Replying to @null and @koalie, @marcosc, @nabihasyed, @themarkup
It's because you're not used to seeing me with a shirt on.
♥ 1
December 2020
318 tweets
Replying to @advantagepeter and @peterhgillies, @nabihasyed, @themarkup
Haha thanks! Stay put in case SCOTUS reads this 😁
♥ 1
Replying to @jarroddicker
I miss dive bars most. I miss exchanging spittle with drunk strangers standing too close.
♥ 3
@PrincetonCITP is a great institution and this programme looks like an amazing opportunity. If I had a bachelor's degree I'd want to apply 😎
Quoting a tweet by @random_walker ↗
♥ 1
Having a good time preparing for Wednesday’s DLI seminar with @idonibrasco. It’s open to the public, don’t hesitate to drop by!
dli.tech.cornell.edu/seminars/AdTec…
♥ 3↺ 1
Yes indeed: IRC did all of this. If anyone ever asks you the difference between an engineering solution and an actual product, you now have a number you can answer with. nytimes.com/2020/12/01/tec…
♥ 43↺ 7
Replying to @ACBrewst
This looks really cool, I love the idea behind the model!
How one defines the future of advertising:
1. Panic
2. Panic
3. Panic
4. Profit?
♥ 16↺ 1
Replying to @julien51
Oh that is entirely true. It’s not the products’ fault, though: we have so far failed to invent ways to monetise protocols that can be competitive. So platforms win.
♥ 3
Replying to @descopemore
You have to distinguish two groups. One group keeps proposing the same solution that is always hashed emails. The other group keeps proposing marginal improvements on bird acronyms.
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Replying to @stshank
Thanks!
Replying to @nicomen
No, but we keep building protocols around business models that don’t match what most products use. We shouldn’t be surprised if the result is that no one makes money (and therefore nicely designed products) using protocols over platforms.
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Replying to @__apf__
OMG I hadn't even realised I missed this. It is the best way to read. And then the joy of going to bed and realising you can read some more!
♥ 11
Replying to @julien51
Oh I completely agree that that's THE core promise there. I hope it works out. It has yet to mainstream and develop a set of reusable, commonly understood practices to make protocols profitable.
♥ 1
Replying to @lukemulks and @descopemore
The challenge is to pick a hash and salt that makes them spell another bird name.
♥ 3
Replying to @Chronotope
I mean — what have publishers done for this to turn out differently? It’s essentially an axiom that advertising has to be intermediated; making everything about intermediaries means that part of the ecosystem will keep bloating until we stop feeding it.
♥ 2
So, low hanging fruit question: would a standard API to buy direct automatically help?
♥ 3
Replying to @null and @Miel_vds, @julien51
They’re not monetising the protocol, they’re monetising default search engine placement or strategic objectives. It’s not a great model for browsers, and it’s not a great model to emulate either.
♥ 1
Replying to @fatemehx2 and @lukemulks, @descopemore
As the saying goes, you can’t fix privacy without breaking some eggs.
♥ 3
Replying to @fatemehx2 and @lukemulks, @descopemore
VULTURE
Vague, User-Last, Transparency-free, Use of Registration Emails.
It works well with the acronym for Probabilistic Identity Graph.
♥ 15↺ 1
Replying to @null and @Miel_vds, @julien51
There’s low level, infrastructural stuff — but it’s rare and hard to reproduce.
Replying to @lukemulks and @fatemehx2, @descopemore
Thank you, thank you all!
When it comes to BS acronyms, I’d like to think I could play in the big leagues. Just ask the GPC people, @ashk4n basically had to pin me to the floor so it wouldn’t be called something much cuter.
♥ 6
Pandemic vibes.
♥ 5
Replying to @briankardell and @tabatkins
I also don't recommend trying to go through a heavy glass door without opening it first. It's surprising how painful smashing your face into something at no more than regular walking speed is.
♥ 3
Replying to an earlier tweet of mine (no longer available)
It's impossible to reach a conclusion in either direction from what's written there, unfortunately.
♥ 1
Replying to @null and @thattridentdude
I don't think so, I haven't seen the material submitted by Facebook but from first principles I don't see why it wouldn't be possible to make scanning safe.
Replying to @johnwilander and @Chronotope
If only that were the only problem with that piece of propaganda...
♥ 4
Replying to @montezumachavez and @ariezrawaldman, @chopraftc, @finnmyrstad, @mario_gug, @daniellecitron, @airavn, @ErnaniCerasaro
It's a dark world, Luis, be careful out there!
♥ 5↺ 1
Don't you sometimes wish you were in a line of work that didn't make you angry all the time?
♥ 27↺ 1
Replying to @publictorsten
Maybe I should do that, have my peaceful hobbies as work and just look at the dumpstech fire for fun now and then.
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Replying to @Chronotope
I started out just wanting to make tech do good things for people; it looked like it could. Entering my 25th year on the job it feels like the best I’ve managed is barely treading water.
Indeed there’s no way to fix anything without falling in. Now looking at order management…
♥ 1
Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn’t just give up and go work for the platforms. Nice comfy people who just pat each other on the back that they’re doing great and are a gift to the world, ignore all the problems as coming from cranky jealous unrealistic people.
Seems comfy.
