Comment by thoraway1010 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by thoraway1010 | Hacker News Reader

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DevKoala,

I don't think you may realize how much of your online activity is already tracked by google / facebook / instagram.

Google's javascript is everywhere, including explicit tracking with analytics, and lots of CDN loads for endless lists of things (js libraries, fonts etc).

Their properties also track you, google search, youtube, email. They also make software you might use (chome / android / google maps / google play store).

If you think something about signed exchanges let's google track you, and they can't now... please examine these assumptions.

Folks who come up with these super complex schemes (google will use javascript loaded into AMP to take over and track you) ignore that google ALREADY tracks them.

And folks who say they don't use any google products (no android / google maps/ play services / chrome etc etc) are often either lying or don't understand how many third parties load google analytics into websites, or load recaptcha bot protection etc.

I work in ad tech, with years of experience doing identification and targeting. I understand exactly what is happening.

I wrote a reply to joshuamorton were I expressed my concerns.

Just realize that AWS / GCP / Azure have already gobbled up vast swaths of website hosting in all forms and are growing along with some free CDN and DNS providers.

If google said, we want to track people, and brings android, chrome, dns resolvers, network infrastructure, google cloud compute, AI systems, google analytics which these media sites voluntarily, google play services etc to target and track you - they probably could.

EVERY single person (including you) who claim they don't use google, if you dig down, they often are lying and do. And if you don't, some of the people you email or interact with do, so indirect profiles can be built.

AMP solved a need for a lot of users, which is the janky, slow ad filled websites that media sites in particular had become. So there is an actual end user reason people like AMP - it's a better user experience in many cases. This is where AMP is ruining the web gets hard to support. For most folks they don't perceive they are giving up a lot more in terms of privacy, and they are getting a lot.

> If google said, we want to track people, and brings android, chrome, dns resolvers, network infrastructure, google cloud compute, AI systems, google analytics which these media sites voluntarily, google play services etc to target and track you - they probably could.

Their data governance team wouldn’t allow it. You are basically describing a system they could only introduce with the permission of the government. I don’t care if the government is tracking me honestly, I can’t fight that. I just don’t want Google tracking me for the purpose of influencing my spending habits, emotional state, or perception of the world. That is my main beef with their advertising capabilities.

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