Page filling ads, not cool

[HorseloverFat]

I wasn’t one of the 50 percent!

I guess Google figures I AM enough of a shenanigan in, and of, myself!

 

[Kodama]

Just seen this headline on my feed and thought it was relevant to this thread and wanted to share.

The Chrome Update Is Bad for Advertisers but Good for Google

The world’s most popular browser is about to make it a lot harder for advertisers to track your online activity.

www.wired.com

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Just seen this headline on my feed and thought it was relevant to this thread and wanted to share.

The Chrome Update Is Bad for Advertisers but Good for Google

The world’s most popular browser is about to make it a lot harder for advertisers to track your online activity.

www.wired.com

Though it sounds a little techy and perhaps hard to follow, they are really just trying to anonymize data by lumping you into a target group based on your surfing behavior, and then sending out ads en masse to everyone within that bucket, instead of targeting you individually. Of the many, many, many privacy issues that exist on the Internet, I personally believe sending ads to you anonymously based on surfing behavior rates about a 2 on a scale of 10.

Compare that to holding a Facebook account... where Facebook tracks all your friends, family members, work associates... and even people you don't mention who show up in photos you post on your account (via facial recognition software). They track the activity of your friends, and associate you with what your friends do. Then they create a timeline for all of your activity... and own it for all time. Facebook probably knows more about you than you know about yourself. (If you have an account). Linked In used to be pretty targeted and narrowly focused, but as soon as Microsoft bought them, I immediately deleted my account and asked that they expunge my data (they offered it for a while). Make sure that you yourself are not the privacy threat that you worry about.

One of the reasons why I don't require people to use real names here is that I want people to feel comfortable to come here and talk about bonsai, without fear that I am selling them down the road. It opens me up to all kinds of problems with spammers, or people with multiple accounts, or banned people re-registering, but in my opinion the hassle is well worth it.

 

[Njyamadori]

I was on bonsai nut all this week and never got one

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

One of the reasons why I don't require people to use real names here is that I want people to feel comfortable to come here and talk about bonsai, without fear that I am selling them down the road. It opens me up to all kinds of problems with spammers, or people with multiple accounts, or banned people re-registering, but in my opinion the hassle is well worth it.

I think that's a very respectable and honorable thing to do. It's so rare these days. Thanks Greg!