♥ 4
Replying to @kendimalibot
I don’t know, I can think of a few non-boring problems in, say, the philosophy of science that I could be working on instead!
But you do have a point and I’m stealing the pic.
♥ 1
Replying to @publictorsten and @Chronotope
I don’t know, it still seems quite comfy when compared to what reality is like outside their bubble.
♥ 2
There’s a new tech blog from @TheOnion and it’s the *best* thing. blog.google/products/news/…
♥ 38↺ 1
Replying to @null and @dauwhe, @TheOnion
Yes, I thought it was really cool of Google to sponsor satire that way.
♥ 1
Replying to @ewlamy and @TheOnion
"What anticompetitive effects? This was financed by the fund we set up to pay for previous anticompetitive behaviour, it can't be anticompetitive!"
♥ 3
Replying to @cwilso
I know... I thought doing product work instead of ecosystem problems would help, but instead I have got angry about bad UX and horrendous performance in just about everything 😁
Still, I don't know, philosophy of science maybe?
♥ 1
Replying to @tim_libert
That's the problem, Tim: with my connections and my position, there's quite a bit I could potentially tilt.
Replying to @tim_libert and @nytimes
I know, I have the best team and we've obtained results and influenced others. But there's so much left to fix!
♥ 1
Is the best device for a middle schooler the iPhone SE? We're an Android household for better usability at lower price, but it's a tracking dumpster fire and Google's child account terms are seriously abusive.
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Replying to @null and @icopilots
For whatever it is kids do these days!
Replying to @adambroach
That's fair!
Replying to @_abialas and @femalegazebot
It's also a requirement that my kid doesn't hate me as a result.
♥ 4
Replying to @donohoe and @femalegazebot
Wow, thanks, this is _super_ helpful.
Replying to @DgtlNmd
Can you describe the much higher standards? Has it stopped tracking geo? Do they no longer use forced consent for children?
♥ 1
Replying to @ocdtrekkie
Yeah, I'm not worried at all about performance that's for sure!
Replying to @null and @benlikestocode
Thanks, that looks indeed super helpful and does point towards iOS too.
Replying to @othermaciej
Well, this is a kid's first device, so a reasonable price seems like a good idea. For me, I tend to follow the kind of reasoning you do for laptops and always get the most expensive MBP (or near it). For phones though, I feel they tend to last 3 years anyway :)
Replying to @stimpee
I think people overestimate how much you can disable in terms of tracking on Android? As far as I know Android always gets to track your location constantly (unless you disable GPS & WiFi location for everything). (…)
The limit ad tracking flag means it provides the exact same tracking information except with a "please don't use" flag. And the child account terms are scandalous.
At the end of the day of course it's a choice between different flavours of dystopian hellscape.
Replying to @null and @benlikestocode
The one thing that made me hesitate was that the macOS parental controls are really terrible (at least last I looked) — but apparently for iOS it's much, much better.
Are we getting platforms for @w3ctag candidates this election?
♥ 2
Replying to @briankardell and @LeaVerou, @openjsf
Lots of quality folks there. I worry that there could be a dispersion of votes.
♥ 4
Just received my copy of "Scientific Realism and the Quantum", and the dust jacket is on backwards! (In fact the spine is wrong too.) I wonder if the folks at @OUPPhilosophy are trying to make a statement.
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"Yes, the adtech bubble is going to burst anytime now."
branded.substack.com/p/yes-the-adte…
♥ 10↺ 5
We worked hard to make our privacy policy readable — I'm psyched to announce that it is now available in Spanish and Chinese too!
nytimes.com/privacy
♥ 19↺ 1
Replying to @MaxGendler and @w3ctag
I got them now!
Replying to @briankardell and @hober, @w3ctag
Is there a Privacy Slate in the making? Adtech members are going to rally to push for pro-tracking, user-hostile positions in the TAG. It won’t make a difference because the TAG won’t decide to break the Web the way they want to, but it’ll be noise.
♥ 4
Replying to @lolrepeatlol and @DgtlNmd
Yeah, that's what I thought, it crossed my mind to put /e/ on an old Samsung but I'm not sure I want to be That Dad 😁
♥ 1
Replying to @kyotonio
In a number of markets and platforms we still run open market programmatic (the blog has details). I hope that we can move away from that entirely some day, but not yet and no timeline is announced!
♥ 1
Replying to @kyotonio
You mean the PP doesn't have a mention of all the improvements we've built? No. The PP is the union of all the things, so if we improve on all products but one then the practice will still be in the PP.
Replying to @kyotonio and @briankardell, @hober, @w3ctag
Yeah, I'm not sure what the hope is there? I mean I welcome participation from all but the things that 51 or Jordan propose are antagonistic to the very basics of the web, so it's unclear that can be productive?
♥ 3
Replying to @kyotonio
That depends on if they only use data that they've gathered first party (and I would argue not from agents such as the browser or OS).
Replying to @kyotonio
The hard thing there is defining controllers, but you make a good point, thanks! I'll see if we can work that and a few extra things in. And link to the blog post!
♥ 1
Replying to @swodinsky
Haha. The truth is I had an iPhone 3G, I mostly recall a pretty bad experience.
♥ 1
Replying to @kyotonio and @briankardell, @hober, @w3ctag
Yeah, I thought that was weird.
Replying to @kyotonio
Yeah. In that case I'm not sure what the objection is. I have my reservations about Apple News, but for other reasons.
♥ 1
Replying to @acfou and @swodinsky
Yeah, VPN is a given, I've been wondering about router level protection too. Especially with a Roku.
♥ 1
Replying to @acfou and @swodinsky
Right, but I've been wondering if that covers Play Services or just the app
♥ 1
Replying to @null and @HelloFillip, @stimpee
Yeah, that's why I have doubts that they ever stop sending data to Google.
Replying to @simcd
OK, thanks!
Replying to @null and @HelloFillip
Agreed, I find it full of dark patterns. And Chrome too.
Apple can have some pretty nasty defaults, though, eg. redirecting from Safari to Apple News for HTTP links.
Replying to @null and @samlustgarten, @HelloFillip
That’s good. But I think it shows us where they want to go. I expect a lot more of that with native apps in the near future.
Replying to @null and @HelloFillip, @samlustgarten
“Less elegant AMP” is a hell of a burn ;)
On mobile, native apps often grab links to their site, and I think they are going to be pushing for a lot more of that. That’s a concern, and it’s opt in from the apps so the anticompetitive case is less crisp.
It’s certainly true that doing that from Apple News was a much bigger grab. It also means they’re using APIs for their own product that I don’t think are available to others.
Replying to @null and @HelloFillip, @samlustgarten
Well, and the 30% tax. That’s why I worry how much they are going to push native on the new silicon.
Replying to @null and @HelloFillip, @samlustgarten
Well yeah, Google have made the open web their walled garden, they control it just like app stores are controlled. So they’re not worried about that :)
Replying to @null and @HelloFillip
Hahaha, no, the ways of deities is that they have their own fights and all we can do is avoid being collateral damage, occasionally steal fire.
Replying to @mc2hampion and @chaals, @briankardell, @LeaVerou, @openjsf
Alternatively, we could make them appreciate the true value of consensus by locking them up in a cage and having them fight until only the right number of candidates remain standing.
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Replying to @cwilso and @briankardell, @chaals, @LeaVerou, @openjsf
That’s a lot of semantics for one day, Chris.
♥ 1
Replying to @cwilso and @briankardell, @chaals, @LeaVerou, @openjsf
Even emojis. You have no shame.
♥ 2
Replying to @jyasskin and @thezedwards
Privacy *and* good looks ;)
Replying to @null and @sivavaid
I get that feeling and I don't even have a PhD they could retract.
Sometimes I fantasise that I'm a morning person and that I get up every day to write as this unfolds.
It must be nice.
♥ 32
Replying to @DorotheaBaur
Hahaha, I’ve wondered the same! Would I finally write more? Is the gain worth the pain? But I always return to @benharnett’s tweet: t.co/LlbZx2v5mD
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Replying to @null and @dansereduick
Before I had kids that’s how it was, yes. I have some fond memories of gorgeous bedtime sunrises.
Replying to @publictorsten and @Chronotope
So… lots of hand-wringing and venting on anonymous forums, and…?
♥ 1
Replying to @recifs and @lhirlimann
I’ve considered it, I have very fond memories of the Lofoten around this time of year where the sun will barely kiss the horizon at 11am, stay there for a few hours during which everything is on fire, and then vanish again in the early afternoon.
My family is less enthused ;)
Replying to @publictorsten and @Chronotope
You get to vent your disagreement, pat one another on the back that you have the ethics to stand up to your company, and then go back to collecting pay that is mostly generated from that same unethical behaviour.
Doesn’t sound so bad?
♥ 2
Replying to @recifs and @lhirlimann
Throw in the occasional aurora seen from a boat and it’s pretty idyllic!
Replying to @publictorsten and @Chronotope
I don’t think this is America, more like it’s how Big Tech works.
♥ 1
Replying to @BostonJoan
Thanks for asking this — I had the same question (I’ve mostly been copying the style of others and hoping no one notices), and now I have much to read :)
♥ 1
Replying to @gabrielazanfir
Oooh, this is a good post! Sadly, it is being implemented very much as a notice & choice regime, I think because that’s the easiest way for many to think about it.
♥ 1
Next time someone says “CCPA is opt out, GDPR is opt in,” someone suggests “transparency & choice” addresses GDPR concerns, or your adtech friends talk about trafficking in consent, this is a good read to suggest, from @gabrielazanfir.
gzf.medium.com/10-reasons-why…
♥ 13↺ 3
Replying to @annbass
I agree it’s probably genetic, it certainly feels that way! The only way I know to experience it is to fly west every week :-D
♥ 1
Replying to @annbass and @DorotheaBaur, @benharnett
I can’t seem to find the link, but I recall reading about how if you correct for the fact that society clearly has been organised for annoying early risers, then late risers are not less productive.
♥ 2
Replying to @LeaVerou and @briankardell, @cwilso, @chaals, @openjsf
Always the contrarian, that guy.
♥ 2
This isn’t the detail that anyone is going to focus on, but in this release Facebook is listing The New York Times as… a platform? about.fb.com/news/2020/12/l…
♥ 9↺ 3
Replying to @tim_libert
Maybe we should let the platforms know that they need to stop copying our work on curating and distributing stories? Also comments.
♥ 1
Wow, the AGs’ complaint against Facebook is even more about privacy an the FTC’s — it’s @DinaSrinivasan throughout, with decreased privacy as evidence of monopoly power (since users lose quality).
If I were Google reading this, I’d be worried. Same practices, much bigger scale.
♥ 85↺ 32
Replying to @tombetts
Should we ask them to stop duplicating, hmm, content curation? Comments? News products?
♥ 1
Replying to @can and @kateconger, @ShiraOvide, @lisafleisher
For what it's worth I haven't tried this, uh, implement, but I'd like to point out nevertheless that it's genius.
♥ 2
Replying to @BuggeErik and @DinaSrinivasan
I think that's a possibility, though the argument is stronger if considering Google as a whole rather than just the ads business. But yes, the way in which they treat publisher data is very strong evidence of excessive market power!
♥ 1↺ 1
Replying to @FOSSfirefighter
Even "failed" antitrust actions have an impact. Today's Microsoft isn't anything like what it was.
Replying to @null and @benlikestocode, @WKCosmo
Hahahaha, thanks Ben.
Replying to @JBSemerdjian and @stereokinou, @palberola, @versac
Tu fais une Teams pour ne pas attraper la Covid à la Noël.
♥ 2
I'd love to have these accessible furniture designs. (via @recifs) core77.com/posts/103624/D…
♥ 120↺ 34
Replying to @__apf__ and @recifs
I'm so tired of tame, boring colours!
Billie Berthezène Berjon (05 April 2007—14 December 2020) passed away purring quietly earlier today.
♥ 37
She never did quite get that squirrel.
♥ 3
She did, however, manage to catch more than one sandwich.
♥ 5
Replying to @null and @avadacatavra
Thank you! ❤️
Replying to @null and @amyvdh
Thank you! ❤️ Yes, she was a good kitty. Well, and also a bad kitty, but that’s how the best kitties are.
♥ 1
Replying to @AmeliasBrain
Thank you 🐱🖤
Replying to @_abialas and @femalegazebot
Oh I did not know, I’m so sorry to hear that :((( Big hugs to you too, may they rest in purr.
♥ 1
Replying to @julien51
Thanks Julien!
Billie also had a great sense of humour. One of her favourite jokes she pulled off for years on end.
She was a tiny black cat, so she could hide very effectively in the small space between the nightstand and the bed. Every evening, she would do that on my wife’s side — and wait.
♥ 7
She could wait hours if she had to, the point was to be forgotten about.
Then, when my wife would reach her sleepy hand out of bed to switch the light off, she would pounce brutally and grab her arm, before running off, rejoicing in all the screaming.
♥ 1
If my wife remembered to look at caught her, she would stop doing it for a few days — just long enough to instil a sense of renewed normalcy. And then she would strike again!
You could almost hear her giggle.
Tell me there isn’t a theory of mind at work in there.
♥ 4
Replying to @dcreemer
Thank you!
Replying to @helenedelye
C’est bien elle: trouver le moyen de se rendre allergique puis aller insister auprès de l’intéressée!
♥ 1
There are papers on how organisms need to process their environment’s information efficiently in order to predict it and survive, but is there anything good on how they must also be illegible/unpredictable (protect information about themselves) to predators too?
♥ 5
Replying to @seanmmcdonald
Ha, there’s camouflage, but not just. An organism that always follows the same stimuli will eventually be eaten to extinction (unless it gets farmed).
Has anyone written on why hackers went, for all intents and purposes, extinct? It's easy to blame various evil empires, but the eradication was so swift and complete, there has to be more. Elitism? Lack of diversity? Toxic in-fighting? Bureaucracy is really stronger?
♥ 9↺ 2
I think that's some of it, I mean you take some kids and you give them tons of money, make them feel important, you can be sure they'll eat your mission up and think it's for the users, but it feels like blame shifting too.
Quoting a tweet by @dmarti ↗
♥ 4
Replying to @danbarker
You see many of us left around?
Replying to @tim_libert
There's a precious few left! But most people wouldn't even know what we are.
♥ 2
Replying to @null and @ystvns, @BiellaColeman, @EvanSelinger, @_Ryan_Ellis
No, I don't mean underground hacking culture, on the contrary I mean people who consider themselves hackers existing in sufficient numbers and with enough visibility that public outlets felt the need to explain it regularly, with clichés.
I'm aware of lots of smaller groups here and there, but they feel like a lot of splintered microcultures rather than the working doctrine of major programming languages.
It was a pretty bad book (IMHO) but if the Hacker Ethic came out today I'm not even sure that people would know what it's about (or care)? Back then it was debated quite extensively, even at times in the mainstream.
♥ 1
Replying to @null and @KBTechEnt
That... makes sense.
Replying to @LinuxLiaison and @danbarker
OK, where? I see the security part of the family is still around and well, but the rest feels very scattered at best.
Replying to @navtis and @tim_libert
I think that may be true, if only in the sense that hacking is old as the rocks, but without the loose unity it lacks cultural impact and a presence in how tech sees its future, no?
Replying to @mala and @danbarker
But is it actually a community? I see things here and there that I would recognise as hacking but would the people in there see it that way? Half the answers I'm getting seem to be "what do you mean by hacker" or assume it's security folks!
Replying to @timb_machine and @BiellaColeman, @ystvns, @EvanSelinger, @_Ryan_Ellis
I don't think it's entirely extinct either, I know some of us lurk with a different influence since that's what I'm doing.
But it feels completely gone from the futures tech imagines for itself.
Replying to @BiellaColeman and @ystvns, @EvanSelinger, @_Ryan_Ellis
That seems entirely uncalled for, especially given that I explicitly flagged lack of diversity as a weakness?
Replying to @null and @ystvns, @timb_machine, @BiellaColeman, @EvanSelinger, @_Ryan_Ellis
Tech futures of autonomy and self-sovereignty that could simultaneously be subversive and put into production. Enough of a common philosophy that you could walk into any place tech happened and find one, travel and stay at strangers' places because they liked that commit once.
I'm hearing lots of good input from the answers though, so thanks!
Replying to @BiellaColeman and @ystvns, @EvanSelinger, @_Ryan_Ellis
I was talking about the 90s and early 2000s, but clearly I've said something to anger you given your overall tone so I guess it's best I bid you good night. Thanks for the links!
Replying to @mala and @danbarker
I know it's a weird question, I'm trying to put my finger on the change. I know there were always many communities, but I felt like there was a common core of sorts? Also, the idea of a hackerspace feels a bit weird to me, it's something you'd do everywhere 😁
Is anyone else seeing data loss after the last @RoamResearch update? I've lost at least one page and many articles seem to have had their title reverted.
I'll know more when I compare to backups, but this is worrying...
A first pass at the diffs show @RoamResearch inexplicably deciding to change the title of most (but not all) of my notes that have a Unicode prefix, and to delete the file that explains the prefix convention, but the rest seems intact.
Weird, worrying bug.
Replying to @DocDre
No. No, I really did not. But you've already made your mind up that that's what I meant anyway, so let's leave it at that.
Replying to @DocDre
Are you saying that you decided to try to shame me with a quote tweet but you weren't really sure and hadn't made your mind up?
Replying to @DocDre
I respect that, and it's entirely possible that I'm wrong in my overall assessment of hacking today. But no, white maleness is really not what I am mourning. In fact, how could I mourn what is thriving so?
Replying to @DocDre
Yeah, it might be my European pov but the SV/VC culture always seemed entirely foreign to hacker culture. More interested in money than tech and what it could do to power.
♥ 1
Replying to @espadrine and @mala, @danbarker
No, it was using tech to shift power to those who needed more of it 😁
♥ 1
This is an amazing opportunity that will no doubt produce some fascinating results.
Quoting a tweet by @random_walker ↗
♥ 5
Replying to @future_email and @MalloryKnodel, @mala, @danbarker
I certainly don't miss that either.
Replying to @Chronotope and @dennisnahas
Yes. The expectation is now that a platform or startup will do the innovation and the company will buy it.
♥ 1
Replying to @jpmarcum and @SoniaBaschez
The relative sizes of my bookshelves and wine rack put me squarely in agreement with you, but then again: why choose?
Also, a great remedy to the anxiety of opening a bottle is to drink it 😁
♥ 5
Replying to @jwajsberg and @dietrich, @johnwilander, @brucel
The famous @brucel curriculum is just what you need to understand this.
♥ 2
Before I get to writing my own converter, have any of you very fine people built a tool to migrate from @RoamResearch to @NotionHQ?
♥ 1
Replying to @0gust1 and @RoamResearch, @NotionHQ
The first thing I did was ask for it :) Indeed, it would make my life easier. Waiting is a problem, though: Roam keeps losing my data, it’s really bad.
♥ 1
Replying to @Annaleen
Ooof. I was expecting it to hurt but I was hoping a little less!
Either way, congrats! Looking forward to reading it eventually!
Replying to @dietrich and @jwajsberg, @johnwilander, @brucel
Lots of French people in NY you know.
One thing that’s interesting with this ad is that Facebook is basically explaining to the world that it can’t run effective ads without third-party tracking.
People often claim that better privacy “helps the platforms.” Facebook’s answer here is “hell no it doesn’t.”
♥ 25↺ 15
Replying to @johnwilander and @brucel
I mean, this is clearly in support of stronger European integration. I approve.
♥ 1
Replying to @johnwilander and @brucel
It gets better if you throw some ananas on top of it, too.
♥ 1
Replying to @espadrine
They took them our in a lot of premium newspapers. Clearly they’re targeting opinion makers.
Replying to @espadrine
No, for policy purposes. They might be hoping to show that privacy is harmful, that Apple is anticompetitive, etc.
♥ 1
Replying to @espadrine
Well, they’re protecting a cash cow valued at $800bn. Things get scary fast :)
♥ 2
They made a tweet and a video before even posting anything to their site…
Quoting a tweet by @TXAG ↗
♥ 2
Replying to @slayser8
I mean, I didn’t know ties came in that… colour?
Replying to @slayser8
Maybe there’s red but it’s too neon to register on camera.
