back to article Adobe will track you across all your devices with new co-op project

Adobe has announced what it calls "cross-device co-operation" at its Summit digital marketing event under way in Las Vegas. The goal, said Adobe Target Director Kevin Lindsay, is to "provide the ability, through all our marketing solutions, for marketers to be able to market to their consumers as people rather than as separate …

  1. Joseph Eoff

    Note to Adobe:

    Fuck off and die, and take the marketers with you.

    I have no interest in being tracked in any way, shape, or form when reading PDFs or eBooks.

    I give not the slightest of fucks for your poor marketers who have no data to work from.

    Looks like I'll be making more use of alternative PDF and eBook readers.

    1. Shadow Systems

      Re: Note to Adobe:

      Here Here! Couldn't have said it better myself!

      Enjoy a pint on me for every up vote the system won't let me give you; I just hope you don't die from the alcohol poisoning. =-Jp

    2. noj

      Re: Note to Adobe:

      Plenty of love in the posts here. What I want is a blocker that sticks it to their trackers.

      Suggestions most welcome...

      1. Shadow Systems

        @noj, Re: Note to Adobe.

        While I can't comment on how effective the following might be for other browsers, I can attest that it's done wonders for IE11 on Win7Pro64. That said, the same tactics *should* work in other browsers as well, but I make no claims to how well it will work (if at all).

        Under the browser options, security, and select the internet zone.

        Go through the entire option tree disabling all the scripting, activex, java, java scripting, etc, & setting them all to disabled (not merely to be prompted before running, but entirely disabled).

        When you get to the misc section at the end, disable the ability to load anything from anywhere other than the original domain, meaning no third party content will be displayed.

        Last but not least, turn the cookies policy to prompt for first party cookies, auto reject all third party cookies, to block location requests, and then save the settings.

        Reboot the browser, clear the cache, temp files, cookies, & go visit a site you like. If it asks for a first party cookie *and you have to log in to the site for normal use* (like a bank, a comment forum, etc) then accept it & log in as usual, otherwise block the cookie. If you check that "remember my choice & don't ask me again for this domain" box, then that's one cookie you'll want to keep. All the third party tracking cookies will never get set, all the third party content never gets loaded, and all the scripts get a feisty "Fuck You!" from a browser that refuses to even make the fetch request. If you visit a site, disable the cookie permanently, and it decides to not play nice, consider that reason enough to find another source for the content. Places like news sites will be scraped by the search engine of your choice, a plain text/text only cache of it thus available, & the content retrieved without having to play the "Is the code they're feeding me secure or will it trash my system?" whack-a-mole game.

        There are some sites that I *need* to visit that do *NOT* like this set up, so for those I add them to the "trusted" zone instead where the permissions are less restrictive. But they *STILL* get gone over with a fine toothed comb to determine what aspects have to be enabled for the site to function, and a site-specific set of permissions generated JUST for that site. It's a pain in the keister, but it stops the crap from getting in & that's a huge sigh of relief.

        TL;DR: change your browser settings & permissions to stop all the scripts, disallow everything but first party cookies, & never load third party content. That stops random scripts from running, stops the tracker cookies from being set, & stops some douchebag WebDev from loading content hosted from a shady server they have no control over.

        Hope that helps.

      2. Zolko Silver badge

        Re: Note to Adobe:

        What I want is a blocker that sticks it to their trackers.

        Ghostery, an add-on for Firefox. With FlashBlock, you can have quite a clean WWW experience. These are the 2 add-ons that I install on every Firefox install.

        1. noj

          Re: Note to Adobe:

          @Zolko: Thanks! I have both on FireFox. The way the article was written - to my understanding - What Adobe had concocted was something new and therefore maybe not thwarted by current blockers. Glad to hear that the ones I already have should work.

          @Shadow Systems: I should have said in my first post that I have a Mac - but then other not-as-tech-savvy like myself who are on Windows machines would not have had the benefit of your advice. A very sincere thank you for spending your time writing such a detailed post.

    3. Just Enough
      Mushroom

      Re: Note to Adobe:

      Yesterday I got a phishing email on an address that I solely used for an Adobe registration I was obliged to create. (Only so I could remove some sodding DRM from a PDF.)

