Firefox has a new setting that you may want to disable. Web ad tracking is on by default in FF128. Read the blurb to understand what it is all about. Go to 'how to turn off PPA' in the attached link... https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/privacy-preserving-attribution
Perhaps well intended, but it doesn't feel good. Which companies make use of this? And do they really stop tracking me (in other ways)?
I think it is too early to other companies to join, but I guess advertisers will be eventually. It is important to have a distinction between advertiser and other parts of behavioral tracking ecosystem like data brokers etc Some tracking companies will probably track you until they go broke. And at least some of them will go broke when new way of ad placement will be in place. Personally I am mildly optimistic about this, so I will keep it intact on some of my profiles.
After reading the linked article, I am scratching my head. Firefox does not have the market share to do anything about this issue. Companies will continue to invest in ad tracking technologies that chrome based browsers use, due to chrome's dominant market share. Instead of wasting their time developing standards like these, Firefox's management should spend their time researching and developing solutions to increase Firefox's market share first.
It seems for me this is an attempt to implement Google's Privacy Sandbox. If Google disables third party cookies support then any browser would have to implement it, if they want website owners to support browser. I don't think i.e. free news websites will support any browser that's not support IT, because they need to somehow make money
Remember Mozilla's biggest agreement was with Google in 2005 (an ad company)- it funded most of FF development - without it, FF would not exist, so they have always relied on ads to sustain their existence, alongside user $contributions, but the latter alone has never been enough to sustain FF development, maintenance and employee salaries/benefits. Also, management have been burning through money on projects that have not pleased their users. The bottom line is that online user surveillance has a myriad of other uses besides serving up ads, e.g. AI feeding & profiteering is a biggie.
Not being a chrome user I was completely unaware of this Privacy Sandbox initiative from Google. After reading up on it, it now makes sense why Firefox is implementing their Privacy Preserving Attribution, because if chrome based browsers switch to this Google initiative, Firefox will have to switch to something similar or they will lose web compatibility.
If you want to disable the new PPA feature (on FF) on Android... Enable about:config by visiting chrome://geckoview/content/config.xhtml In the search box, type aboutConfig and enable it. Now to disable PPA, go to about:config and search for dom.private-attribution.submission.enabled and set it to false. I do not use FF on Android - I got these instructions from an infosec user. Responders have confirmed it works. NB: aboutConfig is correct on line 2.
Thanks. This is enough to open about:config on FF Android stable. On beta and nightly one can just use about:config.
I will still rank Firefox above Edge and Chrome for protecting user privacy. And since now that Google has killed their Privacy Sandbox Initiative, I do not believe Firefox will move ahead with their Privacy Preserving Attribution in future. Firefox's market share is so low that they cannot set a new web standard. They will lose all web compatibility if they did.
Thanks for that thought. You may be right. By the way, regarding this "Privacy-Preserving Attribution" that this thread is about, or "Website Advertising Preferences", and the "Allow websites to perform privacy-preserving ad measurement" setting, did anyone notice something changed with Firefox version 128.0.2? I don't think I saw it mentioned here at Wilders. If "Firefox Data Collection and Use" is disabled, "Allow websites to perform privacy-preserving ad measurement" is disabled automatically. If "Firefox Data Collection and Use" is disabled, in Firefox 128.0.2 and up, the "Allow websites to perform privacy-preserving ad measurement" is now grayed out. That was not the case when 128.0 was released. See: "Did the advertising prefs "feature" get disabled? It's grayed out for me and I can't turn it on even if I wanted to." https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/1ean4ar/did_the_advertising_prefs_feature_get_disabled/ --> "If you are opted out of Telemetry you were automatically opted out of "privacy preserving attribution" this was always true, but there was a bug in the GUI, so it wasn't clear. Now that 128.02 is released, that bug has been fixed, so it now shows the correct status." https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/1ean4ar/comment/len4oh7/
Why, exactly, would not implementing PPA affect Firefox's web compatibility? AdTech providers neither design nor test websites, and they certainly don't demand publishers make their websites specific-browser compatible. Even if they did, why would they do so for Firefox? A browser with <5% market share, who's userbase almost entirely consists of ad block users who are ideologically opposed to advertising. Hell, even supporters of PPA openly admit to blocking ads everywhere they can, which means PPA will never generate any reports, thus proving to adtech providers that Firefox users are hostile towards even legitimately private initiatives related to advertising. Firefox already has thousands of web compatibility issues, and that's solely due to its market share, not because it's not placating adtech enough.
