this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2024
494 points (87.2% liked)

Privacy

31736 readers
605 users here now

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Related communities

Chat rooms

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] OR3X@lemm.ee 35 points 3 months ago (21 children)
[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip -3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (17 children)

That somehow makes it better?

Edit typo

[–] kersplomp@programming.dev 5 points 3 months ago (5 children)

Yes. The problem with cookies was that they could be used to track and identify you. If this can't do that, then what's the issue?

[–] Lifter@discuss.tchncs.de 13 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Most data can be de-anonymized with some clever tricks. I don't know about Mozilla but the others definitely try to keep it just anonymous enough to later be correlated with the rest of your profile.

Edit: typos

[–] tuhriel@infosec.pub 8 points 3 months ago

Also, it might be annonymized for this dataset, by adding more 'annonymized' datasets stuff can be correlated

[–] minoscopede@lemmy.world 13 points 3 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

The problem is supporting ad networks.

Edit: /s because apparently it wasn't obvious. Anonymous is obviously better.

[–] OR3X@lemm.ee -4 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Mozilla has to generate enough revenue to continue developing their products somehow. It would be nice if donations were enough to cover those development costs but that simply isn't the case. Because of this the ad networks are a necessary "evil".

[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

The setting from the original post is for sites in general, it's not specifically about Mozilla sites. I'm not sure how having this option relates to their revenue, unless Google put it in their search contract with them?

Edit: Wait, I see people mentioning Mozilla acquired an ad company?

[–] laughterlaughter@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)
[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 2 points 3 months ago
[–] blind3rdeye@lemm.ee 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Supporting ad networks is not a 'necessary' evil. There are many not-for-profit organisations that do not use ads for revenue raising.

[–] OR3X@lemm.ee 1 points 3 months ago (2 children)

What would you suggest then? They've been unable to sustain themselves via donations alone.

[–] Atrichum@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

Fire their ceo that they're paying 6 million a year

[–] blind3rdeye@lemm.ee 1 points 3 months ago

When writing my previous post I had started writing a list of suggested strategies; but I changed my mind about posting that. I'm not a member of Mozilla. I don't know what particular challenges they face, and my expertise are not in not-for-profit fundraising. So although I do have ideas, I don't really want to get into a trap of trying to defend my half-arse ideas against people picking them apart. It's beside the point. The point is just that it is achievable, as evidenced by other organisations achieving it.

I will say though that they could at least just mention on the Firefox 'successful update' page that Firefox is supported by donations, and give a link. A lot of people really like Firefox; and I think that if Firefox asked for donations, they would get more donations.

[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago

Anonymous data collection at scale is a myth.

Anonymous data collection on me when assembled will say that I'm a 40-49yo unmarried college-educated male working in one area in a certain industry and living in another area.

Only one person meets all those criteria, and it's me.

[–] laughterlaughter@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago

The issue is that I already knew about cookies. I don't want my browser to phone home (or anywhere else) without my consent.

[–] Contravariant@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

Cookies are a non-issue. They store data only locally and can be edited and removed at will. With third party isolation on by default there's really no reason to worry about them much anymore. And if you do just install cookie auto-delete to clean things up.

This variant is definitely worse because the data is no longer just local.

load more comments (11 replies)
load more comments (14 replies)