      So I heartily endorse the sentiments here. If Adobe can't keep their email lists secure, why should I trust them with anything else?

    4. Infernoz Bronze badge
      Devil

      Re: Note to Adobe:

      I'd be nice if Flash, with its retarded insecurity and demonstrated significant slow down of browsers, just died and was forgotten, similar for Microsoft Silverlight too.

      I will always use SumatraPDF in preference to bloated Acrobat PDF reader.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    See What Happens...

    See what happens when we let something like Windows 10 get by with their intrusions. Windows 10 is the biggest Trojan ever created and it seems like the mainstream media and low hanging users do not seem to care.

    Now the rest of the industry will just say - Why Not Us.

    Wake up people. These changes are certainly not for our good.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: See What Happens...

      Double digits of broadband router, firewall blocking rules kills off most of the spying, I see at least double digit firewall anti-microsoft rule hits per hour in my router syslog, even after turning off all the spying options inside Windows 10!

  3. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
    Mushroom

    fuck no

    Adobe, please send this crazy idea back to the trach can from whence you extracted it.

    We don't want to be tracked FULL STOP.

    NO TRACKING.

    Get the idea?

    No?

    STOP this madness or you will get {see ICON}

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Dear Adobe

    No

    No you will not track me across multiple devices

    You can go fuck yourself & take all your marketers with you

    1. BongoJoe
      Big Brother

      Who on earth is this one upvoter?

      1. John Tserkezis

        "Who on earth is this one upvoter?"

        Probably some nut who works at Adobe, grasping at straws to keep their company afloat.

        1. BongoJoe

          Oops, I meant downvoter. Apologies.

          Anyway, good to see him pass by once again.

  5. Barry Rueger

    Truth in Advertising

    Gotta give Adobe credit for being open and honest about what they're doing, instead of presenting some song and dance about "enhancing the user experience."

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Truth in Advertising

      They would be honest only if it works in an opt-in manner. If naiveyoung people are OK if they data are slurped, just ask their permission.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ditched Adobe products across the board last year; and they keep confirming that it was the right decision. Thank you, Adobe, for today's moment of smugness.

    1. Captain DaFt

      "Thank you, Adobe, for today's moment of smugness."

      Not to single you out, we're all here doing it; posting on an unsecured (No https) site that uses Adobe Flash in it's design.

      Nope, Adobe can't track us at all here, can it?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        I ditched Adobe including flash plugins in all browsers. I get the occasional "you can't see this without Flash" message; but they're becoming more infrequent, thanks to the adoption of HTML5. And I'm probably 9 grillion times less likely to get hacked as a result.

        Adobe are free to read the comments if they want feedback (that the marketing idiot who claims that 75% of people want this twattery is a delusional arsehat); but unless they are currently punting an ad or beacon that is making it through the ad-blockers then I don't think they're getting anything else from me. Everyone else's mileage may vary.

        A lot of earlier YouTube vids don't play -irritating but livable-with- but apart from that I don't miss Flash at all.

  7. jtaylor

    Something useful?

    Well, I'm sure Adobe executives will listen to this echo chamber and realize the error of their ways....

    I'd love to see a site which lists each of these tracking programs with links to their policies and how to opt-out. Even better would be a service that lets people declare their wish to opt-out of all such tracking methods, and then regularly notifies each such scheme (including any new ones that appear) that these users opt-out of that tracking.

    I couldn't begin to figure out the business plan for such a service, other than "non-profit" with "donated legal assistance."

    1. Gotno iShit Wantno iShit

      Re: Something useful?

      The flaw in that plan is you'd have to identify yourself to one central database from all you devices in order for the service to opt you out. The service might resist the temptation to sell you out once the founders have made their millions and moved on, it might not. You can bet though that every marketing scum on the planet would try to find a way to track you via the footprint the service leaves.

      Much safer to use a unique ID per website.

      1. joed

        Re: Something useful?

        Unique IDs or not (per site) is no guarantee of not linking them by aggregators/cdn type entities. Blocking 3rd party cookies (and/or flushing this crap every so often), blocking scripts originating outside primary site domain are better ways to do so. So is blocking flash, fonts etc. It may be pain in daily use (for some;)

  8. matchbx
    WTF?