@Arequire I think you are exagerating number of Firefox users using ad blocker, and some of them use ad blockers that don't block ads completely or allow website to display popup demanding user to turn off ad block. Because publishers want to make money or at least cover cost of website operation, and they frequently do so by placing technology from 3rd party ad companies. If 3rd party cookies would be out, and PPA won't be in then Firefox users would become only cost generators aka Leeches. No such thing as a free lunch
PPA was supposed to be a replacement for cross tracking cookies. But now since Google is not going ahead with it, and will continue using cross tracking cookies, Firefox with their low market share cannot implement PPA on their own. Companies will continue using cookies and websites will start breaking, and becoming incompatible with Firefox.
And now with MV3 introduction and neutering of ad-blockers and other privacy focused extensions, Chrome has made user privacy even worse, as majority of user tracking and spying is done though ads.
That might be true. Firefox is still calling PPA an experimental feature, so changes are to be expected.
Testing PPA doesn't mean abandoning 3rd party cookies. They may coexist. My understanding is that Google halted project, but not canceled it completely. They may resume it in one form or another. Maybe other player will step in like Brave or Safari and join, who knows?
In a situation like this we have to remember that Google is first and foremost an advertising company. Everything else that Google does is just a means to that end. Chrome browser is just a tool to ensure that targeted ads reach the consumers. Google will never do anything that jeopardizes that end goal. It is in Google's interest to have cross tracking cookies. Their Privacy Sandbox limited consumer tracking, making it detrimental to their advertising business, so it had to go. In this Privacy Sandbox's case, Google's left hand was actually fighting its right hand, or to be more precise, Google's left pinky was fighting the rest of the body, and the pinky lost. I don't think the Privacy Sandbox Initiative will come back again, but who knows, it is Google after all, they are known to flip-flop.
Oh for sure, I believe Firefox is not as bad as Edge and Chrome. But why enable this setting by default? Seems like Firefox is getting very sneaky, they portrait themselves as being privacy friendly, but then they pull of this shady stuff. I would rather trust a browser like Vivaldi. Exactly, there is no excuse for this. Let's not forget, Firefox makes $500 million a year because of their deal with Google. That's why they implemented this feature, because they are already blocking third party cookies, and need to find a way to keep Google happy.
Probably because PPA is designed to be a replacement for cross-site cookies, and cross-site cookies are enabled by default.
Brave has no incentive to join since they have their own "privacy-preserving" ad system that pays users who opt in. Brave has already demonstrated its willingness to forge its own path code-wise, e.g. its built-in adblocker, commitment to preserve its limited version of MV2 (at least for the time being), etc.
Yes, I know. However Google, as a company faces several risks. Their Chrome browser is one of many browsers available on the browser market. It is the most popular desktop browser, but it can lose its user share to others. And every other major desktop/laptop browser has* some 3rd tracking prevention built-in. Losing user share to any of them is a hit to their 3rd-party cookies ad business. Second kind of risk is regulatory risk. If some privacy law regarding user tracking by brokers and ad companies passes in a region they make substantial portion of their revenue, then they would need to deploy plan B. Privacy Sandbox is their design and they would be the first company to adapt to it, obviously. Think about it like a pole position in F1 in next-gen online ad economy. *Edge has it enabled by default only in private mode I believe. One can enable it in regular mode by few clicks in settings. Firefox and Safari have it enabled in both "modes" by default.
