Mozilla 反对谷歌的新广告技术

Ah, online advertising.. 😅
啊，在线广告..😅

Big corporations cannot stop profiting from it, and small businesses cannot afford not to invest in it. It is a kind of unsavory relationship that usually benefits the parties involved; such as the advertiser (sometimes the product owner too) and a potential customer (user).
大企业无法停止从中获利，小企业也无法不投资。这是一种令人厌恶的关系，但通常对相关各方都有利；例如广告商（有时也是产品所有者）和潜在客户（用户）。

But, occasionally, this relationship goes too much into the gray, when a user is targeted because of their online activity to be served with targeted advertisements on the various sites they visit.
但是，有时，当用户因为在线活动而在他们访问的各个网站上投放有针对性的广告而成为目标时，这种关系就会变得过于灰色。

Depending on who you ask, the consensus is that too much targeted ads is a sign of aggressive tracking practices that don't belong in this age of digital privacy awareness.
根据你问的是谁，人们的共识是，太多有针对性的广告是激进跟踪做法的标志，这种做法不属于这个数字隐私意识时代。

That is partly why Google has been trying so hard to clean up their act, with many major moves recently. One such move related to their Protected Audience API has got Mozilla at odds with the search engine giant.
这就是为什么谷歌一直在努力整顿自己的行为，最近采取了许多重大举措。其中一项与受保护的受众 API 相关的举措导致 Mozilla 与这家搜索引擎巨头发生争执。

So, let's dive in and see what's happening.
那么，让我们深入了解一下发生了什么。

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I am using the term “Advertisers” to generalize all kinds of online advertisement-related service providers.
我使用“广告商”一词来概括各种与在线广告相关的服务提供商。

Google's Protected Audience: Why the Fuss?
谷歌的受保护受众：为何大惊小怪？

Formerly known as the FLEDGE API, the Protected Audience API is part of Google's Privacy Sandbox initiative that is supposed to facilitate a more privacy-friendly way of serving advertisements to users.
Protected Audience API 以前称为 FLEDGE API，是 Google 隐私沙箱计划的一部分，该计划旨在促进以更加保护隐私的方式向用户提供广告服务。

It works by having a separate secure space on the browser (Chrome, for example), where the user's interests are stored, and the advertisers would have to go through an ad auction run by the user's browser to serve relevant ads.
它的工作原理是在浏览器（例如 Chrome）上有一个单独的安全空间，其中存储用户的兴趣，广告商必须通过用户浏览器运行的广告拍卖来提供相关广告。

As a result of that, the user's interests and browsing activity on different sites is kept away from the prying eyes of advertisers, who would typically track users across multiple sites.
因此，用户在不同网站上的兴趣和浏览活动不会被广告商窥探，广告商通常会跨多个网站跟踪用户。

This came about after Google got started with their Privacy Sandbox initiative, and revealed that they would completely disable third-party cookies on Chrome in the second half of 2024. Doing that would lock out all cookies except the ones from the site a user was visiting.
这是在 Google 开始实施隐私沙盒计划后发生的，并透露他们将在 2024 年下半年完全禁用 Chrome 上的第三方 cookie。这样做将锁定除用户正在访问的网站之外的所有 cookie 。

As one might imagine, this became an issue. Many advertisers were concerned that blocking third-party cookies would give Google the upper hand, as their services (including Chrome) are some of the most used ones across the globe.
正如人们可能想象的那样，这成为了一个问题。许多广告商担心阻止第三方 cookie 会让 Google 占据上风，因为他们的服务（包括 Chrome）是全球最常用的服务之一。

Nonetheless, amid mounting pressures from competition regulatory bodies like the UK's Competition and Markets Authority, Google appears to be fast-tracking the implementation of Protected Audience.
尽管如此，在英国竞争与市场管理局等竞争监管机构施加的越来越大的压力下，谷歌似乎正在快速实施受保护的受众。

But, Mozilla is not convinced, saying that this “fails to meet its own privacy goals”. And, they are backing up their claim with some pretty convincing reasoning.
但是，Mozilla 并不相信，称这“未能实现其自身的隐私目标”。而且，他们用一些相当令人信服的推理来支持他们的主张。

They present an example where they show that Protected Audience creates an “alternative information dimension” where any site a user visits could send information related to how they interacted with it.
他们举了一个例子，表明受保护的受众创建了一个“替代信息维度”，用户访问的任何网站都可以发送与其交互方式相关的信息。

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This is not limited to just one, but multiple sites can do the same.
这不仅限于一个，多个站点也可以这样做。

a diagram by mozilla showing how they see the protected audience api working compared to the usual approach of handling tracking — Credit: Mozilla 图片来源：Mozilla

Subsequently, sites could then process that data to decide on the advertisements that they would serve.
随后，网站可以处理这些数据来决定他们将提供的广告。

However, only the user can see into this dimension, with advertisers/websites being able to open so-called “windows” inside this for the users to peek into (read as being shown relevant ads).
然而，只有用户才能看到这个维度，广告商/网站能够在其中打开所谓的“窗口”供用户窥视（解读为显示相关广告）。

Mozilla agrees that something like this could be a good thing for users. But, they think that Protected Audience fails in two key ways.
Mozilla 同意这样的事情对用户来说可能是一件好事。但是，他们认为受保护的受众在两个关键方面失败了。

The first is that Protected Audience has too many leaks.
首先是受保护的受众有太多的泄漏。

Google, in an attempt to please advertising companies, had to loosen many important protections that resulted in a design that Mozilla claims has “no privacy”.
为了取悦广告公司，谷歌不得不放松许多重要的保护措施，从而导致了 Mozilla 声称“没有隐私”的设计。

Even though Google plans to work on many of these leaks, Mozilla thinks that there exist information leaks with no actual fix in sight.
尽管谷歌计划解决其中的许多泄露问题，但 Mozilla 认为存在信息泄露，而且目前还没有实际解决办法。

That leads us to the second issue; Protected Audience might get stronger, sure, but targeted advertising is also a key factor.
这就引出了第二个问题；当然，受保护的受众可能会变得更强大，但有针对性的广告也是一个关键因素。

Even though information collection was made harder, advertisers still have enough access to run targeted advertisements to better manipulate a user's decision-making.
尽管信息收集变得更加困难，广告商仍然有足够的权限来投放有针对性的广告，以更好地操纵用户的决策。

Mozilla also added that: Mozilla 还补充说：

The positive vision of the effect that Protected Audience might have on competition in advertising is one that focuses on market imbalance. However, it takes an
受保护的受众可能对广告竞争产生的影响的积极愿景是关注市场失衡。然而，这需要一个
advertising-centric view of the system that is narrow.
以广告为中心的系统的观点是狭隘的。

In a sense, Protected Audience is the product of the conjunction of competitive pressure on privacy and antitrust fears, so this is a natural conclusion.
从某种意义上说，受保护的受众是隐私竞争压力和反垄断担忧结合的产物，所以这是一个自然的结论。

And I agree. 并且我同意。

I feel that this move is targeted towards appeasing the various competition regulatory authorities, while also being on the good side of the many advertisers who aim to capitalize on the huge user base of Google services such as Chrome.
我认为此举的目的是为了安抚各个竞争监管机构，同时也对许多旨在利用Chrome等谷歌服务庞大用户群的广告商有利。

Sadly, in all of this, you as the user have to trade in your data for seeing some targeted ad that may or not benefit your daily life, irrespective of Protected Audience being implemented.
可悲的是，在所有这一切中，您作为用户必须用您的数据进行交易才能看到一些可能有益于您的日常生活的定向广告，无论是否实施受保护的受众。

💭 What are your thoughts on Google's new ad tech? Please let me know in the comments below!