Google moves away from diet of 'cookies' to track users

techxplore ^ | 02/07/2021 | Glenn Chapman

[devane617]

Google is weaning itself off user-tracking "cookies" which allow the web giant to deliver personalized ads but which also have raised the hackles of privacy defenders.

"There is a machine learning black box that is going to take in every bit of everything you have even done in your browser and spit out a label that says you are this kind of person," Cyphers said.

"Advertisers are going to decode what those labels mean."

He expected advertisers to eventually deduce which labels include certain ages, genders or races, and which are people prone to extreme political views.

[devane617]

Minority Report comes to mind.

[UnwashedPeasant]

Someone could make a camouflage bot to autosurf google and feed misinformation.

[DoodleBob]

I don’t think we can now ever get away from Google, no matter what we do or try.

There is "we" then there is "me and my family". There are multiple ways to get away from Alphabet Inc. Perhaps your neighbor and Aunt Matilda and Uncle Floyd won't do it, but you certainly can.

Ann Landers used to say, nobody can take advantage of you without your permission. Time to stop giving permission.

[devane617]

"Someone could make a camouflage bot to autosurf google and feed misinformation."

Hmm, very interesting thought. X100k could creat interesting outcomes.

[devane617]

One problem with your comment: If all your neighbors and those around you are ‘prone’ to particular thought or way of thinking then it’s likely to know you. Birds of a feather and all.

[Irenic]

Isn’t this like fishing with dynamite?

I think the advertisers should have to be more sporting.

[butlerweave]

Privacy Badger add-on

[FreedomPoster]

I am not a reddit fan, don’t go there much, but there is useful information there.

DeGoogle
https://old.reddit.com/r/degoogle/

Lots of useful info on getting Google out of your life.

[steel_resolve]

Exactly. Working at this moment on migrating emails from google to protonmail

[EBH]

the creepy line, just gets creepier every day

Just yesterday it came up in a conversation with my SEO person. Spending hours crafting a good meta description for your webpages...Google will rewrite

Ever wonder why your meta description text (that you add to describe a page) doesn’t show when your site comes up in search results? You’re not alone there; turns out Google rewrites metas 62.78% of the time. They rewrite to get the consumer to click on certain websites/content, supposedly to better match the persons query. LOL.

Check out this article for more.
https://ahrefs.com/blog/meta-description-study/

[sauropod]

Assumes usage of Chrome, Firefox, or Edge?

[Flick Lives]

"This approach effectively hides individuals 'in the crowd' and uses on-device processing to keep a person's web history private on the browser," Google product manager Chetna Bindra explained in unveiling the system called Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC).

Translation. The Google Chrome browser will track your browser history, won't tell you it is doing so, and then lump you into a group based on your browsing.

[FatherofFive]

if everyone started doing ‘illogical’ things online, it would quickly come undone.

You mean like visiting CNN and NPR every day?

[Flick Lives]

“And what is an extreme political view?”

—

That slime former CIA boss Brennen already labeled libertarians as “extremists”. So people who fundamentally believe in less government interference in our lives and who think we should minimize foreign interference; that’s “extremist”.

[nicollo]

In today’s USA, it’s the government by proxy.

Textbook definition of fascism.

[nicollo]

Read this article! As it concludes,

"Google's proposals are bad for independent media owners, bad for independent advertising technology and bad for marketers," coalition director James Rosewell said in a release.

Yep. As a (very) small business owner, all I can say is "damned right."

Btw, ever since I stopped using Amazon, I'm getting far fewer targeted ads. They're a waste of money, anyway, so maybe I'm doing Bezos a favor, but it's nice not to see the active tracking.

Btw, I use private browse and VPN. I only use regular browser for sites that I trust and want the cookie for instant login, such as FR.

[Lazamataz]

Google's motto has changed over time.

1998: DON'T BE EVIL.

2008: WAIT, WAIT: WHAT IS 'EVIL', EXACTLY? LET'S DEFINE 'EVIL'.

2018: WE BUILD KILLER ROBOTS.

[cgbg]

An extreme political view is any view that differs from the billionaire owned mass media and government propaganda.

Since that may change daily or even hourly, some poor folks who were towing the party line on Monday may wake up on Tuesday as “dangerous extremists”.

[SKI NOW]

In today’s USA, it’s the government by proxy. Major corporations willingly do the job that the government is afraid to let us know that it does. The government gives those corporations permission, and support.

And many times by threat of force.

Either way though the definition of facism. The autocratic control of capitalism.

[Vaduz]

Google is weaning itself off user-tracking “cookies”
AdBolckers are working just fine they try another scam.