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Google’s FLoC Is a Terrible Idea

(www.eff.org)
604 points wyldfire | 3 comments | 04 Mar 21 15:59 UTC | HN request time: 0.555s | source
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dleslie ◴[04 Mar 21 16:49 UTC] No.26344736[source]▶
This captures my feelings on the issue:

> That framing is based on a false premise that we have to choose between “old tracking” and “new tracking.” It’s not either-or. Instead of re-inventing the tracking wheel, we should imagine a better world without the myriad problems of targeted ads.

I don't want to be tracked. I never have wanted to be tracked. I shouldn't have to aggressively opt-out of tracking; it should be a service one must opt-in to receive. And it's not something we can trust industry to correct properly. This is precisely the role that privacy-protecting legislation should be undertaking.

Stop spying on us, please.

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sofixa ◴[04 Mar 21 17:39 UTC] No.26345398[source]▶
Do you use Web Monetisation ( as in, pay)? If you don't, and don't want to be tracked for ads, how do you propose things work?
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1. seanhunter ◴[04 Mar 21 21:39 UTC] No.26348773[source]▶
If a highway robber stops you and demands "your money or your life" and you object, they can't justifiably say "well if you don't pay me, how do you propose things work?"

The responsibility isn't on the user to either consent to tracking or to come up with an alternative business model that allows people to monetize things. The responsibility for monetizing things falls on the people who want to do the monetizing. They have to figure out a business model that works and that users consent to.

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2. sofixa ◴[04 Mar 21 22:31 UTC] No.26349402[source]▶
And ads work, and the vast majority of people consent to them. The problem is, they're not that good of a model
3. xxpor ◴[05 Mar 21 01:40 UTC] No.26351350[source]▶
Blowing up a significant fraction of the world's GDP is how you start a war.