Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Big Business Angered by Apple Defenses Against Abusive Advertisement

MacOS High Sierra is getting increasing publicity for it's release on September 25 because of the defenses Sierra brings aggressive and abusive online advertising are substantial, even more so when Google Chrome is following suit in implementation of such changes and it's not so far behind Apple.



Six major advertising consortia have written an open letter to Apple expressing their “deep concern”. 

Photograph: Aly Song/Reuters


Here at the Rockhouse, the louder expression is of deep appreciation since the user finally has some substantive defenses against the insidious forms of advertising such confortia often employs.


For the second time in as many years, internet advertisers are facing unprecedented disruption to their business model thanks to a new feature in a forthcoming Apple software update.

iOS 11, the latest version of Apple’s operating system for mobile devices, will hit users’ phones and tablets on Tuesday. It will include a new default feature for the Safari web browser dubbed “intelligent tracking prevention”, which prevents certain websites from tracking users around the net, in effect blocking those annoying ads that follow you everywhere you visit.

The tracking prevention system will also arrive on Apple’s computers 25 September, as part of the High Sierra update to macOS. Safari is used by 14.9% of all internet users, according to data from StatCounter.

The Guardian:  Apple blocking ads that follow users around web is 'sabotage', says industry

We appreciate that notion of unprecedented disruption to business models since that can mean whatever you like without bearing any particular relationship to its truth.


Six major advertising consortia have already written an open letter to Apple expressing their “deep concern” over the way the change is implemented, and asking the company to “to rethink its plan to … risk disrupting the valuable digital advertising ecosystem that funds much of today’s digital content and services”.

Tracking of users around the internet has become crucial to the inner workings of many advertising networks. By using cookies, small text files placed on a computer which were originally created to let sites mark who was logged in, advertisers can build a detailed picture of the browsing history of members of the public, and use that to more accurately profile and target adverts to the right individuals.

- Guardian

All of that tracking comes into the same category of illegal intrusion and it never should have been legal.  However, these companies found a way to make money on it so their logic leaves them to believe Apple must not compromise their ability to do it even when it was never their right in the first place.


It is this algorithmic approach which spurred the six US advertising bodies, including the Interactive Advertising Bureau and the Association of National Advertisers, to write to Apple. In their letter, published by AdWeek, the advertisers argue: “The infrastructure of the modern internet depends on consistent and generally applicable standards for cookies, so digital companies can innovate to build content, services and advertising that are personalised for users and remember their visits.

“Apple’s Safari move breaks those standards and replaces them with an amorphous set of shifting rules that will hurt the user experience and sabotage the economic model for the internet.”

- Guardian

My, my, they do get melodramatic, don't they.

Zen Yogi:  I don't see anything in that which defends the contention of Apple hurting the user experience.

It's not there, Yogi.  That entire statement was rubbish from start to finish.  The second part is true but why should I care when the intrusive advertising has been the worst thing which ever happened to the Internet after porno webcam sites, anything to do with pedophiles, and so-called intelligence services.

Anything which takes steps to reduce or eliminate those corrupt and crooked intrusions receives resounding applause from the Rockhouse.  Hoorah!


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