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Hell yeah! \m/

I don't understand why websites think they are owed this information just for shopping their site.  We don't accept this kind of behavior from brick and mortar stores we go into to shop around.  Do salespeople get to follow us around the mall to see what other stores and items we look at?  Do they get to look over your shoulder and look at your identification to see who you are and where you live?

Of course not.  Neither are website owners and advertisers owed the kind of information they seem to think they are entitled to about you and your surfing and buying habits.  If I come to their site, they are welcome to observe the same sorts of things a live salesperson in a store might observe.  They may recognize my face and know I'm a regular when I come in the next time.  They may see that I'm interested in certain items and not so much in others.  They might notice that I like to pay with my debit card but never a credit card.  That's about it.  They are not entitled to know that I browsed at the store on the other side of the mall or that I have an interest in British period pieces and like jazz music unless I purposely tell them.

There needs to be a serious reset on what the expectations of advertisers and site owners are entitled to know about us.

lkrupp said:

payeco said:

lkrupp said:

Careful with the "screw you, ad industry" comments. Remember that Spotify just announced cessation of support for Safari. What if major sites (Amazon for example) start rejecting the Safari browser and force you to use something else to access their sites? These advertising companies aren't going to take this laying down. They will fight back and this is just the first salvo. You think people will just not visit retail sites that reject Safari? Hell no, people will change browsers to get to their favorite sites, just like they did in the old Microsoft hegemony days. 

If sites did that Apple could fight back by just changing the user agent Safari reports to the site and report itself as Chrome.

Maybe some huge sites like Amazon could get away with it but do you really think websites are going to want to make that argument to the general public? "We're blocking your browser because they're preventing us from tracking you."

Apple would do no such thing, ever. And yes, I do believe websites would do whatever is needed to protect their advertising incomes. Follow the money. What would  you be willing to pay for access to AppleInsider if they couldn't make anything off of ad clicks because of blocking or no more tracking?

Sites have a right to offer ads and/or subscriptions for me to view their content.  That is it.  They do not have the right to track me all over the internet to learn my likes and dislikes anymore than a store clerk has the right to follow me around the store eavesdropping on my conversations or looking over my shoulder to read my texts to "enable them to better offer me relevant items I may be interested in."

It's like a peeping tom complaining that I installed automatic blinds that close at sundown.

Note to self:  Ad industry hates it.  Must be good.