this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2023

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Google wants you to agree to a program to reduce web tracking by just letting Google have all your browsing data directly (meow.social)

submitted 1 year ago by self@awful.systems to c/techtakes@awful.systems

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[–] ArtVandelay@lemmy.world 83 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The absolute most insidious thing about this isn't the technology at use here. It's the complete and utter normalization of ads. Google doesn't even consider a world where ads don't exist, they're pushing the narrative that they are a normal aspect of life, and they're offering to help make that more relevant to everyday users. They're normalizing ads in front of your eyeballs 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

Christ I hate Google.

[–] bitofhope@awful.systems 37 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Heading towards a very enjoyable and economically sustainable future where the advertising industry is somehow bigger than the goods and services industries that supposedly need its services. But before I get into that, speaking of goods and services, this comment is sponsored by OpeRaid Shadow VPN, the only energy drink/razor blade delivery service for Pro Gamers…

[–] 200fifty@awful.systems 19 points 1 year ago (2 children)

For real though, we must have reached Peak Ad at some point, or at least we're deep into the realm of diminishing returns. This can't go on forever, right? I mean there's a finite number of things that need to be advertised and a finite number of people with a finite amount of time and patience to look at ads. How long until it all collapses?

[–] bitofhope@awful.systems 16 points 1 year ago

The market can remain irrational for longer than you and I can remain ~~solvent~~ sane.

[–] jonhendry@iosdev.space 7 points 1 year ago

@200fifty @bitofhope

As long as companies can post chum ads that look like news articles but are completely false or imply nasty false things about a celebrity, there will be ads.

I’m always astounded by how shit internet ads are. Stuff that wouldn’t have passed muster in the Weekly World News.

[–] the_post_of_tom_joad@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 year ago

I drank my verification can but i can't find the continue button.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 year ago

Yeah, die a hero or live long enough to become the evil mastermind...

I used to love google, way back when they used that "do not evil". Times have changed.

[–] 200fifty@awful.systems 71 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I like how the assumption seems to be that the thing users object to about "websites track your browsing history around the web in order to show you targeted ads" is... the "websites" part

[–] self@awful.systems 28 points 1 year ago

holy fuck, that’s such a good description of the shitty marketing tactic google is trying here. they’re shifting focus away from the awful shit they’re doing more of to something that doesn’t matter

[–] Sabre363@sh.itjust.works 56 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

"Chrome is finding new ways to increase tracking and keep you even if you want to leave. Chrome also steals your interests and prevents you from managing them. Then, sites you visit can buy your interests from Chrome and force feeds you ads."

There I fixed it.

[–] fasterandworse@awful.systems 46 points 1 year ago (1 children)

When I worked in agencies you could pick the suits that had lost touch with reality by how much they seemed to believe that targeted ads are useful enough to be some kind of public service. Now google use the same rhetoric to justify user tracking

[–] self@awful.systems 25 points 1 year ago

on the engineering side, I keep having to turn down executive feature requests with “this is functionally indistinguishable from malware”

[–] BobbyBandwidth@lemmy.world 37 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I always tell my kids, as a consumer, I am SO grateful to have been better served by more relevant ads.

[–] dditty@lemm.ee 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How else would you have known about products you already bought a few days prior? 🤣

[–] Anders429@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

I'm so glad they remind me so I don't forget and accidentally buy them again!

[–] bitofhope@awful.systems 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes! The thing I love most about browsing without adblock is seeing endless ads for tech conferences about programming languages I don't know, on platforms I don't use, held on continents where I don't live. I especially love the culty business lingo they use for pitching these conferences at me. No I'm not "obsessed" with anything my job involves and I'm frankly worried for anyone who is.

[–] Theharpyeagle@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Now see you've got it all wrong. This solves all your problems: Google knows what you do, where you live, and where you go, so they'll always show you ads for relevant conferences with the most reasonable adjusted prices.

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[–] Rooty@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

When I'm logged in the youtube app I get TV ads for women's hair products. I am a bald guy.

[–] bitofhope@awful.systems 34 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Sites you visit can ask Chrome for your interests to show you ads.

Nifty. Let's ask what my browser has to offer instead (Firefox + uBlock Origin).

Sites can not show you ads.

Hmm that's a tough choice hmm.

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 5 points 1 year ago

But think of all the great ads you're missing out on!

