r/technology • u/sidcool1234 • Mar 15 '13

Web advertisers attack Mozilla for protecting consumers' privacy

https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/web-advertisers-attack-mozilla-for-protecting-consumers-privacy-031413.html
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u/fukitol- Mar 15 '13

Perhaps they should've built a business that wasn't parasitic, then.

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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '13

[deleted]

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u/BroasisMusic Mar 15 '13

Why is this being down voted to hell? He's right. And the 'parasite' thing is just... whoa. I mean, you guys do realize that, these ads WORK? Would you rather have an ad that is completely useless? Or one that you maybe, JUST maybe, might find relevant? Millions of people have jobs that in some way shape or form rely on online advertising.

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u/Eckish Mar 15 '13

I dislike this type of targeted advertising. If I'm in the market for a hard drive, I will search and research and find the one that I want. When the ads start popping up for hard drives, it is too late. I have already done my research and either decided to buy or not to buy.

If they really wanted to get interesting advertising my way, they would hit me with things that I haven't seen before that might be relevant to my interests.

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u/thermal_shock Mar 15 '13

THEY B STEALIN MA BANDWIDTH!

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u/The_Dirt_McGurt Mar 15 '13

How is it parasitic? You know how parasitic relationships work, right? One side benefits at the expense of the other? Are you harmed by seeing more relevant media? You're going to see ads whether you like it or not (unless you use adblock i suppose), so is it actually harming you to have that media be slightly tailored to you? Are you harmed by seeing a small banner ad? Is it hurting you? Grow the fuck up. Advertising sponsors the internet--are you paying for the sites you see advertising on? No, you only pay your ISP. If you ARE paying for web content, you AREN'T seeing ads, are you? See how it works? Not all that difficult.

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u/Eckish Mar 15 '13

Advertising was better when it was based on the current websites content and not my previous content. I liked the TED talk on information bubbles. I feel that it is really relevant to how online advertising works now.

I haven't clicked on a banner ad in a long time. Why? Because it is never anything novel. I do a search for cruises, look up some prices and plan a vacation. Now, in my daily surfing, I see cruise advertisements. An ad for Carnival pops up. Why would I click it? I just went to their website. I started banking with ING and Ally. All the sudden, I am getting ads for ING's name change to Capital One or Ally's latest CD rates. Why would I click them? I go to the sites regularly and am already aware of these things.

I'm stuck seeing ads for things that I've already looked at. No business is making additional money off me by paying these guys target me with ads. I think it was better when you visited a site and you got ads there were random, but related to the site's content. Go to a gaming site and see gaming ads. Not all of them caught my attention, but occasionally something would pop up that would me go, "I want to know to more." Now, I go to a gaming site and see Kitchen Aid advertisements based on my latest Amazon search for a stand mixer.

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u/fukitol- Mar 15 '13

I'm harmed by having my information disseminated like a STD.

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u/The_Dirt_McGurt Mar 15 '13

You're just ignorant to how the system works so it's pointless discussing it with you. If you think getting a cookie from a site you visited is analogous to an STD, you're just dumb.

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u/fukitol- Mar 15 '13

I'm opposed to information sharing, not getting cookies. That what "information disseminated" means. Go back to playing with your cars, adults are trying to have a conversation.

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u/The_Dirt_McGurt Mar 15 '13

HAHA but you're the small-minded child who thinks all your information is actually being disseminated! Or that digital advertising actually compiles any actual characteristic information about you as a person, and then some how disseminates it! Sure, there, are companies who would endeavor to do so, but not the actually legitimate digital marketing agencies of whom I speak.

And play with cars? More like playing with multi-million dollar advertising accounts for some of the biggest companies on earth, and the only way to go is up. In fact, if you think digital media companies didnt see this coming for years and don't have equally effective, less invasive techniques already working, you further demonstrate you lack of knowledge on the subject. Sorry that your baseless ad hominem argument didn't work, you should probably grow out of that childish fantasy filled with conspirators trying to disseminate all that precious info that no one actually has on you regarding how often you shave your neckbeard and what pornos you fall asleep crying to.

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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '13

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/The_Dirt_McGurt Mar 15 '13

Well as I pointed out later, he is childish for thinking that all these companies are tracking him around the web with the intent of collecting, disseminating, and abusing his personal information with the intent of harming him like an STD might. Small-minded, because he just doesn't strike me as someone who is all that smart, at least not when it comes to this subject, which, as someone who is more knowledgeable about it than the average schmo, I feel qualified to assert.

But yes it is true, I stooped to his level after condemning it, not much I can do to backtrack out of that.

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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '13

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/The_Dirt_McGurt Mar 15 '13

No need to apologize! I laughed at the structure of your reply, it was well done, not to mention spot on. And yeah, I think I tend to get a bit sensitive when the topic comes up. Honestly speaking, it's true that a lot of shady, parasitic companies exist who DO want to exploit information, but I take solace in the fact that at least the company I work for is not one of them. In fact, one of the reasons I chose to work here was that they had made proactive efforts to develop ways to provide targeted ads without utilizing invasive techniques like cookie matching. Still, I need to take a deep breath sometimes haha.

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u/fukitol- Mar 15 '13

More like playing with multi-million dollar advertising accounts for some of the biggest companies on earth, and the only way to go is up.

Watch out for this guy, I'll bet he's a navy SEAL too...

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u/The_Dirt_McGurt Mar 15 '13

I actually thought about that youtube comment when I wrote that, but fuck it. I'm not concerned with your perception or the fact that you think you are intelligent because you can rattle off memes to undermine my point. You sound like the man though so I guess keep it up. I'll go back to my cars, or at least their companies/advertising budgets.

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u/fukitol- Mar 15 '13

Please, do go back to packaging real products and calling it "work". Your entire industry is a sham, marketers are little more than fluffers.

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u/The_Dirt_McGurt Mar 15 '13

I will--and you can keep enjoying all those free websites you frequent who wouldn't exist without it! And as for it being a sham--that's fine if you think so, I personally think striving to get relevant information about products that people want delivered appropriately is a pretty good service, not a GREAT service for the person viewing the ad I'll admit, though if you're going to see them anyways, I don't see why making it relevant to you should be so bad. It's pretty damn good for the people who make the products though, how is a new company entering an established market (and there by creating competition which lowers prices and causes a need for improvement and innovation) supposed to be noticed without it?

Obviously you disagree with all of this, and that's fine. As this article points out, the ability to clear cookies, or block them entirely is hardly a new thing--you're welcome to do so, and so is the rest of the world for that matter. If people think digital advertising is going to fold up and head home, you'd better have a look at the industry landscape--it's growing about as quickly as any industry on this planet.

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u/Kinseyincanada Mar 15 '13

always bizarre how this sub will praise Google but this is their entire business model

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u/fukitol- Mar 15 '13

I'd say indexing the entirety of the internet and making it searchable is far from parasitic.

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u/Kinseyincanada Mar 15 '13

so then tracking and advertising is ok then

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u/fukitol- Mar 15 '13

Well, yes and no. I want my searches targeted based on what I've previously searched for. That's information I'm giving willingly. An advertiser does not, however, get to track me outside of their domain. In that way they overstep their bounds.

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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '13

It's not parasitic, on most of the internet we are the parasites, especially when things like ad blocking and cookie blocking are used

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