Google May Replace Cookies With Unique AdIDs

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Google May Replace Cookies With Unique AdIDs

Posted by timothy on Friday September 20, 2013 @12:20PM from the would-smell-as-sweet dept.

markjhood2003 writes "According to a story published in USA Today, an anonymous source at Google familiar with the plan has revealed that Google is developing an anonymous identifier for advertising tracking, replacing the function of third party cookies currently used by most major advertisers. The new AdID supposedly gives consumers more privacy and control over their web browsing, but the ad industry is worried about putting more power in the hands of large technology companies. Sounds like the idea could have some promise, but at this point the proposal is not public so we will probably have to wait until Google reaches out to the industry, government and consumers to provide the details."

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Oh really? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-20 12:25 · Score: 3, Funny

we will probably have to wait until Google reaches out to the industry, government and consumers to provide the details.
So what you're saying is you have to pass it to find out what's in it? How very Pelosi of them!
1. Re:Oh really? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-20 13:17 · Score: 1, Informative
  
  Probably because it combines an out-of-context quote from a major political figure with a content-less attack on Google without adding anything of substance. As a result, it's more likely to result in a political thread than doing anything to add information.
  Presumably if this were about IPv6, you'd think "Oh, so we're finally getting rid of Al Gore's invention" is on-topic and not a troll too?
Give consumers more privacy? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-20 12:29 · Score: 5, Insightful

Or take away their ability to block tracking as they can currently do with cookies? Article doesn't say much about how the new ID is supposed to work.
1. Re:Give consumers more privacy? by Animats · 2013-09-20 13:03 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Or take away their ability to block tracking as they can currently do with cookies?
  That's the basic idea. CNET covered this a few days ago. "The AdID would be transmitted to advertisers and ad networks that have agreed to basic guidelines, giving consumers more privacy and control over how they browse the Web,"
  Expect meaningless, easy to evade "basic guidelines", like TrustE.
2. Re:Give consumers more privacy? by M.+Baranczak · 2013-09-20 13:21 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  That CNET article is just a summary of the one in USA Today. Both of them are pretty light on information.
  Does anybody know (or at least want to take a guess) how this shit's supposed to work? How do you store this unique ID without using cookies, or something that works just like cookies?
3. Re:Give consumers more privacy? by StripedCow · 2013-09-20 13:27 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  Article doesn't say much about how the new ID is supposed to work.
  They closely cooperate with the NSA. It's all give and take.
  
  --
  If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
4. Re:Give consumers more privacy? by Seumas · 2013-09-20 13:33 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Anonymous identifier.
  Let's just say that repeatedly until the problem sinks into all of our brains.
5. Re:Give consumers more privacy? by Garridan · 2013-09-20 14:28 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  This allows google and those who advertise with them to keep tracking despite the cookie legislation in europe. "Do no evil" is, yet again, looking more and more like "only do evil that can be veiled as altruism".
6. Re:Give consumers more privacy? by game+kid · 2013-09-20 15:58 · Score: 1
  
  We give, they take.
  
  --
  You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
7. Re:Give consumers more privacy? by Bite+The+Pillow · 2013-09-20 16:04 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  Google has not made the proposal public â" although the company plans to reach out to industry participants, government bodies and consumer groups in coming weeks and months... ... the new tool will give users the ability to limit ad tracking through browser settings... ...The AdID may be automatically reset by the browser every year, and users will be able to create a secondary AdID for online browsing sessions they want to keep particularly private, the person explained.
  It's pretty clear to me this is going to be implemented client-side in the browser, just based on the limited information available. Just like Windows Media Player's "send unique player id to content providers" option.
  Firefox (funded largely by by Google) and Chrome are slightly under 40% market share, and Chrome is increasing.
  All you need is Microsoft on board, or the advertising industry. They won't get the ad industry, so they need Microsoft. Or a plugin for IE that pops up an installer bubble when you use google search, gmail, or youtube. And I'm pretty sure Microsoft is on board, given their media player thing.
  I expect an additional header in the HTTP request. I also expect an uptick in the number of people using a customized FireFox or Chromium that does not send this, or better yet sends a random number (leave the PRNG jokes and asides out of this, that's not the topic).
  You asked for a guess.
8. Re:Give consumers more privacy? by Bite+The+Pillow · 2013-09-20 16:31 · Score: 2
  
