I might have misunderstood this but is Android really trying to push this as tracking as a privacy upgrade, simply because it let's us choose which of our interests we want advertisers to have access to?
this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2024
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Privacy
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Yeah, so, Google already has this data about you. What they're doing here is trying to reduce the specificity of information given to advertisers about your behaviors, and simultaneously give you the ability to never inform specific third parties about your interest in the specific topics you choose
I see this as a good thing. They were literally already getting and using all of this data. In that case I'd much rather have some control over who knows which things about me, rather than leaving it entirely up to Google
It's not a good thing. It's performative and designed to trick people into thinking that Google cares about their privacy and overlook the fact that Google are using their browser/search monopoly to extend their control over the advertising industry.
IMO Google is like Joe Biden. Not good, but infinitely better than the shit show that is the alternative (in the context of advertisers specifically)
Yes google has this information - because we logged in and gave it to them - now they need our permission to wall it off from other businesses, thus creating THE revenue stream of the internet.
So, if you’ll just click this little button here.
This little one. Right there.
It also helps Google form more of a monopoly on your info, since it keeps companies like Facebook from forming as accurate of a profile on you.
It's weird that we've arrived at "Don't let Google have a monopoly on personally identifying you for advertising purposes!"
It's something they wanted all along, but it's quite the PR stunt to further monopolize their control of the internet by removing all third party cookies, killing competition in the process, in order to implement their own custom solution in Chrome and Android (netting them the biggest browser share and mobile device share respectively). All while calling it private, too.
It's a good thing for Google. Who now controls all the data.
It's good for consumers, if you trust Google and enjoy them having an effective Monopoly on ads
For the non tech person choosing to be as private as possible, can you just turn it off and it not collect anything? Sorry for the naive question. I honestly do not know the answer.
Arguably more stuff is going to be collected and sent to more people if it's turned off. But it will be in a more piecemeal though likely more personally identifiable way. At least that's what Google would definitely argue
I genuinely don't know if the counterfactual is worse than the actual here. Either way bad.