On-device profiling for ad display is an interesting problem. On the one hand, it offers a much better alternative (in my view) to data leaving the user's device. (Once data is in the cloud, who knows how it will be used or who will get access to it in the future.)
On the other hand, targeted advertising using purely on-device data, retains the risk of subjecting users to manipulation that we have already seen with mass surveillance. For example: if the browser detects that the user is "left-leaning" it could selectively show an add falsely claiming that election day is on Wednesday when it is actually on Tuesday.
I'm not sure yet how to measure or assess this kind of on-device tracking. It doesn't fit so neatly into the traditional description of "privacy" but there are potential harms, so it's something users should be aware of. A couple of preliminary ideas:
Write a section on the website manually explaining this issue
Create a "manual" check that reflects whether a browser has on-device profiling by default
On-device profiling for ad display is an interesting problem. On the one hand, it offers a much better alternative (in my view) to data leaving the user's device. (Once data is in the cloud, who knows how it will be used or who will get access to it in the future.)
On the other hand, targeted advertising using purely on-device data, retains the risk of subjecting users to manipulation that we have already seen with mass surveillance. For example: if the browser detects that the user is "left-leaning" it could selectively show an add falsely claiming that election day is on Wednesday when it is actually on Tuesday.
I'm not sure yet how to measure or assess this kind of on-device tracking. It doesn't fit so neatly into the traditional description of "privacy" but there are potential harms, so it's something users should be aware of. A couple of preliminary ideas: