2y ago

Google engineers want to make ad-blocking (near) impossible

stackdiary.com

568 comments

And then the plan to force everyone to abandon Firefox whether they like it or not.
Implement the misfeatures.
Movie and music websites will be the first to announce requiring DRM to be able to watch movies or listen to tunes.
The banks will be next. "For your safety, you must use an Official Approved Browser™ to be allowed access to your money!"
Then ecommerce sites. "You must have DRM enabled to be allowed to buy anything."
Then comes the social media sites. For your safety, of course...
At that point, the userbase of anything that's not Chrome or not DRM'd to death will be so eroded that virtually everyone else will abandon Firefox support, DRM will get enabled by default. Also, comes the lobbyists to Congress demanding changes to the DMCA to throw users in prison who dare to try to crack the DRM to block ads. "Ad-blocking is stealing!"
- Just means I'll have the shittiest Chromebook I can buy used, for access to the sites you just listed, and my Linux laptop for everything else. If their non-financial, non-commerce site won't let me in with my adblocking Linux machine, I just won't go there. There will be lots of site still, run by us, that don't do this shit, and they'll get my traffic.
  
  And I can bet that Google will spy on your home network from that shitty chromebook
  
  Vlans babe!!
  
  They already do that from my Android phone, and I'm sure as hell not going Apple. Linux phones aren't there yet, maybe in a few years, but I'll still need an Android phone for the same reasons I'd need a Chromebok, bank apps will never support Linux phones. And yeah, like everybody said, VLANs. I already have one for untrusted IoT devices, I'll just spin up another for Chromebooks.
  
  Not mine. I have a VLAN for that.
  
  Yeah VLANs seem like a viable option for the average user. ;-)
  
  It's true, but you can say that about almost anything. For example, for the "average" user lemmy is confusing compared to reddit.
  Besides, I'm just talking about how I tackle diseases inside my network, not what the average user should do.
  
  Creating an account on lemmy.world is not much more difficult than creating one on reddit. Configurating VLANs is another story.
  
  I have a router that can do it. Then I realized it felt like work to learn it so I stopped.
  
  Just means I’ll have the shittiest Chromebook I can buy
  Google Exec: "But you did buy it, yes?"
  
  Not from them! They don't make a dime when I buy yours.
  
  My thoughts on buying used Nintendo games. Love the IPS hate how Nintendo treats people. I'll gladly buy the new Pokémon game from you for 2 quid less than retail.
  
  Also gotta make sure it doesn't "expire" or be the sucker buying ewaste that's "no longer supported"
- This right here is what has always scared me. The internet is getting more and more controlled and locked down as the years go on. The general population will not take up for, Linux, Firefox, etc. Neither will the services we now rely upon like banking etc. So we will be forced.
  
  I think it was always sketch from the beginning that governments and educational institutions used proprietary software. Too much money changing hands. Too many opaque business dealings. Too many cogs who don't care to understand, though they're not unreachable. Louis Rossman, the Mac repair guy from YouTube has done a lot of pro-consumer, pro-freedom videos lately and a few of my non-nerdy friends have really had light bulbs go off for them.
- I don't think any of this would stop me from using FF for day to day browsing.
  2 - At this point I'd just pirate it. I don't care. If you're going to be hostile to paying customers, I'm going to be a non-paying customer again.
  3 - Separate banking app. Not bothered about desktop banking
  4 - Fine I'll support local businesses where possible, and use dedicated apps or if necessary Chrome (preferably sandboxed) specifically for shopping where not.
  5 - Social media was a mistake anyway, already deleted Twitter, I need very little excuse to get rid of Facebook as well.
  Honestly I think this is just the end phase of "Web 2.0" as I remember all this shit being labelled at the time. We managed fine with independent forums etc before and will manage again.
  Edit: I love the irony that people are killing off Reddit due to API access but the only way I've been able to post on lemmy.world is via the website. Connect app? Nope!
  
  Pretty much on board with this plan and already moving that direction step by step. Last year I started my deGoogling process again including switching to Firefox and working towards a gApps free phone. This year I mostly left Reddit. When the YouTube adblock stuff started coming up I've been waiting... show me one un-blockable ad, I fucking double dog dare you YouTube.
  We're ripe for a video revolution because content creators might be the only people more pissed at YouTube than the users. I kind of disengaged when everyone started having to imply controversial topics or use similar sounding words. That was too far for me and if I can't speak freely, or I have to listen to a bunch of people constantly self-censor, I will freely find my way to the door in search of greener pastures.
  Facebook popped this shit up on me the other day that said "Your AdBlocker will prevent you from seeing important updates from your Friends! Disable it now." Important updates from my friends you say? Like the ones where my naive friends like a random super-popular post and get inadvertently subscribed to a page and later that page takes out an ad and my friends name gets put under it like "Billy Bob likes this corporate swill" Never gonna happen. If I can't use it without an ad blocker I'm deleting what I can and moving on. If I'm paying for a product, I'll pay for one that puts the benefit to the user as their first priority.
  Thanks for letting me rant on your comment. Here's to hoping the internet somehow gets less shitty. :)
- Then ecommerce sites. “You must have DRM enabled to be allowed to buy anything.”
  I'm actually not sure about this one. Money is money. If I'm a vendor, and a bunch of bots want to give me money, I say bring it on. Why would any ecommerce vendor add that layer of friction, which could actually prevent a user from buying something from them? What's in it for the vendor?
  Seems to me the more likely anti-consumer hell is a points dystopia leveraged by monopolistic companies. Like apple, microsoft, or disney moving to some sort of loyalty points system where you can only buy their products using a currency and credit system that they control. Like, 'stream this movie using your disney points card'. We're not far off from that really.
- Hi. I finally have the balls to ask, what is DRM? I am kind of a neophyte in all tech matters. But I managed to get out of Reddit because it was full of baits and ridden with apple ads. And so I like this new platform, reminds me of the good old gamefaqs forums days. Hope all this slicker simpler UI from and for users never die…
  
  Digital Rights Management. AKA the stuff that's supposed to prevent unauthorized copying and suchlike, but in practice just means the pirates have a better experience than legit customers.
- To all of mentioned above from the bottom of my heart

568 comments