  They don't know who you are. They can put together a pretty good picture, but they don't have a name, address, phone number, or photo of you.
  Not sure what your point is here. You are going to be tracked, and what you like and/or do will be revealed. Just like today.
  They will be able to say that user 6865 dislikes Republicans, owns several Playstation products, lives in America, and has been posting on slashdot for 15 years. Demonstrates slight paranoid tendencies and distrust of authority. Between 35 and 37 years old, and has communicated frequently with Japanese sararimen.
  I still don't know your name, but I know your number. I know a lot of other things, just from your postings on one website. I also know that you really want to yell at me right now about one of those details above.
  Until you give me your name, I will never know you if I meet you in person, and you therefore remain anonymous. Unless you are the exception to John Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory. You have to admit, you do come off as abrasive sometimes...
9. Re:Give consumers more privacy? by PlusFiveTroll · 2013-09-20 17:30 · Score: 2
  
  People are traced back to their real life identities from their online postings all the time. Unless you avoid social media and give out very, very little information on your location you can be identified pretty easy.
10. Re:Give consumers more privacy? by Seumas · 2013-09-20 18:25 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  It is common knowledge that advertising data miners can determine with startling accuracy the identity of an individual with only a few accumulated pieces of correlated information referenced against a large commercial database of activity. This provides a further consistent identifier to tie all those strings together, while giving the impression that the identifier is to prevent identification. This is not about what they can conclude about your identity just from one website unto itself.
11. Re:Give consumers more privacy? by rtb61 · 2013-09-20 18:35 · Score: 1
  
  Seriously who cares how they label the privacy invasion just stop doing it, it's very annoying. I am sick of adds targeting products I have just purchased, a really seriously annoying idea, now who was the idiot who thought it was a good idea ie search for product, find what your after and for weeks there in after get adds for it, why, what is the purpose?
  Just align adds with the content, it is by far less jarring and honestly will produce the most positive response and the most likely click link reaction. It is really annoying when adds don't align with content, it throws impressions of both right off and if in any way shape or form gives off an impression of privacy invasion will likely result in script and cookie blocking as well as a thumbs down.
  Also sound, don't even dare to spew screaming adds at me without my request and most certainly don't screw over pause and sound controls, basically your product and company is screwed from there on in with zero chance of purchase and guaranteed complementary script and cookie blocking on the supplying and advertised sites.
  PS once you stick a unique identifier on someone's computer it is never ever anonymous as with the very slightest change of the requisite algorithms it is as anally probingly invasive as the sales perverts can make possible. Face it trust is long, long gone, so they can save the B$ we don't believe, what they say today has absolutely no relationship in any reality with what they will do tomorrow, as the next psychopath corporate executive seeks to monetize us.
  
  --
  Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
12. Re:Give consumers more privacy? by Seumas · 2013-09-20 18:40 · Score: 2
  
  Ultimately, internet advertising is a long-running scam that people will catch on to. People were sold a bunch of bullshit about the glory of advertising online. Scamsters tried to sell advertisers on the wonders of targeted demographics, precise statistics, interactivity, etc. The truth turned out to be that the statistics are meaningless, because they're often gamed and click-bot farms are abundantly scamming bucks off the advertisers. It also turned out that the interactivity didn't add anything to the impression they leave with viewers, because most people dislike online ads, have learned to block them out, or actually block them due to principal, being obnoxious, or relating to malware and tracking.
  Content producers get screwed, too, because those from traditional mediums saw ad revenue dry on in a lot of places as it was redirected to the internet. Internet content producers found that it was hard to compete in a world where someone else is willing to provide what you provide, but for free -- and that it is hard to make money selling something that is infinite. There's a reason television and other mediums can get $30 CPM, but your commercial tech journalism website (that just regurgitates the day's news found elsewhere) has to settle for $3 CPM.
  At some point, this will all collapse and they will have to find new methods of revenue to support themselves than internet advertising. In the meantime, it's just a lot of scummy bottom-feeders trying to change and manipulate the small details until the very final moment they're forced to give up the ship.
13. Re:Give consumers more privacy? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-20 19:17 · Score: 1
  
  The simplest idea is that sites would require an ID to login and view content. Think OpenID, minus the open part. Sure you could change your ID, but Google would be in charge of assigning the IDs, and they're paying researchers to come up with algorithms to help figure out that ID#1234 belongs to the owner of ID#5678.
  So in the end, the majority of the web will require an ID to view "free" content, and the price of the free admission is that you have to sign up for an ID that serves as an index into a vast network of advertising data. As with all Google services, you are the product.
14. Re:Give consumers more privacy? by hairyfeet · 2013-09-20 19:30 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  THIS is why I'm against it as not only does it rob you of privacy but it DOESN'T EVEN WORK when it comes to targeting ads so its fucking pointless!
  The first time the whole "targeted ads" became a big thing I set up a browser at the shop with ZERO blocking, just so I could see if it actually worked. the results? Its actually WORSE than just picking ads based on what site they are on! For examples when my laptop was getting long in the tooth I decided to get an AMD netbook (as I had tried the Atom and it was painfully slow) so i did a little research and then for nearly 8 months I got nothing but ads for netbooks, long after I had quit searching for netbooks because i had bought one! My nephews use the shop PC only ONCE to find a release date for a game? i got console ads non stop for months, my mom when she came by the shop does a search to find out when the next book in a series comes out? Ditto.
  The sad part is when i blocked all the "targeting" the ads got BETTER because they had only what site i was on to go for! As someone who works retail this whole thing just baffles the shit out of me, basic common sense says if I'm reading an article about SSDs you should show me ads for...drumroll...SSDs! How hard is that? Instead I got ads for car insurance, cell phones, anything and everything EXCEPT what I was fricking reading about and thus shown I had interest in! The only one I have seen do it with any skill at all is Amazon with their "well people that looked at this often buy that, would you like to see that?" and a good 9 times out of 10 yes i WOULD like to see that, as its actually relevant to what I'm fricking looking at!
  This is why I'll block this crap just like I've blocked third party adverts, not because i give a crap if the ad company knows I'm pricing C2D chips for an upgrade for a customer but because the crap doesn't work. in a way it reminds me of the old MSN Search...anybody remember how badly that thing would guess? I'd have just done three searches looking for data storage so you would think when I typed in "D" it would give me data storage as the top option, right? instead it was like word salad, it would spew out "dog, delivery, dollar bills, duck ala orange!" and that is just what the targeted ads do only worse, as it'll ignore what I'm actively looking for and instead either give me ads for something I bought last year or ads for some stupid little thing I looked at once 6 months ago and promptly quit caring about. This entire thing is just dumb, doesn't increase the likelihood of getting a sale, and is generally a giant waste of time.
  
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  ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
15. Re:Give consumers more privacy? by mwvdlee · 2013-09-20 21:56 · Score: 2
  
  for nearly 8 months I got nothing but ads for netbooks, long after I had quit searching for netbooks because i had bought one!
  I don't care for advertising much, so I just love those.
  I constantly get ads for the new television I bought a few months ago and every once in a while I click on the ad to ensure I don't get other ads that might lure me into wasting money on products I don't already have.
  
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16. Re:Give consumers more privacy? by wvmarle · 2013-09-20 22:10 · Score: 1
  
  Totally agree.
  On the same note, Google's ads (that go along the search results) are often very useful. So much that I unblocked those in ABP.
  I have used Google Ads myself to advertise. Click-through rates of ads on their homepage are like 100 times greater than those on their "affiliate network". Difference is to such an extent that I suspect that most of the clicks on the "affiliate network" are accidental... those click-through rates were like 0.01% or so.
17. Re:Give consumers more privacy? by Windwraith · 2013-09-20 22:10 · Score: 1
  
  Lure you? How?
  Online advertisements are the complete opposite of "enticing", they have no creativity, no catchy jingles, and they don't even advertise stuff available in your country (if you aren't from the US). A far cry from what used to be professional marketing.
18. Re:Give consumers more privacy? by some+old+guy · 2013-09-20 22:45 · Score: 2
  
  They don't know who you are. They can put together a pretty good picture, but they don't have a name, address, phone number, or photo of you.
  That is one hell of a naive or uninformed perspective. There are these amazing things called relational databases full of lovely tables overflowing with easily-queried nuggets of yummy identifiable customer goodness.
  Do you for one moment think your utility company, ISP, your social media site, health insurer, and our wonderful government don't share easily cross-referenced data? Hell, Lexisnexis knows more about you than your mom.
  What color is the sky in "they"s world, or yours for that matter?
  
  --
  Scruting the inscrutable for over 50 years.
19. Re:Give consumers more privacy? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-20 23:05 · Score: 1
  
  And then someone make a firefox plugin that always transmit the same ID. AD-haters will all use that, and the new trackers will see a single user browsing from thousands of machines. When that ID get blocked, they roll over to another "common ID" - and so on.
20. Re:Give consumers more privacy? by 0ld_d0g · 2013-09-21 00:40 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  >They don't know who you are.
  Thats untill you login to any email id or other online account with your real name from the same IP enough times to form a link between the "anonymous" ID and the "real" ID.
21. Re:Give consumers more privacy? by ubrgeek · 2013-09-21 00:52 · Score: 1
  
  Couldn't you just embed it in the browser binary itself? For now they care about where the browser goes more than the person at the keyboard.
  
  --
  Bark less. Wag more.
22. Re:Give consumers more privacy? by johanw · 2013-09-21 02:06 · Score: 1
  
  Seems like trackingblockers like Ghostery will need an update.
23. Re:Give consumers more privacy? by hairyfeet · 2013-09-21 02:52 · Score: 2
  
  Sorry but I block those, after all the crap we have learned about how much data Google is hanging onto and their bugging the piss out of me to use my real name everywhere (gotten bad enough I keep a separate browser just for YouTube) I wouldn't allow a Google ad if you paid me and I switched to bing for search. I figure i don't have a MSFT email and a good 90% of my searches are work related so less data to track.
  
