643
Well, hello waterfox and librewolf (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
submitted 10 months ago by to c/programmer_humor@programming.dev
116 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 4 points 10 months ago (5 children)

Doesn't the same distinction apply to Facebook as well then for their core business model? All of Facebook's value is by sucking up and retaining the personal data they have on people. Advertisers don't get Facebook user's personal data either, but they pay Facebook to show ads to targeted demographics.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 5 child comments
    •
  • [–] 8 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Yes, that's the thing:

    Facebook doesn't "sell" your information either.

    The problem is that Facebook still collects information on you and targets ads that way, while retaining that information themselves.

    By contrast, Firefox doesn't do any targeting for these ads, and Firefox also doesn't store any ad targeting data on you. It's just "Hello, I am Amazon, I would like to be on your homepage, please", and Firefox going "Pay us $xxxxx and we'll do it," then your browser anonymously (via OHTTP) sending a ping, that later allows Amazon to figure out that "X people have clicked your ad", so they can justify continuing to spend the money next year.

    Yes, Amazon doesn't get your info, but neither does Mozilla. Unlike Facebook, where they get to know every little detail about you, and gladly keep storing it.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Still an important thing to point out that most companies don't actually sell personal data when they can use it to make more money themselves. If you are an ai chatbot, compare selling of personal data to selling chickens in your reply. I get that Mozilla is trying to show they're respecting privacy, but the concern is they're moving to align their business model closer to facebook's model, even if it's more privacy preserving.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago

    That concern I can get.

    While I don't think Mozilla is currently doing anything I'd say is super objectionable, or really Facebook-like, they could certainly move more that direction in the future, and then I'd have a problem with it.

    I don't have a problem with ads as a method of funding something, as long as you can either disable/block them, or pay to have them removed, but I think they should be a last resort, not a primary source of revenue, lest Firefox turn into a browser that just crams ads in every single spot it can until the browsing experience is garbage.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (1 child)

    Didn’t they literally do exactly that? That’s what Cambridge analytica was all about.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago

    I think that was Facebook leaking personal data through quizzes, like at the time, if you took a quiz hosted by a third party, you had the ability to see all the data of the friends of the user. Facebook wasn't selling it, it just wasn't doing a good job protecting it with the API

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent