Google Launching Privacy Sandbox to Limit Ad Tracking on Android, Calls 'Blunt Approaches' Like Apple's 'Ineffective'

[CalMin]

Honestly - I don't mind a bit of ad tracking. I prefer to get ads for stuff that I'm interested in and, in fact, when it is done right I get genuinely useful stuff pitched to me. Total privacy, on the other hand, doesn't really exist, but even the pseudo-privacy that we are moving towards ends up with me getting irrelevant ads which are more annoying that targeted ones. I don't need dog food ads - I don't have a dog!

In either case - the real harm is being done through surreptitious, deceptive practices that build customer profiles that are invasive and potentially harmful in the wrong hands. This is the stuff that we need to stop. I don't care that Google, Facebook or whoever else is doing this. It needs to be made illegal and that should be the focus.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

I don’t think you really understand just how far £1m can go if spent wisely never mind 70m.

I don’t think you understand how much geographically disperse redundant data centers cost to buy land for, build infrastructure for and staff for maintenance and upgrades. I could have a MacRumors equivalent site set up by this afternoon and it would cost a few hundred dollars a month at most (as long as I don’t give anyone the URL). That’s ONLY because this is the flexibility and scale that using current cloud solutions provide. Starting out with the idea of building your own data center (with the ability to expand to handle future data request growth) and multiplying this around the world (because of not using any of the content distribution networks currently in place) and you easily run over 1 million even before you get the first data center built.

AND, each one of those redundant data centers also have to have a backup, so multiply that by 2, and there has to be a stack for develop/test, so add more. And that’s primarily just hardware and the humans to support that hardware. 70 million a year and AWS would likely be a powerful viable combination. 70 million a year and “build your own” doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface.

 

[StrongArmmed]

Apple's approach is blunt.

Blunt. Like a baseball bat. A baseball bat being used to bludgeon online ads.

I'll take it!

 

[Amazing Iceman]

True.

The best way to stay private while using smart TV services is to never hook up your smart TV to the internet in the first place while using an Apple TV (which is connected to the internet) to use all the apps, streams, and services.

I have two newer Sony TVs and a Samsung TV for the kitchen, and as much as I want to like their Smart TV interfaces, neither one compares to the Apple TV. I've also seen Roku, and same thing. The only advantage of the alternatives is to be able to run some apps not available on the Apple TV.

 

[abhibeckert]

It’s funny how most people trust Google (all the polls prove it) but on macrumors no one does. Gee I wonder if massive fanboyism for Apple is the explanation

Please. They're straight up lying in this case.

They say Apple's approach to privacy is "ineffective" and right next to it I see a google ad for a small retail store that's a five hour flight from where I live and another ad offering treatment for a medical issue common to people 30 years older than me.

I don't block ads or anything - just left all of Apple's privacy features on their default settings.

And speaking of polls saying people trust Google, other polls show the vast majority of people have no idea how much tracking Google does.

And among people who are aware, e.g. younger demographics, half of them use browser plugins to block it. Half.

 

[BlairMALL]

Well, when I fill up my car, they don't know my name.
They might log my license plate, but has no access to the license plate owner infos.

Through the AppleID and ServerLogs they track you from the top down to the toes.

Just to quickly sum up a bit...

AppleID(Full name incl. Address)
|- Apple Music (usage and listening preferences)
|- Apple Store (usage and App preferences)
|- Apple Store Ads (interests)
|- Apple Apps usage (stats and interests)
|- Browser usage (all kind of stuff)
|- Third-Party App usage (kill competiton, explore new market, probably more)
|- Apple *OS usage (stats, obsolete features, probably more)
|- Apple Hardware usage (stats, sales, probably more)
|- Photos (CSAM, Face detection, locations)
|- Find My (includes all your locations)
|- App Logs(includes all kind of stuff)
|- Private Relay (Internet IPs with optional gatekeeping in the future)
|- Apple Watch (Your Activity)
|- Health App (Your Health Infos)
|- Contacts (All the people you communicate with)
|- iCloud (Your Documents and unencrypted iCloud Backups for scraping infos)
|- and much more...

Looks like Apple cross App track better than Third-Party Apps.
Simply join these Infos and you get the perfect transparent loyal customer, Apple really is not in a better light than Google.

Use both with care!

Do you use a credit/debit card when you purchase gas? If so, they know your name.

 

[BlairMALL]

I am a happy Pixel 6 Pro owner and I immediately stopped reading at this point.

and mixed up a batch of kool-aid and drank away!

 

[Wildkraut]

Do you use a credit/debit card when you purchase gas? If so, they know your name.

Pandemic Or Not, Germans Still Prefer Cash

"I'm not in the slightest bit concerned about using cash right now," one Berlin shopper says. "I just keep washing my hands. Simple." Cash makes up 75% of Germany's transactions.

www.npr.org

Nur Bares ist Wahres!

 

[Breaking Good]

and mixed up a batch of kool-aid and drank away!

Perhaps you need to go back and re-read what I wrote. I am not an Apple fan girl/boy. I use both Apple and Android products. And I am under no illusion that Google gives one iota about my privacy.

 

[Smearbrick]

INSIGNIA NS-50DF711SE21, and it might have been a bluetooth module, not wifi. They sent me a new remote but that didn't work. They only thing I could do with it was boot it into "Store Mode" which looked awful, and couldn't change any of the display settings.

That remote is infrared.

 

[larrylaffer]

 

[BlairMALL]

Perhaps you need to go back and re-read what I wrote. I am not an Apple fan girl/boy. I use both Apple and Android products. And I am under no illusion that Google gives one iota about my privacy.