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  ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
24. Re:Give consumers more privacy? by hedwards · 2013-09-21 03:21 · Score: 1
  
  You can blame spammers for that. Unfortunately, there aren't very many ways of limiting who makes accounts that don't leave some people out of the loop.
25. Re:Give consumers more privacy? by sabri · 2013-09-21 05:14 · Score: 1
  
  And then someone make a firefox plugin that always transmit the same ID
  Ha, I already see myself browsing dildo's and kinky sex toys for a few nights. Imagine the look on your wife's face when she sees all the ads on your machine that are "related" to my browsing. Muhahahahahaha!
  
  --
  I'm not a complete idiot... Some parts are missing.
26. Re:Give consumers more privacy? by Seumas · 2013-09-21 06:14 · Score: 1
  
  Probably for the same reason I get all the buttplug ads on Amazon. :P
27. Re:Give consumers more privacy? by mwvdlee · 2013-09-21 08:04 · Score: 1
  
  And yet if they didn't work, they wouldn't exist.
  
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28. Re:Give consumers more privacy? by rtb61 · 2013-09-21 13:41 · Score: 1
  
  Ahh, yes, but in reality who are those adds really targeted at, the buyer or the seller. If you think about it, who do you really want to see the adds targeted at, the seller or the buyer. If you target the seller, they always see their add, in their ignorance they think this is fantastic, their add is always on line, woo hoo, and they continue to pay for them. So targeted adds one great big marketing scam targeted at the sellers, why, because it is automated. Actually aligning adds with content cost money because people have to review it to make sure it is accurate.
  
  --
  Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
29. Re:Give consumers more privacy? by mwvdlee · 2013-09-21 17:55 · Score: 1
  
  In reality, most companies track conversion rates of banner ads.
  
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  Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
30. Re:Give consumers more privacy? by brunes69 · 2013-09-22 03:13 · Score: 1
  
  If the tracking is done in such a way that it is impossible to know who is being tracked, then I have no problem with this. If on the other hand your "Ad-ID" can be linked to your IP at any point in time (and it is hard me to envision how this could not be the case), then to me it's just another form of cookie and I don't see how it is different at all.
31. Re:Give consumers more privacy? by Bite+The+Pillow · 2013-09-22 04:35 · Score: 1
  
  JavaScript may be involved, but controlling and tracking separate ID values for normal vs. private browsing, and control by browser settings says it's baked in to the browser somehow. Disabling JavaScript alone will not get rid of this ad ID, based on the person's description. They want a solution that will work if cookies are disabled, and falling back on JavaScript will not solve that problem.
  HTML5 and persistent storage might work. And it could be done greasemonkey style in JavaScript. But the description leads me to believe some portion is baked in. Implemented poorly, disabling JS will give you a new ID every time you open the browser, and some people leave it open for weeks without closing the last tab.
  But given all of the reaching out to industry and partners, it won't be a simple script that can be discovered and turned off as a side effect of disabling JS. They would have done that already, if that's all it were.
32. Re:Give consumers more privacy? by Bite+The+Pillow · 2013-09-22 08:17 · Score: 1
  
  Your comment was "Anonymous identifier. Let's just say that repeatedly until the problem sinks into all of our brains."
  The moment you log in to FaceBook or Google+ with your real name, it ceases to be an anonymous identifier to FaceBook or Google. I get that. And data mining can take an online identity and find a real person. But it has to be a combination of personal information that you volunteer plus that ID to stop being anonymous.
  I still argue that anonymous identifier, by itself, is not the problem. Data mining is good enough now that it will just make resolution easier - not markedly more successful. It won't magically make people able to find out my name. I will be identified by a number, not a name, making it by definition anonymous. I have friends whose name will be associated from day 1, but that is a function of their behavior, not the identifier.
  I am a statistical outlier, true. Your average facebook user will be identified and associated with the number. But they are already associated with different numbers, so the identifier has no effect. This is really no different from just never deleting cookies, which is what most people do, so again - no impact.
  There are databases filled with all kinds of information that can be tied together without your help or knowledge. That is the problem, not the anonymous identifier.
33. Re:Give consumers more privacy? by tlhIngan · 2013-09-23 03:00 · Score: 1
  
