An update on Mozilla’s PPA experiment and how it protects user privacy while testing cutting edge technologies to improve the open web.

  • Vincent@feddit.nlOP
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    2 months ago

    Mozilla by itself doesn’t have the influence to change it, but with Mozilla’s help (i.e. this experiment), others do. Specifically, legislators can have more freedom to implement strict privacy-protecting measures if they have proof that an alternative is available that doesn’t cost lots of voters their jobs.

    But you can’t provide that proof if you don’t run the experiment.

    • LWD@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      Wait, what solution are you proposing? That every browser becomes a centralized point of data collection for advertisement companies, and that the government mandates it?!

      Google and Brave already want to do that, Mozilla is just stepping into the fray as a browser with less than 3% of a market share. There is nothing compelling to advertisers about a proprietary Mozilla solution.

      • Vincent@feddit.nlOP
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        2 months ago

        No, of course not :) I am proposing that governments curb privacy-invasive tracking, i.e. that the only way advertisers will have left to measure the impact of their ads, is non-invasive methods like PPA.

        • LWD@lemm.ee
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          2 months ago

          Why would a Firefox fan endorse the state coming down on the side of a Facebook made proposal? I remember when Mozilla used to be about fighting big tech corporations, not empowering them through state-mandated monopolies.

          • Vincent@feddit.nlOP
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            2 months ago

            Because the proposal itself appears to be good? I am not tribal enough to reject world peace if Facebook proposes it.

            I also don’t see how the proposal would lead to a Facebook monopoly.

            • LWD@lemm.ee
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              2 months ago

              If the Boeing Corporation started building “world peace” weapons silently into their commercial aircraft without telling anybody, I would question their commitment to world peace.

              When Mozilla, an AdTech company, builds extra advertising data collection into Firefox, I question their commitment to privacy and not simply selling ads.