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Comment by fumar | Hacker News Reader

I wish someone could explain how Apple does this with advertising segments. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205223

> Segments We create segments, which are groups of people who share similar characteristics, and use these groups for delivering targeted ads.

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The attributes apple uses is listed in that very link.

The key to segments is ensuring that the attributes give you enough entropy.

Isn't Google doing the same or less based on only browser data? How does each solution differ in entropy? I didn't get that from Apple's policy page. I am genuinely trying to understand and this isn't a snarky comment.

The key is: who is allowed to see the segment ID?

In Apple's world, Apple owns the supply side ad surfaces, Apple maintains the segmentation and mapping, and Apple mediates the demand side.

What does an advertiser see? Pretty much nothing.

So Apple can do segmentation aka user tracking at a group level because it doesn't expose the group IDs. Yet, we as consumers don't have transparency into the segments we inhibit. I am not sold that Apple's segment solution truly respects our privacy compared to solutions that don't rely on user identity or store segments.

No because of the attack on the OP. They are able to deduce who you are quite quickly.

You can learn more about how safari protects you by reading these blog posts.

https://webkit.org/blog/category/privacy/

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