  Does anybody know (or at least want to take a guess) how this shit's supposed to work? How do you store this unique ID without using cookies, or something that works just like cookies?
  First, Google owns the ad networks - the vast majority of them, anyhow.
  So what Google does is when you download a page using Google's ad networks, Google takes their cookie that identifies you (either anonymously, or named, if you use Google+/Google ID), and translates that to a number, probably by hashing it. Google then passes the ad URL appending the hashed identifier.
  You know, like how instead of retrieving http://example.com/ad_image.gif, they'll do http://example.com/ad_image.gif?adid=blahblah.
  Of course, it'll only work on Google owned ad networks, but since they own the vast majority of it, well, that's practically all you're likely to encounter.
34. Re:Give consumers more privacy? by KingBenny · 2013-09-23 12:33 · Score: 1
  
  maybe its just supposed to work like ceci n'est pas un cookie and screw the whole law about no cookies without consent
  or maybe not
  but would it be a cookie by law if its not a cookie at all ? maybe they should sell it like that to the ad industry, yes google sure, i need about $25k after that im sure i can fix the rest myself, feel free to donate
  right ... trippin .. sorry
  
  --
  Free speech was meant to be free for all... how can anyone grow up in a nanny state ?
Sorry to say, but... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-20 12:31 · Score: 2, Insightful

You spelled AIDS wrong.
1. Re:Sorry to say, but... by pellik · 2013-09-20 13:36 · Score: 1
  
  That's because the AIDS are unique.
Google is a targeted ad company by Joining+Yet+Again · 2013-09-20 12:34 · Score: 3, Interesting

If it were concerned about giving consumers "more privacy" on a scale unprecedented in human history, in terms of reducing the amount of data stored about them, it could simply... wipe its hard drives and close its business.
1. Re:Google is a targeted ad company by fermion · 2013-09-20 14:00 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  This is certainly a ploy to compete with Facebook and the like. Right now Facebook has probably has more tracking cookies set in more machines than google. I know that I don't allow facebook cookies, but I have also been more restrictive on the Google cookies, simply because they are not providing as many services. Facebook will win on the cookies front. Google need a proprietary technology to lock advertisers into Google.
  
  --
  "She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
2. Re:Google is a targeted ad company by gl4ss · 2013-09-20 14:17 · Score: 2
  
  the way it's easy to get targeted advertising wrong makes me wonder if they would get better advertising with completely random ads.
  you see, if you get it wrong then you will not get a single click on an advert. with totally random there's at least a chance at a click, but I ain't going to buy silicon boobs even if I googled for big boobs.
  this adid thing though.. how is it different than cookies except that google gets all the data?
  
  --
  world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
3. Re:Google is a targeted ad company by wvmarle · 2013-09-20 22:14 · Score: 1
  
  The ads that target my search terms, are often quite relevant to me. It advertises goods or services that I happen to be interested in there and then. And if I'm indeed looking for commercial results, possibly after looking for reviews and other information on a product, good chance I'll click them.
  And no need for invasive privacy. They don't really need to know my age or anything - just my location. And that they can see from my IP address. And if looking for highly local services like a restaurant around where I am "right now" I'm happy to provide a coordinate for even better results. There is just no need to know anything about "me" to properly target advertisements.
4. Re:Google is a targeted ad company by Joining+Yet+Again · 2013-09-21 02:01 · Score: 1
  
  I ignored the first paragraph as you sounded like an advert for a marketing company. All that can be done without having a system of charging people per listing or per click, where people who pay more get better placed, and the recording and auditing is done by the same company which performs the brokering.
  As for the second paragraph, true enough. Although the more they know about "you", the more likely they can choose a set of ads which you're likely to click on - they do it because it works, not to amuse themselves. The only way to stop targetted advertising is to make no attempt to interact with it whatsoever. Otherwise you're part of the problem.
5. Re:Google is a targeted ad company by hedwards · 2013-09-21 03:28 · Score: 1
  
  Probably, I use self-destructing cookies on any and all cookies that are installed on my computer. Most of them are deleted the moment I leave the website, a few that I really need, are allowed to persist until I close the browser, and only one or two is allowed to remain after I close the browser. Most of the time, I wind up with random ads, assuming I get them at all.
  I can't recall the last time I actually clicked on one of those links, and I don't think I've ever bought anything as a result of one of those ads. I do however sometimes put companies on my "do not buy from" list for shitty ads and the ones where they're clearly lieing even more than usual.
Awesome! by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-20 12:36 · Score: 5, Insightful

Now how do i block them?
1. Re:Awesome! by manu0601 · 2013-09-20 13:10 · Score: 1
  
  Install Firefox. And if Firefox adopts it, patch and rebuild it.
2. Re:Awesome! by Fnord666 · 2013-09-21 03:52 · Score: 1
  
  Install Firefox. And if Firefox adopts it, patch and rebuild it.
  This. Google can develop all of the proprietary shit it likes, but if it only works in Chrome then all they will manage to to is kill Chrome in the marketplace.
  
