Neither Firefox nor Safari have claimed we should block all cookies. They've committed to taking large steps towards blocking 3rd-party cookies.
I don't think Google is intentionally confusing that distinction, and I wouldn't accuse them of that. As much as I find their arguments on this subject disingenuous and distasteful, they haven't claimed anything on that scale.
However, whenever Google proposes a privacy/security change, HN has a habit of accidentally conflating their specific arguments with the broadest, most general terms. Debates about specific policies become debates about whether or not broad, sweeping statements are true: Statements like, "all cookies are bad", or "browser extensions should be able to do whatever they want."
Google's argument here isn't even really about cookies at all, it's about tracking and advertising in general. Google is arguing that whatever privacy improvements we add to browsers, we need to make sure that advertisers can still serve personalized ads that follow users around the web. They are proposing separate standards from Mozilla and Safari that they say would improve privacy while allowing them to continue their current business model.
The confusion between Safari's actual cookie policy and this fictional "get rid of all cookies" policy that no browser has proposed is adding a lot of noise to the discussion. I assume this confusion is accidental, but it has the potential to really derail conversations.
Comments
Neither Firefox nor Safari have claimed we should block all cookies. They've committed to taking large steps towards blocking 3rd-party cookies.
I don't think Google is intentionally confusing that distinction, and I wouldn't accuse them of that. As much as I find their arguments on this subject disingenuous and distasteful, they haven't claimed anything on that scale.
However, whenever Google proposes a privacy/security change, HN has a habit of accidentally conflating their specific arguments with the broadest, most general terms. Debates about specific policies become debates about whether or not broad, sweeping statements are true: Statements like, "all cookies are bad", or "browser extensions should be able to do whatever they want."
Google's argument here isn't even really about cookies at all, it's about tracking and advertising in general. Google is arguing that whatever privacy improvements we add to browsers, we need to make sure that advertisers can still serve personalized ads that follow users around the web. They are proposing separate standards from Mozilla and Safari that they say would improve privacy while allowing them to continue their current business model.
The confusion between Safari's actual cookie policy and this fictional "get rid of all cookies" policy that no browser has proposed is adding a lot of noise to the discussion. I assume this confusion is accidental, but it has the potential to really derail conversations.