IAB Urges People To Stop "Mozilla From Hijacking the Internet"

hypnosec writes "In its latest attempt to stop Mozilla from going ahead with its proposed default blocking of third-party cookies in Firefox, the Interactive Advertising Bureau took out a full page ad urging users to stop 'Mozilla from hijacking the Internet.' Through the advert, IAB has claimed that the Firefox maker wants to be the 'judge and jury' when it comes to business models on the web. According to the IAB, Mozilla wants to eliminate the cookies which enable online advertisers to reach the right audience. IAB notes that 'If cookies are eliminated, it is clear to us that consumers will get a less relevant and diverse Internet experience.'"

Comments

Re:Excellent

[RCGodward]

Who is going to PAY for YOUR internet? I don't mean the connection, I mean the content. Please consider this.

Re:fud

[diamondmagic]

I'm sorry, what? A business model can somehow "not have a right to exist"? I hate to break it to you, but business models don't have rights. People, individuals have rights.

You have a right to browse Websites. You have a right to use whatever user-agent you want.

And likewise, I have a right to send those Set-Cookie headers. You can honor them or not.

How is a business owner just supposed to "not track" someone? You realize every time you pay with a Credit card, that's tracked, right? Are business owners just supposed to magically forget about all the transactions they've ever processed, somehow? If you don't want that, pay with cash or don't purchase the product.

Ponzi schemes are unethical because they are fraud. It's making a promise that cannot possibly be sustained. If I were completely honest -- "This portfolio is a ponzi scheme! You may not get any of your money back!" -- that is completely ethical (but no one in their right mind would do that with any significant amount of money, hence the lies typically associated with Ponzi schemes).

Despite your completely arbitrary assertion, there is nothing unethical about keeping logs of activity sent to ones own server, or requesting -- not even forcing, but politely asking via a Set-Cookie header -- that a customer identify themselves with a unique token. It is ethical because it is completely voluntary. If you don't want the tracking, don't send the Cookie header in your request. It's really as simple as that.