From my surface level reading of FLoC - would it be possible for Edge or Mozilla to implement FLoC - but to send noise / random / incorrect data up in a way that essentially wrecks the algorithm?
A substantial amount of modern Internet infrastructure relies on the fact that major actors are behaving in good faith. This isn't a chain of escalation anyone would benefit from going down.
The surveillance companies have started us down the path of bad faith by nonconsentually tracking us via protocol and implementation bugs that leak identifying information. IMO Firefox et al need to keep working towards a better-specified JS runtime without these security vulns, so that when the layperson complains about big tech surveillance an easy answer is "Stop using Chrome".
For firefox this is nearly impossible because of the different quirks it has in its javascript/layout engine. It might be easier to do with all the chromium forks, but it's unknown how the proprietary bits in chrome affect browser behavior. At worst they can use something like have obfuscated code (eg. widevine L3) for attestation.
I don't see why not, but that doesn't help the ~95% of people not using Firefox (let's be real, Microsoft is not going to pass up the chance to violate someone's privacy).
This interpretation is missing the important context that the PARAKEET proposal (https://github.com/WICG/privacy-preserving-ads/blob/main/Par...) is another strategy for opt-out personalized ad targeting. So they may have technical quibbles or business concerns, but they're not opposed to the core concept.
"At Microsoft, we are committed to fostering a healthy web ecosystem where everyone can thrive – consumers, publishers, advertisers, and platforms alike. Protecting user privacy is foundational to that commitment and is built into Microsoft Edge with features like Tracking Prevention, Microsoft Defender SmartScreen, and InPrivate browsing. We also support an ad-funded web because we don't want to see a day where all quality content has moved behind paywalls, accessible to only those with the financial means.
Through this proposal, we believe we can substantially improve end-user privacy while retaining the ability for sites to sustain their businesses through ad funding. We propose a new set of APIs that leverage a browser-trusted service to develop a sufficient understanding of user interests and therefore enable effective ad targeting without allowing ad networks to passively track users across the web. This approach removes the need for cross-site identity tracking, enables new privacy enabling methods to support monetization, and maintains ad auction functionality within existing ad tech ecosystems."
Well, if those 95% of the people (who exactly is counting, and how?) want Mozilla to help them, they should consider switching from Chrome (and stop enabling Google on the meantime).