  --
  'The tyrant will always find pretext for his tyranny.' - Aesop's Fables
Here's how I'll use my newly gained power... by bogaboga · 2013-09-20 12:36 · Score: 3, Funny

...The new AdID supposedly gives consumers more privacy and control over their web browsing...
I'll disable tracking by default. And Google should take my "threat" as guaranteed. I am not alone I know.
1. Re:Here's how I'll use my newly gained power... by KiloByte · 2013-09-20 13:49 · Score: 1
  
  Might be quite hard to do if they're sneaky enough. Let's better disable all requests to tracking and ad servers altogether.
  Which differs from current only sane state... how?
  
  --
  The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
2. Re:Here's how I'll use my newly gained power... by pla · 2013-09-20 14:37 · Score: 2
  
  I'll disable tracking by default. And Google should take my "threat" as guaranteed. I am not alone I know.
  
  This!
  
  At first glance, "anonymous" tracking sounds like an ideal compromise. We get to support websites we visit, without giving up our privacy in the process... Right?
  
  Now drop this dream-scenario into the real world. Google intends to provide a way to globally, uniquely identify "you", anonymously. That works juuust fine - Until you give someone's "partner" (like Amazon, NewEgg, Expedia, etc) one teensy bit of PII. Then... Game over, man, game over! The entire spamming cold-calling advertising world now "knows" more about you than you know about yourself.
  
  Fuck that. You guys just don't get it, do you? We don't want to "play nice". We want you to either:
  1) Effectively act as a charity, giving us content for free,
  2) Find a viable revenue model that doesn't involve treating us as the product rather than the customers, or
  3) FOAD.
  
  Simple as that - Yes, really.
3. Re:Here's how I'll use my newly gained power... by wvmarle · 2013-09-20 22:16 · Score: 1
  
  I guess ABP will take care of this one before it's released. So nothing to worry about.
Re:Anyone else smell bullshit? by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · 2013-09-20 12:59 · Score: 5, Interesting

Google instant search is a keylogger, plain and simple.
You're obviously presenting only the cynic's side of the argument, but even so, it's even more obvious now than ever that combining the address and search text boxes in a web browser really is a security/privacy risk.

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If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
First in line... by Alsee · 2013-09-20 13:02 · Score: 4, Funny

Oh goodie! Another ID number to protect my privacy!
Can get AdID #1?
I want to be the first and most anonymous.
-

--
- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
Online Advertising is terrible by kawabago · 2013-09-20 13:02 · Score: 5, Insightful

They are always trying to sell me things I looked at but decided I didn't want, or things I already have. They seem to wait till I buy something, then try to sell me more of that. How many potato peelers do they expect me to buy?
1. Re:Online Advertising is terrible by Anrego · 2013-09-20 13:15 · Score: 1
  
  Pretty much this.
  I don't actually have a problem with advertising in general.. it just seems to really suck. Only time I ever really click on an ad is when the ad is so out there that I just have to know what they are selling (which I know is a tactic, but when they get me with it I figure they've earned my eyes for a minute or two).
2. Re:Online Advertising is terrible by SammyIAm · 2013-09-20 13:22 · Score: 2
  
  Ugh, I know! I tried actually emailing the companies hosting the ads about this. I really just want an "I bought this already!" button that makes that particular ad go away. It could even then show a link to allow me to review the product that I already bought. They're wasting their time trying to get me to buy the same thing over and over again.
3. Re:Online Advertising is terrible by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-20 13:47 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  I don't actually have a problem with advertising in general.. it just seems to really suck.
  That's because you still think you can separate the act of advertising from the type of person who is attracted to the profession and desires to perform this sort of spying, deception, and manipulation.
  
  Once you realize this kind of reductionism is a self-limitation, you will understand how and why it sucks and why it's not going to be fixed. Advertising, marketing, and PR as we know them today are concepts that cannot be reformed. They are flawed and exploitative and easily abused at their core. No amount of tinkering will fix them. No one with the power to do so is motivated to fix it. Ergo they, as concepts and principles, must be rejected in their entirety.
4. Re:Online Advertising is terrible by Obfuscant · 2013-09-20 13:53 · Score: 1
  
  How many potato peelers do they expect me to buy?
  One for yourself each time the one you bought for yourself wears out, and one for each of your friends. You aren't so selfish that you'd buy yourself a potato peeler and not buy one for you best buddies, are you? How do you expect them to peel their potatoes? Do you do the peeling for them?
5. Re:Online Advertising is terrible by Bite+The+Pillow · 2013-09-20 16:50 · Score: 1
  
  I don't actually have a problem with advertising in general.. it just seems to really suck.
  