I mean, yes, we’re all in awe of how Facebook and Google colluded through a direct agreement to own advertising together on top of their respective anticompetitive practices.
But what I really want to find out is: which Star Wars character did they name that deal after?
♥ 665↺ 130
Every time I point out that AMP is bad, someone from Google will try to tell me it’s not.
The @TXAG complaint indicates that Google has documented exactly how bad AMP is, and ties it to a deliberate play to prevent competition from header bidding.
Quoting a tweet by @tenuous ↗
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Replying to @capibarameme and @qbeeert
I tried, it doesn’t fit!
Replying to @Sally_Hubbard
Given the severity of what they’ve found, I wonder if there was even really a choice? I mean, I’m no expert, but it looks pretty bad and pretty well documented.
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Replying to @tim_libert
Right?!? I know it’s easy to fall into blaming the platforms for everything and I always try to thread an understanding that doesn’t rely on malice.
And then just go and sign a deal, like on paper, that’s basically “let’s fuck everyone else over lol!”
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Replying to @thezedwards and @DinaSrinivasan
What I find astounding is that we’ve all been looking at cookie crumbs to see if there might be something shady; meanwhile they just went ahead and. wrote. that. collusion. into. a. deal. 🤯
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Replying to @epc_angela
Hahaha, I don’t think they have the right humour to actually do that but this one is good!
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Replying to @tim_libert
I assumed that they have people trained to assert privilege and that at least some of the time it must work, you know?
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Replying to @tim_libert
I mean, yes, I’ve definitely seen that first hand, but also: what part of colluding with your biggest competitor to screw over the rest of the industry, publishers, and generally democracy doesn’t register as at least possibly illegal?
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Replying to @tim_libert
I unfortunately can’t discuss that in public, but I’ve seen it very much first hand from big platforms people and it’s astounding to watch.
There’s often debate about which of Facebook or Google is worst for privacy, but the fun only really starts when they do it together!
Quoting a tweet by @adrjeffries ↗
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Replying to @martinhoffmann
It could be that feature and still problematic (if I’m reading this correctly). Both companies know what the impact of design decisions, defaults, etc. is. If FB prompted users to backup to Drive with the intent that G could use it, as it seems to say, that’s pretty bad.
Replying to @kvnweb and @mcnees, @TXAG
I hear there could be another suit dropping tomorrow. If it’s Giuliani who ends Android’s geolocation surveillance we’ll know for sure.
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Replying to @ilberg79
I saw! I’ve been wondering if the second is supposed to be a twist on the first, but the length difference makes it a hard guess.
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I've been calling this Google's "Strip Mall" model for the Web. This is what I've been pointing out Web Packaging enables.
I wonder what the people who *swore* to me that wasn't the case would say now if they were allowed to speak.
Quoting a tweet by @adrjeffries ↗
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Replying to @montezumachavez and @tressiemcphd
There is no good reason — people just copy bad decisions because they think it’s good practice. It’s like preventing pasting to password fields, maddening.
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Replying to @alextcone
Not as much as Apple or Google (they almost did get their own browser started, but that didn’t happen — must be a good story there), but they do have a very noticeable presence in browsing through in-app browsers.
Replying to @alextcone
Oh, overall I agree, that's why I think we need a specific legal framework for user agents that ensures they work for the user and only the user. Fiduciaries are good for that.
Seeing the @TXAG present evidence that AMP was intended to harm publishers shouldn't make us forget that Core Web Vitals is more of the same.
As currently designed, the CWV strongly incentivise AMP while pretenting to create competition and openness. ⬇️
♥ 15↺ 4
1. Set metrics, say everyone can compete.
2. Make the metrics *rank* content (instead of set a UX threshold).
3. Give AMP an arbitrary leg up by preloading, to force publishers to still use AMP to be competitive in SEO.
4. Profit!
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Just a suggestion, for the health of the Web: what would you all think if we got a group together, with the CAT folks and the AMP AC, to peacefully wind AMP down? Put whatever's good in standards, remove the rest, have browsers to pick canonical.
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Replying to @fatemehx2 and @thezedwards, @DinaSrinivasan
I know, right? Vibe:
Quoting a tweet by @JYSexton ↗
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You know the Web has to be in a bad place when choosing between reading more of the Texas complaint about Google and watching a new season of The Expanse is actually a hard decision.
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Replying to @alextcone
I'm not sure that the remedies from the case matter very much. These cases tend to last forever in market terms. All we need is for them to stop cheating so egregiously for just long enough that we can open the Web anew and agree on an architecture for ads on the Web.
Replying to @null and @MadronaCitizen
Hahaha, nice.
Replying to @alextcone
We have a new hand with some cards to play, instead of just having to accept the yoke and bend the knee. I don't know if that's optimism, but it's a shot!
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Replying to @swodinsky
I legit searched for lists of evil or annoying Star Wars characters earlier and I knew maybe a third?
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Replying to @xmatt
I don't recall?
Replying to @xmatt
Yes! It's coming back. Damn, that's just the icing on the cherry on the cake.
Replying to @othermaciej
It's good, too!
Replying to @_RDemol and @pixeldetracking
There are other ways of conveying conversions.
