolled out to them and enabled.

That's actually what started this whole process: Apple dealt a giant blow to Google's core revenue stream when it blocked third-party cookies in Safari in 2020.

Instead of re-inventing the tracking wheel, we should imagine a better world without the myriad problems of targeted ads."

The original article contains 587 words, the summary contains 150 words. Saved 74%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

My question as a total luddite is whether or not it will be possible for Chromium based browsers to maintain a version without this. I use Firefox on all my devices so it's not an issue, but I'm curious about other popular browsers, especially those like DDG or brave that emphasize privacy.

Security Now mentioned this too:

https://infosec.pub/post/8359932

Does anyone know what the implications are for Vanadium?

Was it ever any surprise they got their way? They're basically unopposed.

"...and is now banned in the EU."

The main reason I haven't switch to Firefox is that it doesn't have a "tab group" feature nearly as functional, polishedg and usable as Chrome's.

We're in a lose/lose scenario here. Google has been inserting ad-tracking and soon will be nuking ad-blockers.

Then you've got Firefox wanting to implement AI soon at the cost of employees.

Is there really anywhere else we can go before both of their shit hits the fan?

I’m really confused, everyone seems pissed about this, but if you understand what they are up to, it actually is a very privacy focused way to allow for interest based ads. Like I get if you understand that and feel like all interest based ads are evil, sure. But at the same time the ‘free web’ is built on advertising. Nobody is offering an alternative.

Seems like a quick hop to chrome://flags allows one to disable this. chrome://flags/#privacy-sandbox-ads-apis

Ads aren't evil though. They are the main method of making people know about new things. Intrusive and privacy-defeating tracking is.

I love Firefox when it works, but half the time it can't access any sites while Chrome does. It's like Firefox can't see the network.