  If it sucked, or weren't effective, or gathered no sales, or just in general didn't work, it would not be a billions of dollars industry. You are probably not one of the common sheeple who follow predictable patterns. You don't fit the model, so they fall back on the potato peeler you bought.
  I have several plugins to discourage tracking, and I get the most ridiculous nonsense, for the lowest common denominator. "Want sex? Find women in [city that's kinda close] now."
  For the kind of people who click on stuff, get viruses, and then STILL CLICK ON STUFF, advertising is effective. And the more effective it is, the more information they have and the more effective it is. It works best on the type of people it is designed to work best on. Rather redundant, but if you thought advertising was effective you probably would find that description insightful.
6. Re:Online Advertising is terrible by Dodgy+G33za · 2013-09-20 17:05 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  I don't actually have a problem with advertising in general.
  I do. At least the billboard / banner headline compete for eyeballs sort of stuff. Pre-Internet I can see that it had its place in letting people know that products existed. But now there are a plethora of ways that people can get their product known, so it is just one of those pointless activities that the rest of us have to pay for wrapped up in the product we buy, for no added value.
  Which is why I block the hell out off all advertising. When I want to buy something, I research and make my choice. When I am not buying I want products to keep the fuck out of my face.
7. Re:Online Advertising is terrible by Tom · 2013-09-20 21:30 · Score: 1
  
  See, they are only thinking of you when they ask you for access to all your private data, because if they only knew you already have 7, they can stop trying to sell you more. It's for your benefit. Really...
  
  --
  Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
Advertising ID? by camperdave · 2013-09-20 13:05 · Score: 3, Interesting

I thought cookies were for storing session independent settings, not for advertising.

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When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
1. Re:Advertising ID? by camperdave · 2013-09-21 03:25 · Score: 1
  
  Will it help me to get to my beautiful beachfront property in the Florida Everglades?
  
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  When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Ads and Trackers? by utkonos · 2013-09-20 13:36 · Score: 4, Interesting

I haven't seen ads or trackers for a very long time. Every once in a blue moon one slips through my combination of AdBlock and Ghostery, but I always report it so they can add it to the block list. All I see is a little number representing how many cooties were blocked for the page I'm on. Hopefully everyone does something like this and the commercial internet dries up and withers away.
1. Re:Ads and Trackers? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-21 02:46 · Score: 1
  
  There's a few sites I go to which detect I'm using an ad blocker and display text telling me how they rely on advertising to support them.
No thanks by sl4shd0rk · 2013-09-20 13:41 · Score: 2

I'll stick with no-script and private browsing mode. I'm sorry if you are making a living on advertising revenue but your revenue stream has basically come down to invasive douchenozzeling and I haven't any use for that. Go put up a billboard, maybe I'll drive by it.

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Join the Slashcott! Feb 10 thru Feb 17!
1. Re:No thanks by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-20 20:27 · Score: 1
  
  You don't understand private browsing mode. It does not make you private on the Web. It only (unsuccessfully) attempts to clean up your browser histroy to provide privacy from your spouse/children/parents.
2. Re:No thanks by Bengie · 2013-09-21 16:07 · Score: 1
  
  A small minority can get away with blocking ads, like of like how anti-vax people can get away with no getting vaccinated, but if the majority did it, it messes things up. Obviously not a perfect analogy.
what a choice by PopeRatzo · 2013-09-20 13:45 · Score: 4, Funny

On the one hand. I have Google. On the other hand, I have the ad industry.
Eww, let me go wash my hands.

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You are welcome on my lawn.
1. Re:what a choice by BlackPignouf · 2013-09-20 21:35 · Score: 1
  
  Google *is* the ad industry.
Anonymous? by QuietLagoon · 2013-09-20 13:46 · Score: 1

If I have to sign into google in order to create and/or manage the adID, then it is not anonymous.
isnt a cookie already a number by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-20 14:06 · Score: 1

so its like a uuid number
they will probably need us to login with our "google id" before they can generate a lasting number
otherwise we can just change the number
here is a option
---------->find out somebody elses "google id" # and circulate it amongst a group
--------->everyone changes thier number to that single id #
--------->PROFIT !!
captcha=brainy
A third-party cookie by any other name.... by NoKaOi · 2013-09-20 14:50 · Score: 4, Insightful

...would stink as bad. So all it really is is a cookie that's completely controlled by Google. Well played Google, well played.
Google wants to give by The_Star_Child · 2013-09-20 14:57 · Score: 2

Google wants to give us Anonymous IDentifiers.
Yay for AIDS!
Aptly named by FuzzNugget · 2013-09-20 14:59 · Score: 2

It's like giving your computer AIDS.
I'd like a "stop advertising this" button and so w by raymorris · 2013-09-20 15:10 · Score: 1

