5
points
1vuio0pswjnm7
Joined 15,535 karma
- How French spies, police and military personnel are betrayed by advertising data
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/pixels/article/2025/12/13/how-fren...
- It is well-known as a result of the expert reports in US v Google that generally software users do not change defaults
Whereas providing an option or a setting that the user must locate and change doesn't really mean much. Few users will ever see it let alone decide to change it
For example, why pay 22 billion to be "the default" if users can just change the default setting
- Make it a compile-time option
./configure --disable-ai - "... meaning that typosquatting may actually be underexploited."
Missing from the paper is an examination of web user behaviour
Over time, so-called "direct navigation" where the domain name, e.g., example.com, was typed into the browser address bar, has declined. By the time Google terminated "Adsense for domains" in 2012 IMO it had managed to systematically subsume most of the traffic and associated revenue from the typosquatting/domain parking racket
https://web.archive.org/web/20250320184725if_/https://domain...
With the introduction of the so-called "omnibar" or "omnibox" in Firefox^1 and Chrome, typographical errors in domain names are submitted as "searches" to a company that sells ad services. For example, Safari, Firefox, Chrome all sending search traffic to Google, LLC. From the DoJ antitrust litigation we know that Google has been paying ridiculously large sums of money to various companies for this traffic
1. Firefox originally called this the "awesome bar"
https://web.archive.org/web/20250927011424if_/https://www.cn...
Not to mention increasingly common user practice of direct navigation to a search engine webpage, e.g., google.com, then searching for the desired website, e.g., example.com
As everyone knows, one company, in some cases through acquisitions and/or anticompetitive conduct, came to control 1. search, 2. "the web browser", 3. online advertising services on the open web, 4. operating systems (mobile, "chromebook"), ...
If parked domains only get traffic from "direct navigation",^2 then it stands to reason that such traffic has declined as it has been increasingly captured by advertising-sponsored "default browsers" and, ultimately, Google. IMO, it makes sense that domain parking as a means of delivering ads and generating revenue would give way to these domains becoming unregistered or registered to malware distributers or the like
What are the registration histories for the unregistered edit distance 1 typosquatting domains. Consider the number that are "currently unregistered" versus "never before registered"
2. Perhaps the registrants are using other ways to send traffic to these domains
- Perhaps of interest
There is an 80-character limit on titles
This title is 75 characters
- I use a text-only browser as an offline HTML reader
I make HTTP requests with a TCP client
There are no "false positives"
I only request the resources that I want, e.g., the HTML from the primary domain, JSON from the API domain, etc.
I also use custom filters written in C to extract the information I want from the retreived HTML or JSON and transform it into SQL or "pretty print"
There is nothing to "block" because I'm not using software that automatically tries to request resources I do not want from domains I never indicated I wanted to contact
- In terms of majorities and minorities, HN commenters do not represent "almost all users"
There are some web users who are online 24/7
There are others who may prefer to stay offline
A wide variety of people use the web for a wide variety of purposes
HN commenters are a tiny sliver of "all users" and "all purposes"
As such, HN commenters are not qualified to opine on behalf of "almost all users" as almost all users do not comment on HN or elsewhere on the web. Almost all users prefer to express their opinions about the web, if any, offline
- "It annoys me that big-tech marketing has made most people believe that "personalised advertising" means they get ads which are more "useful" to them."
"relevant" is another term seen in addition to "useful"
But "relevant" is relative
For example, "relevant" to what?
It's only if Big Tech has collected data about the ad target and, e.g., made some guess about their intent, that the ads could be "relevant"
Whether the ads are truly "relevant" is a question for the reader. The term "relevant" might just be marketing fluff
Either way, Big Tech will keep the data vacuum humming
- Perhaps the power of "collecting" is even greater than "consuming"
For example, collecting the thoughts, questions, aspirations, etc. of "AI" users. Much of this appears to be personal or confidential hence the recent OpenAI anouncement about turning over "private chats" to plaintiffs' counsel in copyright infringement litigation
https://sites.google.com/view/elizaarchaeology/blog/3-weizen...