“Inside the chaos of brand safety technology”: a cool investigation into how “brand safety” adtech companies defund the media.
branded.substack.com/p/inside-the-c…
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Replying to @megangrA and @lutherlowe
I thought that was to distinguish it from the other brands in the FACEBOOK cube?
Replying to @sephr
There are ways of doing WP right! But IMHO the only use case that actually requires the browser to lie about the content’s retrieval URL is Google’s strip mall for content idea. We can get the benefits of packaging without that.
Replying to @adactio and @hober, @jason_kint, @edent
Maybe we could sync on this? Our AMP AC rep is out, but I’m interested in figuring the most effective way to put AMP to rest. I wonder if resigning is the most effective, versus having the AC/TSC coordinate moving the Web off AMP.
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The great thing with this tweet is that @googlepubpolicy is making a good case that Google Search was a better user experience in 2000 than it is today.
Quoting a tweet by @googlepubpolicy ↗
♥ 20↺ 4
Anyway, here’s the fact check: themarkup.org/google-the-gia…
Quoting a tweet by @googlepubpolicy ↗
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Replying to @podehaye and @nytimes
These are not what anyone thought you felt, it’s a contextual analysis of the article, and they aren’t bid upon.
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Replying to @vtoubiana and @podehaye, @nytimes
The values are opaque on purpose, to make them harder to use in case a party other than us observes them.
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Replying to @podehaye and @nytimes
Sure, but I think there are some important differences between “put your ad on an article that is likely to elicit sentiment X & we select from the ad server” vs “we’ve analysed what person X probably feels and broadcast that with IDs over RTB”.
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Replying to @rigow
See discussion under that tweet. It's not quite like that.
Have you noticed how excited people get whenever something starts offering RSS?
People want tools that allow them to organise their own information, they don't want Clippy organising the world's information for them.
We just need to figure out the business model for it.
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Replying to @nvbalaji
Indeed. We need to reset how that works. I think we have the opportunity with the shift to greater privacy.
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Replying to @null and @nhoizey
Interesting, will look!
Replying to @jason_kint and @carolecadwalla, @podehaye, @nytimes
As Paul-Olivier saiy,
Quoting a tweet by @podehaye ↗
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Replying to @podehaye and @PrivacyMatters
I didn't say we wouldn't provide them in the subject request. Maybe we should, I think the risks to subjects are limited, but I'm not going to make that determination on my own on Twitter. Feel free to follow up in the request.
Replying to @vtoubiana and @podehaye, @nytimes
The values are opaque on purpose, to make them harder to use in case a party other than us observes them.♥ 4↺ 1
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Replying to @podehaye and @jason_kint, @emptywheel, @nytimes
FB's "Emotional Contagion" is a case we use in internal training to show how things can go wrong. We don't do that.
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Replying to @alextcone and @swodinsky
My theory is that at some point you reach critical mass in the number of people you've fucked over. It's hard to predict when but there's a breaking point, and it's becoming hard to find someone who's not justifiably pissed off at Google and doesn't work there.
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We just gotta learn to work together for a better future!
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Replying to @sephr
One problem there is "intentionally". If Google forces publishers to use it in the same way they force AMP there's nothing intentional about it. You get a system in which your browser says you loaded content from one domain but you actually load from another, that can track you.
There are legit use cases for authentic bundles, but if you remove Google's strip mall use case you would probably design them differently from WP, no?
Replying to @sephr
Lol, that's not at all the case. There are cases in which AMP performs worse, but if you don't use AMP you can kiss goodbye to your search traffic, even if you perform better.
Replying to @sephr
Well, I don't need to wait because it's very obvious from the publisher side. We wouldn't bother with the brittle pile of hacks that AMP is otherwise.
Replying to @joelnagy and @TXAG
If by better user experience you mean degraded Web capabilities and by better ads you mean half the money then we're probably in agreement?
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Replying to @joelnagy and @TXAG
I'm an AMP contributor, I know how it works. I'd just point out that you're replying in a thread that begins with the indication that Google have documented how AMP is bad for publishers.
Replying to @joelnagy and @TXAG
Sure, but it would tend to indicate that a well-produced website would perform even better. AMP isn't magic, once you remove the preloading it's just a framework and some constraints. You can do that without the downsides.
This is a powerful point. The years of innovation that Google, Facebook, and the other monopolies are blocking are years of the future we won't get to experience in our lifetimes.
Quoting a tweet by @HalSinger ↗
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Replying to @prayaagk and @jason_kint, @GeradinLaw
I agree it's scary, but this could very easily come from the @Decathlon app. They likely have retargeting tracking using Facebook. Facebook then uses that information to help others, like @myntra, target.
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This is bad for your privacy, it's also bad for @Decathlon. That's one example of why 3P data controllers are hugely problematic and should be cracked down upon. We need to rearchitect our digital world without cross-context tracking, or we'll structurally lose.
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In case others find it useful, I made this little thing to back up from @NotionHQ to GitHub. github.com/darobin/notion…
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“We suggest grounding expectations of privacy in what they would be outside of the digital realm as that makes it easy for individuals to reason about the usage that may be made of their data.”
innovationaus.com/data-consent-r…
♥ 8↺ 2
Replying to @mnot
There's a lot of work everywhere... That's why I think we'd be more effective if we wrote down a consistent set of privacy expectations for the digital world and pushed for regulatory consistency around them.