That's a good idea. More generally, "stop showing me ads for this, I'm not going to buy it (or don't care to have it show up where other people might see it on my screen). That would be a win-win for consumers and advertisers.
I don't care for the fact that advertisers have a profile of me, but I do like seeing ads that might actually interest me. eBay does a good job of showing me listings I might want to look at.
Re:Anyone else smell bullshit? by bill_mcgonigle · 2013-09-20 15:34 · Score: 1

You're obviously presenting only the cynic's side of the argument, but even so, it's even more obvious now than ever that combining the address and search text boxes in a web browser really is a security/privacy risk.
yeah, wow - great point (assuming typeahead is active)

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My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Oh, the irony. by Black+Parrot · 2013-09-20 16:13 · Score: 1

but the ad industry is worried about putting more power in the hands of large technology companies
I guess they'd be the ones to know how sleazy an industry can be.

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Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
I am working on a plugin idea by ralphaostrander · 2013-09-20 16:17 · Score: 2

That switches them with other plugin users making them useless.
Wait... the internet has ads? by seifried · 2013-09-20 16:44 · Score: 1

I've been surfing with ad blocking so long I sometimes forget the Internet is plastered with ads. I'm teaching my kids that any device showing ads is broken (TV, tablet, computer, you name it) because well, it is.
Google experience by WaffleMonster · 2013-09-20 17:35 · Score: 1

I logged on to YouTube today it said I appear to be logging in from an "unusual location" (e.g. same IP I've used for years) please give us your telephone number so we can verify you.
Unless someone can explain how providing information I never gave them in the first place (and will never provide) can possibly serve to verify my YouTube account the motive for this was never "For your protection" as stated it was to get more information about my identity..spun into a big fat LIE.
I have long since lost any trust in anything Google says. This sounds like yet another "privacy policy" which enumerates all the ways you agree your information will be sold to anyone willing to buy it.
One Thing Google Has Never Studied by Greyfox · 2013-09-20 18:02 · Score: 1

One thing Google has never studied is whether or not there's a market for an ad-supported dildo. Increasingly, everything else they do is about equally as appealing.

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I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Does Anybody Still Allow Those Connections? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-20 18:04 · Score: 1

I've got every ad server I've identified pointed at my own dummy pixel server because I kinda like pages to paint instantly instead of taking forever for doubleclick or edgewhatever (jeez, I haven't seen them in so long I've started to forget their names) to get around to sending something I don't want. Am I the only one doing that?
Google will give me AIDs??? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-20 18:43 · Score: 1

I DON'T WANT AIDS!!!
Re:Anonymous Identifier by peppepz · 2013-09-20 20:18 · Score: 1

It's anonymous. Google would have to do nothing less than an INNER JOIN between two tables of their database in order to associate your name with the identifier. Therefore you can assume that your privacy is 100% safe.
follow the money by Tom · 2013-09-20 21:28 · Score: 1

Always, always follow the money.
Googles main business is selling ads. So who will profit from this?

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Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
They wouldn't. by MrL0G1C · 2013-09-20 22:11 · Score: 1

This just makes it too easy, too easy to turn off AdID or install a plugin which truly muddies the waters by giving back a random AdID every time it is requested.
It's much harder to turn cookies off because of all the functionality they provide. AdIDs on the other hand - no functionality for us.

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Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
A model that works - Smashwords by mattr · 2013-09-20 22:54 · Score: 1

I found a new sequel to a series I had read.
Google led me to Smashwords. I read some free, then bought
unencumbered epub,pdb,mobi,txt. Credit card or paypal.
Devoured it and next day bought 3 more.
Now have a library in Smashwords, reviewed one.
I think there might be a coupon for reviewers.
Google should:
Buy a bank.
Beat visa and paypal out on the net.
Get a percentage for introduction.
Stop the ads, or offer no ads but another1% margin.
Integrate better with all common pos systems,
or sell own. Show recommendations and shop specials in search results.
Develop NFC style payment with value added such as 0 to 5 star rating and review app on phone.
You get better price if you review.
Be careful about it, Google by mapkinase · 2013-09-21 02:42 · Score: 1

Be very careful. I am watching you.

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I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
Re:AdBlock/Ghostery/RequestPolicy = inferior by utkonos · 2013-09-21 09:32 · Score: 1

Not sure that I entirely agree. Keeping a hosts file up-to-date introduces a security vulnerability. The hosts file can do much more damage than a list kept by a browser plugin. Additionally, I'm not convinced that what you're saying is true (it could be your presentation that is poor: next time use English sentences, you will convey your point in a more clear way).

When you enter a URL in the browser, it issues a GET request, then the plugin parses the response and allows the browser to make subsequent requests depending on the list it keeps. As long as you're not keeping too large a list, it shouldn't impact the speed of your browser.