@mcc@mastodon.social I think the two most absurd parts of this "feature," for me at least, are

1)Its defenders implicitly assume that if they give a bunch of user data to websites for free, then websites will magically stop using all other spyware.

Mozilla and their supporters say "Oh, right now websites collect a lot of data on you with their Javascript/WASM spyware. But now Mozilla will give them a tiny fraction of that data for free, so websites will willingly remove all their JS/WASM spyware even though they have no incentive to do so, therefore this new feature improves your privacy!"


The only reasonable assumption is that every website which currently implements spyware will continue to implement just as much spyware after this "feature" becomes widespread.

2)It's predicated on the idea that advertisers have a need, or even a right, to know how many people click on their ads. For centuries before the internet, advertisers never new exactly how many people saw their ads. If you bought an ad in a print magazine, the publisher might be able to tell you how many copies were sold, but they would have no idea
a)How many actual humans got to use each copy (you can share, resell, and redistribute a print book without the publisher knowing),
b)How many of the readers actually looked at the ad instead of flipping past it.
c)How many of the people who actually saw your ad were persuaded to buy your product.

And advertisers continued to operate for centuries without knowing this information. Now, internet ad companies have invented a "right" to surveil their potential customers and are trying to convince you advertising is impossible without surveillance. And Mozilla is helping to spread this lie.