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Replying to @swodinsky and @megancgraham, @kfranasz
In fairness, as a genre, dropshipper ads are a form of violence.
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Replying to @lolaodelola and @jkohlmann
The kind of issue that @oluoluoxenfree describes is what I was hoping (no doubt way too naively) to help fix when I started out building @wicg_ and discourse.wicg.io. Easy participation, free, open, modern tooling for discussion...
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Unfortunately, making things easy also means that those who already have power can even more easily take up bandwidth, and much of it has become a way for Google folks to check the "asked the community" box.
I'm unsure how best to fix this.
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Replying to @oluoluoxenfree and @lolaodelola, @jkohlmann, @wicg_
I completely agree, there are just way too many hurdles to participate in standards today. To be clear: I don't think that the WICG is a complete failure, I think it has helped make standards a little more accessible to a few more people, and I think it could improve still.
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It did however turn out to be harder to fix than this stupid optimistic guy thought.
I handed it over to others in the community ~5 years ago so I'm not entirely on top of current status but here are some stats.
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Replying to @oluoluoxenfree and @lolaodelola, @jkohlmann, @wicg_
Thanks 😁 If you have ideas about how it can be made more effective I'd be happy to help, to connect you, etc. More generally, it was meant to be user-driven so if you see a use for it by all means please use it!
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Franchement, je ne vois pas l'intérêt d'un truc amateur et académique comme le Web quand il y a un vrai système solide, industriel, et commercial comme le Minitel déjà en place dans tous les foyers.
Quoting a tweet by @pvnova ↗
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This thread is long, but it is well worth your time. It's an excellent example of how, to understand antitrust in the digital era, one needs to think like Hydra. (via @montezumachavez)
Quoting a tweet by @GregorySCrawfor ↗
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You might read @swodinsky's excellent foray into some lesser-known practices of the adtech ecosystem and think things are fine because third-party cookies are going away.
You'd be wrong! gizmodo.com/the-butt-pajam…
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The people who brought you the assless onesie so they could steal and remonetise Elle's premium audience right on time for Christmas shopping have replacements ready.
They're systematically worse than cookies.
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Some are asking for browsers to provide a universal identifier for everyone, the way that Android still does. Others are selling products to use unresettable identifiers like email addresses (which you use to log in) as identifiers.
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The purpose is always the same: prevent user privacy, remonetise publisher audiences.
That's why we need a much stronger plan to make the web sustainable and trustworthy. See you in 2021! 💋
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I suspect that the reason Facebook likes small businesses is because they buy (more expensive) targeted ads but often lack the means to verify their effectiveness. I wouldn't be surprised if most sophisticated marketers bought broad on Facebook.
Quoting a tweet by @hypervisible ↗
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Replying to @alex_kuhner
A taxidermy cat in a box! It's entirely possible 😁
Replying to @montezumachavez and @hartzog, @profcarroll, @JuliaHlna
I think the GDPR gave consent its chance to shine. The result is complete failure. Instead of toxic data processing we have toxic data processing with dark UI and entitled brokers trading in "consented data" that people have "chosen to share". Burn it all with fire.
♥ 1
The problem isn't so much consent, IMHO, as the fact that most modern data processing - even the good, pro-user kind - is simply not consentable.
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Sometimes it'll take me days of work with access to top data scientists, lawyers, a kick ass team to question my choices, etc. to determine that something is safe. Then I'm supposed to somehow convey that with three sentences and two buttons?
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The real mystery, though, is how @hartzog and @neilmrichards can write smart things faster than I can read them.
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Replying to @montezumachavez and @hartzog, @profcarroll, @JuliaHlna, @neilmrichards
I like that but I worry about enforcement strategies. Do you just grant a PRA and pray for the best?
One approach I think could be fruitful is to look more specifically at the fiduciary duties of software agents (instead of data processors in general).
♥ 3
A huge part of the data that enters the system is through them and we would gain a lot by ensuring they are trustworthy. They're also much much easier to audit and far fewer in numbers. You'd basically look at browsers, operating systems, identity providers.
♥ 3
Sadly, I'm a much slower writer...
♥ 1
Replying to @johnwilander and @acfou, @dsearls, @dmarti, @infotrust_itega, @billdensmore, @funnymonkey, @swodinsky
Part of the problem is that the defaults on these tools are terrible, and even if you configure them right, which can require some know-how, it can be really easy to revert the good setting.
♥ 3↺ 1
In general, Google's attitude to producing compliant tooling is very cavalier. Like, we had to appeal to the AMP AC to get the ability to be CCPA compliant in AMP, and even then support was both late and crap. You can tell they are used to seeing the law as optional.
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Replying to @kfranasz and @johnwilander, @acfou, @dsearls, @dmarti, @infotrust_itega, @billdensmore, @funnymonkey, @swodinsky
Please do, of course! I might be slow to answer because I'm off, let me know if it's urgent.
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Replying to @null and @chaosprime, @SimonDeDeo
Note that there's evidence that people trust amateur-looking sites are perceived as more trustworthy (IIRC it's in heinz.cmu.edu/~acquisti/pape…).
Pour que 2021 vous laisse baba. ♥️💋😘
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