[–] argv_minus_one@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago

WEI: “Hold my beer.”

[–] Clent@lemmy.world 28 points 1 year ago (16 children)

STOP USING CHROME!

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[–] Jakdracula@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This year so far I’ve deleted Reddit, twitter and now google.

[–] self@awful.systems 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

go for fucking broke and get rid of windows before it goes SaaS. it’s less painful than it sounds because daily driving linux will break your brain’s ability to feel pain

[–] naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

In the caverns of systemd, where the audio pulses and you are surrounded by the mad scribings of a thousand journals; you will lose yourself, and find something else. You will come back both more, and less.

[–] dgerard@awful.systems 11 points 1 year ago (7 children)

i tried using windows for a week when i was without my own laptop and had to borrow the loved one's spare gaming rig. even just living in firefox, i hate windows with the fire of a thousand suns. and this was a relatively well behaved win10.

[–] self@awful.systems 6 points 1 year ago

much like vampirism, daily driving Linux makes exposure to windows feel like turning to ash in the rays of an uncaring but aggressively annoying sun (the sun is also siphoning your data)

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[–] froztbyte@awful.systems 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

don't worry about losing yourself though - everything defaults to ext4 and the ubuntu devs have pinkypromised that it's no longer totally awful dogshit that you regretfully notice only after some time and you've loaded significant data onto the system

[–] naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

what's wrong with ext4? I'm stupid and use it for everything. Should I not?

[–] self@awful.systems 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

it’s fine and I use it for extremely performance-focused (see: linux gaming) and embedded systems, but LVM+ext4 is generally a better idea and I use ZFS for systems where extreme reliability and storage flexibility are important (so just my NAS machine really)

[–] froztbyte@awful.systems 3 points 1 year ago

it irks me that linux-zfs still has no good native encryption outcome. I had to do zfs on multiple mdraid mirrors, but ugh. that you directly lose out on the zfs insight into block device health there... big sad

[–] naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 year ago

thanks. I am setting up a NAS atm so will use your opinion as a cue for further reading

[–] froztbyte@awful.systems 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

my response is halfway partly a shitpost (but only very partly)

if you're a general user, it's probably fine. if you're someone who cares about specific properties of things, it's probably less than ideal and something else would suit you better - but you'd probably already know that

some details: ext2 and ext3 had a lot of journal-damage/restoration issues, along with fairly severe density issues over much longer term use. the design characteristics also didn't lend itself well to higher performance (and this started showing a lot as the SSD age came around). ext4 has improved somewhat on the first and third parts, and soooorta has dealt with the second if you squint

[–] Jakdracula@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

I haven’t used windoze since the 1990s

[–] future_synthetic@awful.systems 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ah yes, Google the benevolent gatekeeper to my user interest metrics, surely not to sell them to anyone who is willing to pay the smallest pittance upon mere request.

[–] froztbyte@awful.systems 7 points 1 year ago

some times wonder if it's worth building a service where someone pays a pittance as a test fee and then gets presented with whatever you can get together on them via RTB ads

because just showing someone the amount of data carried in an RTB packet is too disconnected from reality (which gets closer to "the bidder probably has your house geolocated just from the ad data on that one add the android app shoved in your face without warning"

(of course, the RTB houses would likely want to kill such a service because it would show just how much shit they tie together)

[–] smileyhead@discuss.tchncs.de 14 points 1 year ago

Example how even with much criticism Google is going to do their ideas anyway.

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

A thought I had a while back with google (and any other tech company I guess) with the same emotion that Rorschach has just before Dr. Manhattan disintegrates him: if they’ve already won, aka achieved virtual dominance over how we experience the web, then fine. Fucking break me with your personalised ads. Show me deep cut references from my personal life as emotional leverage. Orchestrate my nightmares with jingles. Show me the logical end of advertising. Just fucking end the human experience entirely since you’ve monetised all our dignity away anyway. Anything less than that is just an insult to my ability to hope.

Anyway yeah I hate this. Big ick

[–] dylanTheDeveloper@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

Google Chrome runs like constipation on android

[–] DrQuint@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I wouldn't mind filling out a survey for this type of stuff. Then I only tell them and they only know what I want them to. But they want the whole hand not the finger.

Plus I wouldn't see the ads anyways. Only reason why I even forward that option, it's that I know I can (still) sidestep the important part.

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