this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2023
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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."

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[–] [email protected] 265 points 10 months ago (20 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 10 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] danielbln 25 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago

I was always told clicking on ad's will give you viruses and sign you up to dick medicines

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[–] [email protected] 187 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

"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!!!"

[–] [email protected] 42 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 10 months ago (7 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 128 points 10 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago (2 children)

small incremental changes over the years felt like nothing big was happening and then at some point we all woke up

I (and many others I presume) has been saying Chrome is shit since the beginning. It didn't feel like nothing was happening, it felt like we were slowly getting to the old days of IE and Netscape.

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[–] AWittyUsername 94 points 10 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 84 points 10 months ago (7 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 58 points 10 months ago (2 children)
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[–] Cybermass 67 points 10 months ago (4 children)
[–] [email protected] 34 points 10 months ago

With uBlock origin!

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[–] [email protected] 60 points 10 months ago

I'm already seeing all the ads I want to see.

Fucking. None.

[–] NOT_RICK 55 points 10 months ago (19 children)
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[–] [email protected] 51 points 10 months ago (1 children)

more choices over ads you see

Who in their right mind want to see ads

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[–] [email protected] 49 points 10 months ago

"More useful ads" Well the best ads is no ads.

[–] [email protected] 47 points 10 months ago (3 children)

From where comes the idea that personalised ads are good? I hate this timeline.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 10 months ago (6 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago (7 children)

No I understand why websites show ads. I don't understand why whenever I disable personal ads, I get a message saying "Are you really sure? If you disable this you won't see your favourite ads anymore and only see ads for things you probably don't want to buy. That'd be awful wouldn't it?" and expect me to change my mind because that's definitely not why I wanted to disable it in the first place.

They act as if people like to see ads because then they can buy stuff they think they want/need. And I'm getting afraid that's actually true for a lot of people too.

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[–] gndagreborn 45 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Wonderful, my day is complete. Thank you Alphabet for providing me a choice in which flavor of dystopian nightmare I'd prefer.

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[–] [email protected] 41 points 10 months ago (4 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 10 months ago (2 children)

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

[–] aceshigh 14 points 10 months ago (3 children)

If you’re the type of person who buys new things often then yes. But if you buy the exact same stuff that you’ve been purchasing for 30 years, ads aren’t going to impact you today.

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 10 months ago (12 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 10 months ago (8 children)

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?

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 10 months ago (2 children)

It really is unfortunate that almost all their users are asleep at the wheel and don't care.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Ah the privacy sandbox that was overwhelming disagreed with, but that Google forced onto the web because they're a monopoly.

[–] AlpacaChariot 26 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Why are you using chrome if you care about things like this?

[–] [email protected] 19 points 10 months ago (5 children)
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[–] [email protected] 23 points 10 months ago (3 children)

This is why I decided to migrate to Firefox a few days ago

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[–] eruchitanda 23 points 10 months ago

> Privacy

> Chrome

Yeah..

[–] [email protected] 23 points 10 months ago

The only time I see ads is when I look into someone else's screen

[–] FreddyNO 23 points 10 months ago

Fuck google

[–] Heavybell 22 points 10 months ago

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.

[–] Sygheil 15 points 10 months ago

“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.”

-Me wiping the coffee I spat after reading this. Hilarious 😂

[–] Rooki 15 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Why tho? Just block ads at all. They just want to be "friendly" when the web drm changes hit

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago

"Give us your preference data to prevent your preference data from being used in advertising."

[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I'm poor and I hate stupid bullshit. The only way to personalize ads for me is to make them go away.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Serious question: Why do you use Chrome, a browser made by the world's largest advertising and spying company, when you give the slightest f* about privacy?

At least use Ungoogled Chromium if you're not gonna switch to something actually privacy-focused. Basically the same functionality, but without Google's spyware.

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