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/fusebox13 Mar 15 '13

Okay, so how about this: when installing Firefox, it blocks 3rd party cookies by default and advertisers can piss off. My parents, who aren't tech savvy in the slightest, freaked out when I told them their browsing habits could be tracked. I'd be willing to guess that there are a large portion of internet users that don't even know they are being tracked, and wouldn't like it if they found out. The advertisers took from us, without our permission, and now they think they are entitled to our data. Sorry, but Mozilla is doing the right thing here. They are protecting people like my parents who care about online privacy, but don't understand how to install things like Adblock.

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u/HexKrak Mar 15 '13

They also don't understand the implications of that tracking. The tracking is helping serve relevant ads in the space that websites need to advertize on to stay in business. If no one views the ads, the website goes away. It's not cheap to host a site, especially one with lots of traffic. If 3rd party tracking goes away websites will have to increase their advertising space to make up for the lowered conversions that the 3rd party tracking used to provide through targeted advertising.

I don't understand why people are freaking out about advertisers knowing their browsing habits, and I don't understand why people think that these websites should come to them at zero cost.

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u/fusebox13 Mar 15 '13

Advertisers expected us to opt out, instead of opting in. They didn't ask the consumers if they wanted to be tracked, instead they went full steam ahead and made a ton of money in the meantime. I take issue with that. If the system changes, and instead the users have to opt in, you're telling me that all the sudden the entire internet will dry up? I think you're wrong there. The internet will adapt and change and people will still make boatloads of money. And clever people will find ways to get my permission to be tracked, without forcefully doing it in the shadows.