The original "AI chatbot" from the 1960's, "ELIZA", was not "trained on" (it did not consume) much data at all in today's terms. Yet it could solicit larger amounts of data from users who anthropomorphised the computer
If data collection is a goal, as it is with today's Silicon Valley companies, then this is arguably a very effective hack
The "AI" only needs to seem realistic to such individuals
- Actual title: "Hack Reveals the a16z-Backed Phone Farm Flooding TikTok With AI Influencers"
- Original web clients were not designed for (today's) ads. Graphics were optional. There was no Javascript
I even still use the original line mode browser and other utilties in the 1995 w3c-libwww from time to time
The "modern" protocols are handled by the local forward proxy not the client
TLS1.3, HTTP/2, QUIC, etc.
- "The web is unusable without a proper Adblock"
Unusable for the commenter perhaps, based on his choices, but not unusable in an absolute sense
For example, I have been using the web without an adblock for several decades.^1 I see no ads
Adblocking is only necessary when one uses a popular graphical web browser
When I use an HTTP generator and a TCP client then no "adblock" is necessary
When I use a text-only browser then no "adblock" is necessary
Websites that comprise "the web" are only one half of the ad delivery system
The other half is the client <--- user choice
Firefox is controlled and distribuited by an entity that advocates for a "healthy online advertising ecosystem" and sends search query data to an online advertising services company called Google in exchange for payment. Ex-Mozilla employees left to join Google and start another browser called "Chrome"
These browsers are designed to deliver advertising. That's why an "adblock" extension is needed
When one uses a client that is not controlled and distributed by a company that profits from advertising services, that is not designed to deliver advertising, then an "adblock" may not be needed. I also control DNS and use a local forward proxy
The web is "usable" with such clients. For example, I read all HN submissions using clients that do not deliver or display ads. I am submitting this comment without using a popular graphical web browser
1. Obviously there are some exceptions, e.g., online banking, e-commerce, etc. For me, this is a small minority of web usage
The web is usuable with a variety of clients, not only the ones designed to deliver ads
- Amid polarization, opposition to Michigan data centers cuts across political lines
https://www.mlive.com/news/2025/12/amid-polarization-opposit...
Data center proposed for Downtown Lansing would be first of its kind in US
https://www.wilx.com/2025/11/05/data-center-proposed-downtow...
At least 16 sites eyed for data centers in Michigan amid AI boom. Here's where
https://www.mlive.com/news/2025/12/at-least-16-sites-eyed-fo...
"The man from Deep Green, who earlier repeatedly reiterated his intention to be a "good neighbor," responded by saying "I get it, you're Luddites."
https://www.lansingcitypulse.com/stories/opinion,171738
Residents protest data centers outside Michigan Capitol as debates rage on
"One of the speakers, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, took the podium first."
https://www.wilx.com/2025/12/16/data-center-protest-outside-...
Michigan data center developments raise concerns over water and power use
https://www.9and10news.com/2025/12/12/michigan-data-center-d...
Activists seeking a statewide moratorium on new AI data centers to rally in Lansing next week
https://michiganadvance.com/briefs/activists-seeking-a-state...
At the same time, data center being proposed for Lansing, NY also drawing opposition from local residents
https://www.sierraclub.org/atlantic/finger-lakes/blog/2025/1...
- Alternative to archive.is
x=https://www.ft.com/content/c5f9380e-df86-42a9-a387-a0d5e04ad45f (echo resolve www.ft.com:443:199.232.82.46 echo http1.1 echo tlsv1.3 echo url=$x)|curl -vv -HAccept: -A"Mozilla/5.0 (Java) outbrain" -K/dev/stdin > 1.htm firefox ./1.htm
. . .
(e) compromises the privacy of users."
Compromising the privacy of internet users was unethical and unacceptable
Now, for companies that have popular websites but nothing to sell, it's a "business model"