FLoC-ed up
NOTE: I think we’re just gonna send these on Sundays now – seems more worthwhile than Friday afternoons, and also, I keep failing to get it out on Friday. So now it’s a Sunday newsletter.
THIS WEEK: Google sells us on privacy, but check the fine print; a new report finds Facebook is, indeed, a bastion of right-wing disinformation; Twitter rolls out a strike system for COVID vaccine lies; and more...
FLoC-ED UP
Amid heightened scrutiny of Big Tech’s ethically questionable practices, this week Google announced new limitations on how they’ll track users and target them for advertising, earning headlines like “Google says goodbye to individual user tracking” and “Google to Stop Selling Ads Based on Your Specific Web Browsing.”
If you’re thinking, ‘sounds great, what’s the catch?’ – stop being so cynical!
Just kidding, there are indeed several gigantic catches here:
It doesn’t apply to mobile, which is convenient because 85% of the world’s smartphones run on Android, and mobile now accounts for more than 60% of all online advertising.
It doesn’t apply to first-party data, which is convenient because Google has more first-party data than just about any company in the world. They’ll still surveil you individually through Chrome, Google Search, Google Maps, YouTube, Gmail, Maps, Nest, Waze, etc. and use that data to personalize your ads on their platforms.
While Google will stop allowing third-party tracking and ad targeting based on unique profiles, it intends tostart creating ‘cohorts’ of unique profiles for ad targeting...
Let’s dig into that last point, because – given Google’s mammoth market power – it may reshape the entire digital advertising landscape. The new ‘privacy-friendly’ approach Google has been touting is called ‘Federated Learning of Cohorts’ (FLoC). Google would still surveil users, but rather than selling third-party advertisers access to each individual, it would tag small groups with similar behavioral profiles so advertisers could target them by… flock, if you will.
As our friends at EFF explained, this means FLoC will keep intact the very tools that “have frequently been used for exploitation, discrimination, and harm.” In short, Google is not taking a moral stand against invasive advertising, so much as they are bowing to the pro-privacy winds in a way that squeezes competitors and further entrenches their dominance. Yay?
OneZero: Google’s ‘Privacy-First Web’ Is Really a Google-First Web
Recode: Google is done with cookies, but that doesn’t mean it’s done tracking you
The Hill: Tech giants in brewing battle over tracking, ads
ALRIGHT, ALL-RIGHT, ALT-RIGHT
In news that is as surprising as death and taxes, NYU’s Cybersecurity for Democracy research initiative found that Facebook’s most reliably profitable content is far-right misinformation. As the report details, right-wing Facebook news (“news”) pages known for spreading disinformation saw more engagement than any other ideologically-aligned news (“news”) pages.
NYU's Cybersecurity for Democracy: Far-right news sources on Facebook more engaging
Protocol: The most engaging political news on Facebook? Far-right misinformation.
CNN: Right-wing misinformation on Facebook is more engaging than its left-wing counterpart, research finds
As Zuck stares down the late-March congressional interrogation over social media giants’ role in the Capitol siege, this report matters for a couple of reasons. First, it pours cold water on Facebook’s claims about their very serious efforts to mitigate harmful lies. In fact, as the report points out: "Being a consistent spreader of far-right misinformation appears to confer a significant advantage [for Facebook].”
And second, the report provides perhaps the most conclusive evidence yet that conservatives’ claims of being disproportionately censored and shadow-banned by Big Tech are… the opposite of true. The report found that right-wing misinformation not only outperformed every other ideological category of misinformation, but far-right pages (like Dan Bongino’s) earned way more ‘organic’ engagement than any other category.
TWITTER STRIKES ANTI-VAXX
This week, Twitter announced it would target coronavirus vaccine misinformation with labels and a strike system that hits repeat offenders with escalating penalties, culminating with permanent suspension. This tracks with a similar approach they rolled out in January for violations of their civic integrity policy.
TechCrunch: Twitter rolls out vaccine misinformation warning labels and a strike-based system for violations
Kaiser Health News: Twitter To Flag Misleading Covid Vaccine Posts, Block Repeat Offenders
Since before the election, we’ve maintained (no, really: page 8) that social platforms need to implement strike systems like this one against repeat offenders who drive a disproportionate amount of harmful disinformation (once again, like Dan Bongino). And with the White House announcing that we’ll soon have enough vaccines for every American to get their first shot, it’s increasingly important that platforms cull anti-vaxx lies, stewarding healthy online communities so we can live in healthy offline communities, too.
POTPOURRI
The Verge: Parler drops federal lawsuit against Amazon — but files another in state court
NBC News: Google advised mental health care when workers complained about racism and sexism
CNBC: U.S. is ‘not prepared to defend or compete in the A.I. era,’ says expert group chaired by Eric Schmidt
Axios: Miami mayor acknowledges Big Tech plans could hurt the city's poor
Protocol: Apple and Google lobbyists are swarming Arizona over a bill that would reform the app store
Forbes: Twitter To Launch Paid ‘Super Follows’ Feature
Wall Street Journal: India Threatens Jail for Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter Employees