Re:Nobody is joining Google's FLoC
by 1vuio0pswjnm7 on Friday April 16, 2021 @06:54PM
(#26839929)
"It seems like many consider the alternative to FLoC to be an anonymous web where content can be accessed without login."
I consider the alternative to FLoC as no FLoC. I consider the alternative to 3rd party cookies as no cookies. I can read HN just fine without 3rd party cookies. Or FLoC.
Developers, paid from advertising budgets, may be eager to comment and share their opinions on these matters but, let's be honest, they themselves are making such comments via a website (HN) that has no requirement for 3rd party cookies. What is good for the goose is good for the gander.^1
If cookies must be enabled to make a purchase or login, then I will enable cookies and accept a cookie, but only from that website and only for that purpose. However the requirement for cookies in these specific situations^2 has been taken as license for "modern" browser authors to make "cookies enabled" a default setting. This has been abused to no end.
1. I am commenting as an end user. I do not rely on the existence of online advertising to make a living.
2. It seems to me that the real problem here, the one which we should be trying to solve, is that web developers have no available solution for "shopping carts" and logins other than to use cookies. (Maybe the web was not designed for commerce.) Instead, Google is proposing a "solution" that makes business better for Google and its customers (advertisers, not end users), while making business more difficult for any company hoping to gain insight into end user browsing habits, except Google of course.
"... an anonymous web where content can be accessed without login."
It is always interesting how comenters make the jump from one company's software (e.g., Google Chrome) or website (e.g., Instagram) to "the web".
The web is more than a handful of "tech" company monopolies that rely on advertising to exist. It is a medium, not a set of commercialised content. I starting using the web before Google or Facebook existed. Before user contributed content was usurped by "tech" companies to sell online advertising services.
Today, I still get nearly 100% of content from the web without ever logging in to any website. Without Javascript, and without cookies.
If one takes comments like the parent at face value, then this should be impossible.
I consider the alternative to FLoC as no FLoC. I consider the alternative to 3rd party cookies as no cookies. I can read HN just fine without 3rd party cookies. Or FLoC.
Developers, paid from advertising budgets, may be eager to comment and share their opinions on these matters but, let's be honest, they themselves are making such comments via a website (HN) that has no requirement for 3rd party cookies. What is good for the goose is good for the gander.^1
If cookies must be enabled to make a purchase or login, then I will enable cookies and accept a cookie, but only from that website and only for that purpose. However the requirement for cookies in these specific situations^2 has been taken as license for "modern" browser authors to make "cookies enabled" a default setting. This has been abused to no end.
1. I am commenting as an end user. I do not rely on the existence of online advertising to make a living.
2. It seems to me that the real problem here, the one which we should be trying to solve, is that web developers have no available solution for "shopping carts" and logins other than to use cookies. (Maybe the web was not designed for commerce.) Instead, Google is proposing a "solution" that makes business better for Google and its customers (advertisers, not end users), while making business more difficult for any company hoping to gain insight into end user browsing habits, except Google of course.
"... an anonymous web where content can be accessed without login."
It is always interesting how comenters make the jump from one company's software (e.g., Google Chrome) or website (e.g., Instagram) to "the web".
The web is more than a handful of "tech" company monopolies that rely on advertising to exist. It is a medium, not a set of commercialised content. I starting using the web before Google or Facebook existed. Before user contributed content was usurped by "tech" companies to sell online advertising services.
Today, I still get nearly 100% of content from the web without ever logging in to any website. Without Javascript, and without cookies.
If one takes comments like the parent at face value, then this should be impossible.