SOLVED The internet is broken

[Iceboy]

In my oppinion the internet is broken now. With all the cookie notices about tick who you don't want to track you all over the net while you shop etc, and when you look at all the cookies on most notices, even on this forum there are hundreds there, and you wonder why.
Even your reciepts arent safe from the damn clutches of facebook or google..location location location isn't just a program buying an home, it's about big tech who want's to know where you are, what you're eating, who you're talking to, what machine you are using..for goodness sake's let's hope someone come up with a better solution soon.

 

[ubuysa]

The Internet isn't broken, it's being funded by advertising. Advertisers want to ensure that they target people who are likely to want to buy their products, hence all those tracking cookies etc. The only viable alternative is a subscription Internet, because all that infrastructure has to be paid for somehow. You can't have your cake and eat it as well.

 

[Iceboy]

Didn't the inventor of the internet say it's free to everyone?. Were talking about rich companies who are tracking us and
making choices difficult, why pay to browse the internet? when all we mostly do is shop on line, should we start to pay mega
rich companies to use their websites to buy things?, because that mean's only the well off can use the internet. No I don't think
so ubuysa.

So once again as I said, it's broken.

 

[ubuysa]

Didn't the inventor of the internet say it's free to everyone?. Were talking about rich companies who are tracking us and
making choices difficult, why pay to browse the internet? when all we mostly do is shop on line, should we start to pay mega
rich companies to use their websites to buy things?, because that mean's only the well off can use the internet. No I don't think
so ubuysa.

So once again as I said, it's broken.

Who do imagine pays for all the 'free' stuff you're able to do on the Internet? Email, messaging, social media, browsing billions of websites for shopping, information - and forums like this one, use resources that cost somebody money - sometimes a lot of money. Who do you think pays for all that?

As I said, the current model is that all those resources that you use for 'free' are paid for by advertising. There is no such thing as a free lunch.

 

[Iceboy]

But the answer isn't massive thirdparty tracking is it, some of who aren't safe.
As for the websites you shop on, they don't need trackers, we pay for the site by shopping
on there so no need for advertising. Why do the water board etc have trackers?..no your answer
isn't right to be fair..there's some allowance for cookies, but not third party..they could easily
show adverts without chasing everything we do on the net.

 

[Tim Locke]

You can get rid of most of things you object to. Cookies deleted when you close the browser. Telling sites not to track.

I noticed today that the latest Chrome 100. Gives a zillion ( well many ) new things in privacy and security.

The internet has not been free since it became available to the public...just a question of how it is paid for as ubuysa says.

Some incredibly expensive bits are paid for in part by governments. A multi petabyte undersea cable and its landing points for example.

Personaly I am happy with Google or Amazon knowing a lot about me but keep well away from evil Facebook

 

[Iceboy]

To be honest I've never tried Chrome. But I can't see loads of people letting third party cookies crawl all over their
browsers and computers, the best I've used up to now is firefox and edge..most of the websites don't like epic browser..the worst I've used is Brave. As for facebook, I read where google work hand in glove with them?...I'm tempted to use a google chrome book, but
I've yet to find which one has the longest updates.

 

[davehc]

"The only viable alternative is a subscription Internet"
Not sure if it is the same thing, but I have a subscription with the local/principal, tele company. Not too expensive. They supply me with a couple of mobile subscriptions included. Landline tel if I want it and, of course, an internet connection. The type and speed of the connection can naturally change the overall cost of the initial subscription.

I have an internet page with a third party provider. The payment for this is with or without advertising.

Under 99% circumstances, I don't purchase from the internet, but do an awful lot of general browsing for news updates etc.
I am in half agreement with iceboy, but somewhere down the line, other things need to be paid for. I would have thought this was included in my subscription with my provider , but perhaps that is a naive oversight

 

[ubuysa]

"The only viable alternative is a subscription Internet"
Not sure if it is the same thing, but I have a subscription with the local/principal, tele company. Not too expensive. They supply me with a couple of mobile subscriptions included. Landline tel if I want it and, of course, an internet connection. The type and speed of the connection can naturally change the overall cost of the initial subscription.

I have an internet page with a third party provider. The payment for this is with or without advertising.

Under 99% circumstances, I don't purchase from the internet, but do an awful lot of general browsing for news updates etc.
I am in half agreement with iceboy, but somewhere down the line, other things need to be paid for. I would have thought this was included in my subscription with my provider , but perhaps that is a naive oversight

I would suggest that the price that you pay to access the Internet is quite separate from the prices you pay to use Internet-based services (email, social media, messaging, etc.). I think it's the latter that the OP is talking about with his complaints about cookies in general, and with the EU's law on a user's ability to choose what cookies are used on any given site.

Everything has to be paid for in one way or another. Your ISP charges you a fee to be able to access the Internet and the content providers (in the main) rely on advertising revenue to pay for the services they offer.

 

[davehc]

Which content providers do you have in mind?
As I said, my Email and sms is part of the providers facilities - no third party involved. I do, however, from neccesity, have a Microsoft account and all that goes with it - heavily attacked by cookies etc. Yes, even writing on this page (and other forums) needs to be subsidised from somewhere. Other than that- Social media? Dunno Not sure I even know what that covers. Ian could probably answer that in more detail.

 

[ubuysa]

Which content providers do you have in mind?
As I said, my Email and sms is part of the providers facilities - no third party involved. I do, however, from neccesity, have a Microsoft account and all that goes with it - heavily attacked by cookies etc. Yes, even writing on this page (and other forums) needs to be subsidised from somewhere. Other than that- Social media? Dunno Not sure I even know what that covers. Ian could probably answer that in more detail.

Gmail, Hotmail, and just about every other webmail service are free to use. Almost every website that you visit is free to use too - although many newspapers (and other sites) require a subscription to use them. All social media is free (Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, et al). All messaging services (Whatsapp et all) are free too. All of these services require resources to support our use of them (server processing power, memory use and storage use, for example) and that has to be paid for, not to mention the power costs, the environmental costs and the staffing costs of course. The general model (except for those sites, like some newspapers, that use a subscription model) is based on advertising. The advertisers pay for the costs of the resources we use in return for us looking at their adverts (and hopefully buy thier products). Advertising funds a huge percentage of the Internet (though porn subscription services probably account for the lions share). Advertising certainly funds most social media, most websites etc. and that's the reason for the plethora of cookies that the OP doesn't like (TBH who does).

 

[Iceboy]

In my opinion, facebook and google seem to be the culprits in all these tracking cookies. No matter what site you go on, they seem to be there trying to plant their analystic cookies and facebook pixel.