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Got this notification when I opened Chrome when coming back to my desk after lunch.
"We changed our privacy settings to allow us to snoop on what you're looking at and shove you ads accordingly. Feel free to opt out, but we'll probably opt you back in when you aren't paying attention."
I'm always a bit amused when these sites and apps say things like, "If you turn off ad personalization, the ads you see won't be as useful to you."
My dude, I don't think I've ever willingly clicked on an ad in my entire life. "Personalizing" them won't change that.
I used to sometimes. When there was a simple, clean ad for something I was interested in, I would click through.
Mind you, this was in an era when the internet amounted to strings and cans because I'm a fucking dinosaur. Since then, ads first went obnoxious and loud, then they got plastered everywhere, then they started being invasive.
Fuck ads at this point. There's nothing good in them for us at all.
I don't know, ads were always dog shit. Yeah you had your static banners and what not, but I remember the popup wars from the 90s.
Even if any of these companies were any good at ad targeting, I wouldn't want "personalized" ads anyway cuz I'd just spend more money.
but but but but you'd get something good for it! You would never have missed it, but maybe you just didn't know you wanted it? Come on, I'm sure consuming shit that will make you happy twice for two minutes each (once when clicking buy, once when getting and opening the package) will fill that hole in your soul! Spending money on stuff you don't actually need is good!
(That was sarcasm, if it wasn't clear enough.)
"new privacy feature" and then "sites you visit can determine what you like"
translated: "this new privacy feature reduces the amount privacy you have!!! what a great thing you like!!!"
Idk why the heck you just got downvoted into oblivion for pointing out the irony in google calling this a "privacy feature." Good old reddit moment it seems.
lol it's no worries. actually I have the privilege of being bot-downvoted by CCP sympathizers because of comments on this post https://lemmy.world/post/2338419, there is also the possibility that I’m just an asshole.
It's funny how small incremental changes over the years felt like nothing big was happening and then at some point we all woke up to a world where the largest advertising firm in the world basically is the internet for the vast majority of people. Everyone uses chrome and rarely types in a web address, they just type the name of the thing into Google and trust mommy to show them what's appropriate. They've back doored the entire population into basically what AOL was trying to be 20 years ago.
"we are going to help protect your privacy" from WHO Google? Is it from you? Because it seems like we need protection from you most of all. Constantly being gaslit by mega-corporations is the new American dream. It's okay because they love us, deep down, and we know that even though they don't show it.
It's funny how small incremental changes over the years felt like nothing big was happening and then at some point we all woke up to a world where the largest advertising firm in the world basically is the internet for the vast majority of people.
In a microcosm of the same kind of creeping normalcy, Bethesda charging a few bucks for horse armor in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was once a reach too far, until it wasn't.
Now we have Star Citizen levels of grifting as well as ActiBlizz "buy a currency to get a currency that is leveraged as currency to get credit toward a currency in a battle pass" layer cake grifting.
EDIT: Typo'd on the sequel count.
This is why I use Linux at home, along with TOR and a VPN. I'm not doing anything other than looking up woodworking and camping stuff, but fuck all ya'll for being nosy.
stop using chrome
Well, you see, our work environment is optimized to use chrome so there is really no other choice.
I wouldn't sacrifice my irl income just to tell google to go fuck itself.
I'm already seeing all the ads I want to see.
Fucking. None.
From where comes the idea that personalised ads are good? I hate this timeline.
Google is a large company, they need to pay their employees and server. It's pretty entitled of you to expect them to work for free. /s
I read this everywhere these days. Shilling has become culture.
more choices over ads you see
Who in their right mind want to see ads
"More useful ads" Well the best ads is no ads.
I've never, not once in my life, saw an ad which managed to make me buy something.
It doesn't matter what it's selling. The fact that it's disrupting whatever I'm doing or making my experience worst makes me refuse to buy whatever it's selling, and it doesn't matter how personalized it'll get. I will never be influenced to buy something just because I saw it on an ad.
This feature will literally do nothing for me. I'll still block ads, or if they are unblockable for any reason, I'll just ignore them until they're done.
true, but remember the ads are mostly subconcious. you often wont think about buying something after seeing an ad, but in the back of your mind you might have a slightly better opinion, or mental association to the brand. so next time you go to buy a product your more likely to remember that brand and buy from them. as much as i would like to believe otherwise, no-one is immune to propaganda
Many friends of mine are like saying why would i care i'd rather see ads that are relevant than ones that arent. Like dude i dont want ads at all and i dont want my data to be used to influence my buying behavior.
Wonderful, my day is complete. Thank you Alphabet for providing me a choice in which flavor of dystopian nightmare I'd prefer.
Ah the privacy sandbox that was overwhelming disagreed with, but that Google forced onto the web because they're a monopoly.
Question: if personalized ads are so great, why can't I just go into my google account's settings and put there all the info about me? My income, my interests, ages of my children, my favorite food... Since personalized ads are so good every google users will just fill it in to get the best ads possible, right? Why not give people this option instead of implementing all this trackers?
It really is unfortunate that almost all their users are asleep at the wheel and don't care.
The only time I see ads is when I look into someone else's screen
This must be some new use of the word 'privacy' I wasn't previously aware of.
You should swap to something else. Anything else, tho ideally something that actually respects your privacy like Firefox. If more people did, maybe WEI would not be on the horizon.
> Privacy
> Chrome
Yeah..
Why are you using chrome if you care about things like this?
Fuck google
enhanced privacy
Why does it need to be enhanced? 
I'm poor and I hate stupid bullshit. The only way to personalize ads for me is to make them go away.
Chrome is now - and has been for a while - actively a threat towards its users (on top of being one towards the web itself). Here is a recent list of hostile moves, for example.
In terms of threat towards users Windows 10/11 is even worse, by a large margin - it actively and very aggressively spies on you.
Use firefox and switch to Linux (I suggest Debian), comrade 