Personal blog for Don Marti
Previously: Arguments for the attribution cartel One of the arguments for the attribution cartel is that in-browser attribution tracking will somehow displace other forms of ad measurement. Because reasons, I guess. Or because the cartel members believe that they can convince people that everyone else’s ad data collection needs consent—or at least those fake “consent” dialogs that the Irish…
previously: paleoenshittification and a path to adoption for MyTerms The European privacy organization noyb has filed a complaint over a common web annoyances. This one is a little more extreme than most: 1,741 “informed” consents with one click?! GDPR complaint against dict.cc filed . Who has 1,741 “partners”? Anyway, this claimed “consent” to data collection by all these “partners” is stored in…
In The Hidden Cost of China’s Free A.I. , Tal Feldman writes, A.I. models are very different from the usual inexpensive imports we buy from China. These products must promote the interests of the Chinese government. Propaganda and false claims are baked into them. … Whoever supplies the world’s A.I. will shape how the world thinks. As these models get smarter and more autonomous, we are…
The prophet Jeremiah once asked , Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously? Every generation of people perceives a collapse in ethical behavior, and if the trust level of human civilization had really been sliding that badly for so long— the book of Jeremiah was written 2600 years ago —nothing would be left for us by now. That…
Programmatic Platforms Champion Transparency, But Not If It Means Giving Activists Access by Anthony Vargas. (I said I would let you know when it’s safe to turn off your ad blocker , and nope, still wretched hive of scum and villainy. This story is about good ads sneaked onto bad sites—but every time that happens, it leaves some good site with an ad slot to fill, so more of the bad ads get served.…
The attribution cartel is in Digiday, in a series by Ronan Shields. WTF: W3C’s Attribution API? W3C Attribution API prompts debate over web measurement future Fears of Big Tech bias underpin debates around W3C’s Attribution API I’m quoted, about the proposal’s biggest privacy problem . “You get this paradoxical increase in user privacy risks, because the proposal obfuscates and rewards attribution…
I have been starting Firefox with temporary throwaway profiles (for research and testing purposes), and wrote this to make it a little faster. #!/usr/bin/env python3 from os import path from subprocess import run from sys import argv from tempfile import TemporaryDirectory # Script to run Firefox with a temporary profile. # Takes one optional argument, URL to open. # Reference #…
previously: A BATNA for MyTerms Looking back at the history of the IT industry, it’s possible to find instances where vendors did to their customers some of the same kinds of shenanigans that oligopoly companies are doing to everyone today. An early example of paleoenshittification was the decision by Sun Microsystems to remove the C compiler from its Solaris operating system. An OS, as a…
Normally when I go on about the attribution cartel I try to focus on the privacy problem , because even though the anticompetitive side is important, some antitrust regulator somewhere will pick up on it eventually. And this is not a situation where antitrust and privacy are in tension. As Robin Berjon wrote, Competition & Privacy: It’s Both Or Nothing . Sometimes, though, I’m just all, damn,…
Apple as a company has a lot of advantages. They have their pick of retail locations suppliers employees Whether they want to hire an engineer who can design an efficient, safe power supply, or get the exact right countertop for the company’s convenient location right in Grand Central Station, Apple has more optionality than anybody. But the one place that Apple is on an equal footing with the…
In Betting on Democracy: Notes from the Fight for “Article 88b” , Aleksandre Zardiashvili writes: Whatever the outcome of the Google Adtech case, Google is already creating other opportunities to gain even more access to data, increase its power, and evade the rules. The next opportunity could be advertising measurement and attribution. If privacy signals succeed, advertising will need to be…
Previously: there are many paradoxes but this one is mine The attribution cartel came up on the Monopoly Report podcast again: Alan Chapell interviews Mozilla’s Martin Thomson . Subjects covered include Attribution proposal’s lower funnel bias and the fraud problem. Listen to the whole thing (or read the transcript). And they almost get to why the proposal is a privacy menace. We understand that…
2 lbs. yellow or red potatoes 1 large or 2 medium onions 1 head garlic 6-8 sprigs fresh rosemary Olive oil 1 tbsp. kosher salt Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Wash the potatoes and remove any bad spots but leave as much skin as possible on. Chop into bite-sized pieces. Peel the onion and chop into large chunks. Peel the garlic cloves. Pull rosemary leaves off the sticks, discard sticks, and…
The Internet needs more You by Arun Ravindran. The indie web is slowly staging a comeback. People are returning to personal sites, RSS readers, and hand-curated blogrolls — not out of nostalgia, but because the algorithmic feed has failed them. SoftBank’s untitled AI goose game — eggs do not lay eggs by David Gerard. SoftBank was also the main backer of WeWork, which was almost as stupid as…
I went to the SB 690 hearing at the California Assembly Privacy And Consumer Protection committee meeting this week. Opponents of SB 690 say that, in its original form, the bill would have removed the right of victims to sue over heinous abuses by Big Tech. Supporters of SB 690 say that without it, small businesses are at legal risk for some ordinary online marketing practices. The hard part is…