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Proton Mail

A new low, even for . Giving Google permission to share information about you with third-party websites is being falsely advertised as an "ad privacy feature". This is privacy washing at its most extreme. But it gets even worse.

There is a dark pattern on the second screenshot. It isn't just informing you about the fake privacy features. Clicking on "Got it" actually turns on these features that allow Google to use your recent browsing history for ads on third-party websites:

@protonmail@mastodon.social Wow that's some record-low shit indeed :nachoneko_8:

@Orca @protonmail Yup, titling surveillance as 'privacy' is totally like Orwell's 1984 "newspeak".

@protonmail I don't understand how choice of ads you see is a selling point.

@Noptisun @protonmail
There’s a lie being told in marketing circles that people want personalized ads. They don’t want personalized ads. They don’t want ads. A small few people think that if they have no choice but to see ads that they should be relevant to them. But they falsely assume they are required to see ads. They aren’t.

@jrod3737 @Noptisun @protonmail
75% of my browsing is related to my hobby: antique dolls. I never get ads relating to any facet of my interest, such as auctions, repair supplies, etc.

@Nazani @jrod3737 @Noptisun @protonmail

Different field-of-interest, but similar sitch.

I only have one device that displays ads, and none of the ads show anything that i would want to spend money on.

@mathew @mastodonmigration oh, please be very careful with syncthing. Make backups on both sides of the sync folder pair before setting up the sync or you might easily loose data. It works very well and is snappy, but you can just as snappily delete many files at once, if you're not careful during setup, not understanding how it works.

Example: if you want to sync some file directory to an empty directory another device, be sure to start on the device with the files. Don't start from the empty directory.
Also, don't sync two directories with each containig different files. Only one set of the files will be retained and all the other files will be deleted.
Always start from the place containig files and always sync to an initially empty directory. You can add files on either side after sync is set up, the initial sync is completed, and the system is idle.

@mastodonmigration @jrod3737 @Noptisun @protonmail

Try Tutanota for emails. The good news is that no one can pronounce it or has ever heard of it. Great service.

I tried Proton twice. They lost my passwords & locked me out. Twice.
I guess Switzerland is too busy being neutral to respond to my emails or send me a reset.

@Aleggra @mastodonmigration @jrod3737 @Noptisun @protonmail hey, don't take it out on the country. We have many other things we do badly as a country, but running protonmail isn't one of them.

@b @mastodonmigration @jrod3737 @Noptisun @protonmail

True. I was joking but apologize sincerely to all of Switzerland 😔

@Aleggra Can you share your ticket number for the support request so we can check what's going on?

@protonmail

No thank you. I spent two weeks trying to get an email. It left me exhausted. Maybe it’s a problem with Apple connection? Thank you, anyway.

@mastodonmigration What's the non-google solution to maps? I struggled to find a proper alternative to Google maps other than web version with some extensions enabled. They are the only ones that have proper public transport information in my part of the world.

I'm halfway done with degoogling. My phone is sadly still ingrained in the Google ecosystem due to the model I chose about 3 years ago but I'm finding workarounds.

@jrod3737
@Noptisun @protonmail

I much prefer non-personalized ads, because it means nearly all the ads I see are irrelevant to me. This way, even when I do have to see the ads, they will be totally wasted on me. They aren't going to trick me into buying a pickup truck, after all—nor even trick me into talking about that ad to another person.

@jrod3737 @Noptisun @protonmail well the thing is, if the ad is tailored to you, you're much more likely to click it so

@chfour
The way you accomplish that is by advertising on media that caters to your target market.

You don't advertise things sex toys on "Christianity Today" website, you advertise things like Worship Music CDs and study Bibles and trips to Israel.

@jrod3737 @Noptisun @protonmail

@jrod3737
I do not want personalized ads. It's creepy. I don't want some database somewhere having that much information on me.
@Noptisun @protonmail

@jrod3737 @Noptisun @protonmail
If targeted ads actually worked, I honestly don't think people would mind. It's just that they have never worked. Ever.

Like with any "intelligent" solution, if it works, it's great, if it doesn't, you have two problems..

@jrod3737 @Noptisun @protonmail

to be fair, when I get personalized memes, I do feel heard...

@jrod3737 @Noptisun @protonmail
I'm okay with ads that don't use trackers/personalization. My uBlock Origin settings reflect this.

@jrod3737 @Noptisun @protonmail Superficially:
- I can see why people might see ads as a necessary evil to fund a service they use (yes, you can block them, but your conscience may not let you use a service you're not funding).
- If you're going to see ads anyway, having ones relevant to me might be vaguely useful instead of just an annoyance.