Perhaps you need to go back and re-read what I wrote. I am not an Apple fan girl/boy. I use both Apple and Android products. And I am under no illusion that Google gives one iota about my privacy.

How I am supposed to get that you use apple and android out of "I am a happy Pixel 6 owner..." is beyond me. My comment reflected my perceived tone of your statement, that's all. Glad you're not a fanboy/girl.

 

[gaximus]

That remote is infrared.

Some of the functions do run off of ir, volume, channel power. But it also has voice control, which is bluetooth. And their software refused to "boot up" without being able to connect to the remote.

Insignia - Best Buy

Shop Best Buy for Insignia TVs, tablets, audio, appliances, & accessories. Great prices on products designed with you in mind.

www.insigniaproducts.com

 

[FriendlyMackle]

This is why I don't buy smart TVs. Mostly because a smart TV is like buying a TV with a built in VCR/DVD player, if the extra functionality breaks, then it could bring down the entire TV. Although it's getting very difficult to find TVs without "Smart" built in now-a-days.

Off topic, but I don’t think you can buy a high-quality tv without the built-in ‘smarts.’ I just don’t connect mine to the internet, and let my connected external box do all the interfacing/streaming, etc.

 

[FriendlyMackle]

I have two newer Sony TVs and a Samsung TV for the kitchen, and as much as I want to like their Smart TV interfaces, neither one compares to the Apple TV. I've also seen Roku, and same thing. The only advantage of the alternatives is to be able to run some apps not available on the Apple TV.

I have a Roku (I’ve been using Roku devices since around 2012), and the only reason I’ve kept using it rather than switching to an AppleTV is because I can plug an external drive into the Roku and watch old shows/movies that I’ve ripped from Blu-ray or dvd. And because in the past (it was years ago) when I tried streaming over my home network the experience was really choppy. My network is now much faster, and I have successfully streamed movies from my phone or computer to my tv, so I may move to an AppleTV at my next upgrade.

 

[1129846]

Sorry Google but Facebook would disagree with you on the effectiveness of Apple’s approach.

The issue I ran into as a developer with Apple way was it broke a lot of things and was poorly rolled out to developers. Mix that with in a future release of the OS Apple broke a common way of asking. By broke it would not show the pop up asking for permission which in turn meant app updates block.

Yes it works and the right thing but the roll out of to developers was very poor and still has issues.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

The issue I ran into as a developer with Apple way was it broke a lot of things and was poorly rolled out to developers. Mix that with in a future release of the OS Apple broke a common way of asking. By broke it would not show the pop up asking for permission which in turn meant app updates block.

Yes it works and the right thing but the roll out of to developers was very poor and still has issues.

But it didn’t affect developers that weren’t collecting data, right?

 

[wanha]

I have two newer Sony TVs and a Samsung TV for the kitchen, and as much as I want to like their Smart TV interfaces, neither one compares to the Apple TV. I've also seen Roku, and same thing. The only advantage of the alternatives is to be able to run some apps not available on the Apple TV.

I'm with you.

The only one I really like is LG, which runs WebOS.

Ironic, perhaps, that it was originally developed by Apple

Correction: was originally developed by Palm.

 

[aforty]

Ineffective. Exactly what I would expect Google, an ad company, to say.

 

[Amazing Iceman]

I have a Roku (I’ve been using Roku devices since around 2012), and the only reason I’ve kept using it rather than switching to an AppleTV is because I can plug an external drive into the Roku and watch old shows/movies that I’ve ripped from Blu-ray or dvd. And because in the past (it was years ago) when I tried streaming over my home network the experience was really choppy. My network is now much faster, and I have successfully streamed movies from my phone or computer to my tv, so I may move to an AppleTV at my next upgrade.

I converted all my DVD Movies to digital and setup a server to stream, but now all my TVs are 4K, so I would just watch them from Netflix or Amazon Prime Video. DVD quality is now mediocre, although my TVs can upscale very nicely.

 

[1129846]

But it didn’t affect developers that weren’t collecting data, right?

Oh it so affect them. That the kicker. It completely affected them. They changed how the pop up was done in the base code and as such it got blocked by the system. The fix became more of a pain and a workarounds plus having to put other unneeded code including checking how many times it has been called in app launch. Having to tons of work around a to work.

Not asking just gives all 0’s for the id. So it is not like failing to ask for you anything but app being block. I had to scramble to find a quick fix that did not break things and in all honestly we could care less about the ID.

Apple documentation’s on how to do it is not great and the review comments are well piss poor plus zero help to figure out why.

Apple roll out is bad. I would go farther and say Apple implementation is also way to easy to detect. I think they should change it to if permission has not been ask all 000s but afterwards no matter than answer is gives a valid ID. Just it is random if they say no. Then all that is provide is garbage data and I would not know if they said no. I rather apple and others made it harder to detect.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

They changed how the pop up was done in the base code and as such it got blocked by the system.

No, I mean, developers that are NOT collecting data didn’t have a pop up to show “Hey, let me collect your data” right? What popup would there be for a developer that’s not collecting data? “Hey, user, just a pop up to let you know I’m not collecting your data!”?

Developers that are collecting data, yeah, they definitely had a problem, but that’s expected as they were collecting data.

Then all that is provide is garbage data and I would not know if they said no. I rather apple and others made it harder to detect.

I’d rather developers not collect data.

 

[webkit]

I'm with you.

The only one I really like is LG, which runs WebOS.

Ironic, perhaps, that it was originally developed by Apple

What was originally developed by Apple?

 

[MacBH928]

There is already a privacy friendly Android version , its called Graphene

 

[optimus99]

notice how they say “limit” ad tracking and not “stop” ad tracking? the devil is in the details. they are just going to find another way to do it. there’s to much revenue on the line to loose such that it will never stop.