I’ve seen countless occurrences of Google Tag Manager being routinely used for all kinds of things that aren’t “advertising cookies”. There really is no need for the snark.
You will have a hard time browsing the web, including this site ;)
No, HN works even js disabled.
I did this experiment a while ago, blocking google in my hosts file. Usually fonts break (arrows, icons), and javascript breaks (reddit and stackoverflow need google ajax jquery to uncollapse collapsed messages).
But in general most of the web is usable.
In theory it should be possible to host fonts and jquery locally, but I wasn't able to manage that.
Unless you always browse with the network inspector open I don't really see how that would be the case.
If the website does not work without something like Google fonts or tag manager or whatever other bloat, it means, that it is shoddy-made, by an either uninformed or ignorant entity. It probably is illegal according to EU law as well, since I never gave consent to being tracked by third parties. I do not use that website. Browser tab closed.
In the cases, in which an external entity forces me to use crap websites, I isolate them in browser profiles and/or container tabs.
In cases, in which the content is only available on that website, I can try reader mode. Or try to find some other frontend, like Invidious for YouTube.
So in most cases I can do something to reduce the toxicity of the cocktail, that modern web development practices have cooked up for me.
But lets not forget, that we are all part of a human society. Almost no ones, if anyone's behavior has no effect on others. By using the Internet like I do, I am also acting in a responsible way regarding my effect on society. We need more people resisting big tech surveillance and daily violation of privacy. I hope some day more of us can look beyond immediate personal benefit.
> "I avoid ads... companies that I don't trust"
> "I feel more comfortable..."
> "...my personal data...""
> "I don't have to sit through..."
> "I get what I came for, then I leave"
> "I hope some day more of us can look beyond immediate personal benefit."
Look, I'm ok if you want to be individualistic and say "screw the creators, content producers, journalists, and everyone else I'm freeloading their work for MY personal benefit". It's immoral in my book, but it's certainly not illegal.
But at least be honest with yourself, and stop pretending you're doing this for the greater good of human society.
[1] And yeah most of those useful snippets are for tracking, but actually several privacy solutions like cookie management platforms can be held inside a tag manager as well. To me it's still worth it because if I block those CMPs along with GTM it means no banner and no agreeing to any tracking.