But experience tells me that its not just me that sees my "relevant ads", and that's where there's a significant privacy concern. 1/

@jrod3737 @Noptisun @protonmail If my whole household sees ads which are relevant to me, that is a privacy problem - a single household is small enough to work out who the ads are targeted at, and reveals information about what they have been doing online.

In the case of my household, this has resulted in a few ruined christmas / birthday surprises. In other households, the effects of this kind of information leak may be very serious (think abusive relationships, etc.) 2/

@jrod3737 @Noptisun @protonmail So although superficially, "relevant ads" may be seen by end-users as a slight positive, if they think about it a bit more they would quickly realise that the potential for damage far outweighs any benefit that they might see. And that's even before we get into the data needed to target adverts being intentionally sold off for non-advertising purposes, or stolen.

@jrod3737 @Noptisun @protonmail I was surprised to see Netflix offering a paying subscription WITH ads.

@jrod3737@mstdn.social @Noptisun@twiukraine.com @protonmail@mastodon.social

Specifically, the idea that has driven almost the entirety of the internet's growth since the dot-com bubble is that if an ad is relevant enough, it becomes content. All of the insane amounts of money Google, Facebook, Amazon, and others have spent has been in pursuit of that. That's why they purse search, social media, video streaming, maps, and everything else. They think that if they can just tailor ads well enough that you will not just seek out "sponsored content" but that you'd be willing to pay to receive it.

It's utter madness to everyone who doesn't work in advertising but, by this point, if it isn't true many of the world's biggest companies that manage critical infrastructure don't have a viable business model.

@Noptisun @protonmail Companies have been selling tracking as if "more relevant adverts" was a good thing for about 15 years at this point.

@protonmail It's blood boiling. These kinds of practices should be fineable offenses.

@BenjaminNelan The "fine" is losing market share as people switch to different browsers.

Help us enforce it.

@LouisIngenthron I've been helping enforce it for several years. Unfortunately there are many who will not switch browsers and Google is taking advantage of them by not giving them an informed choice.

@protonmail Have you consider making your own browser? Firefox based?

@protonmail I think it's actually turned on before you click the" got it "button...if you click "settings" you see that they are already enabled and you must turn them off

@protonmail

In case you're wondering how to revoke unintentionally given consent:
go to

"chrome://settings/adPrivacy"

There are three subsettings which you can deactivate.

Have a nice day.

@digital_bohemian @protonmail same thing from browsers Chromium-based? Opera, Vivaldi... Thanks.

@mottenmouse @abesibe @digital_bohemian @protonmail downloaded and installed Vivaldi yesterday on my PC and my phone. Looks really interesting!

@teachpaperless @mottenmouse @abesibe @protonmail

A browser promising to have strong privacy and ad blocking baked into the core surely does look worth a try.

Admittedly, weaning me off of my beloved FF which stems from Netscape which I most fondly remember is going to be a hard job though.

But I do see that nostalgia should not keep me from looking out for alternatives ;-). So yeah, why not check it out?

@digital_bohemian @mottenmouse @abesibe @protonmail I'm in exactly the same mindset as you! I like Firefox but why not give this one a shot?

@digital_bohemian @protonmail Unknown setting on Chrome for Linux - for now.

@digital_bohemian @protonmail That URL didn't go on my phone, but from the [...] menu, Settings > Privacy and security > Ad Privacy does, and I see it had helped itself to turning "Ad topics", "Site-suggested ads", and "Ad measurement" ON.

Turned them OFF. Thank you.

@protonmail ...and most people, rightfully, wouldn't care. They use gmail, youtube, google search and so on. Their entire lives are already "on Google". This isn't a big issue for them. Just stop using Google stuff if you don't want to be tracked by Google.

@catfluoride @protonmail It's kinda difficult to "just stop using Google" when Google tracking is "everywhere", even on official government websites.

@tasartir @protonmail I'm talking about people willingly using it. Everybody else already know their way through ad/tracker blockers.

@catfluoride

That is amazingly useful advice, no one had thought about that before.

@protonmail it's worse, this ad privacy feature was embedded in my Google Pixel phone, and automatically selected. Even if I had turned it off on the browser, I had to do it again on the phone

@savvykenya @protonmail could you share how to do this on a pixel phone specifically?

@protonmail what browser do y'all endorse? firefox?

@protonmail thank you! <3 I'm a customer!

@jco Happy to know! Please reach out if you have any questions!

@protonmail you got to appreciate the cunningness of the phrasing.

“Turn on ad privacy feature”

Vs

“Turn on added privacy feature”