    The next crash is coming

    Recent bubbles/crashes

    The Dot Com Bubble - late 90's

    Indian Property Bubble - 2005

    Irish Property Bubble - 2005

    Spanish Property Bubble - 2006

    China Stock and Property Bubble - 2007

    US Property Bubble - 2008

    Romanian Property Bubble - 2008

    Rhodium Bubble - 2008

    Australian First Home Buyer Property Bubble - 2009

    Bit Coin Bubble - 2013

    There is another one coming that will pop eventually, the Advertising Bubble....

    People are getting sick of this type of shit.

    p.s. Personally, I've never heard of half of these bubbles, and the list did come from Wikipedia, so you can take the list with a grain of salt.

    1. Captain DaFt

      Re: The next crash is coming

      The problem is that the advertising 'bubble' got on its feet back in the 1800s (Via newspapers, magazines, billboards, and mail), and has kept right on from there, expanding into and poisoning every media that's been invented since, and still growing.

      It's a venture (I won't call it industry, because it produces nothing useful) that requires minimum outlay* and generates obscene profits, so it's not going away anytime soon. :(

      *Seriously, all you need is a pushy but charismatic** attitude, artists to do design, and some suckers that have something they're trying to sell, and... PROFIT!

      **Charisma is like sincerity, once you learn to fake it, you've got it made!

  9. DaLo

    Interesting theory but can't see it being that successful.

    Firstly, most people use Google Analytics and Google don't let you track across devices even though they could in a moment and even go so far to ban any tracking (if you do it yourself using logins) using personally identifiable information.

    Secondly it will require at least one of the co-ops that the visitor visits to be using a login so they can register the visitor as belonging to each device - and if a business has logins then they can generally do this anyway using any other analytics package such as Google's (for their own customers). Therefore why would they want to join just to allow others access to this?

    All serious web professionals would like a way of summarizing user journeys across multiple devices but giving Adobe the keys to the data is not one that most would be willing to do (I hope).

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I block all analytics and may 'helper' services too, because they often cause noticeable page load delays, even on an FTTC connection!

  10. JLV
    Thumb Down

    Adobe + Marketers - Privacy => what's there not to love?

    Title says it all.

    Oh, I forgot. Cross-device vulnerabilities.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yippee.. More motivation...

    I'm lazy. But I've gotten up off the sofa of late and started exploring Open-Source alternatives! This news just helps keep me motivated... Slurping & Subscription models?... Kiss my ass!

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Slurping and Subscription? ...Time to boot Adobe, M$_Win10, Autodesk etc...

    Open-source alternatives for Adobe / M$ / Autodesk, anyone got up-to-date- list? Suggestions:

    Linux Mint - (substitute for Windows10) - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_Mint

    Gimp - (substitute for Photoshop) - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIMP

    Linux Video Editors - (substitute for Adobe CS etc) - www.theregister.co.uk/2015/12/26/linux_video_editors/

    Blender - (substitute for AutoDesk Max / Maya) - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blender_%28software%29

    LibreOffice - (substitute for M$-Office) - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LibreOffice

    1. Wensleydale Cheese
      Happy

      Re: Slurping and Subscription? ...Time to boot Adobe, M$_Win10, Autodesk etc...

      Ooh, new word:

      Slurpscription.

      1. Fungus Bob

        Re: Slurpscription

        Sounds like a digestive malady.

    2. John Miles

      Re: Slurping and Subscription? ...Time to boot Adobe, M$_Win10, Autodesk etc...

      not used it, but if on Linux/Mac then there is Darktable to replace Lightroom - https://www.darktable.org/

      1. Siberian Hamster

        Re: Slurping and Subscription? ...Time to boot Adobe, M$_Win10, Autodesk etc...

        Oh thanks for this, been keeping my eye out for ages for something exactly like this!

      2. The Boojum

        Re: Slurping and Subscription? ...Time to boot Adobe, M$_Win10, Autodesk etc...

        Thanks for that. I've just, with extreme reluctance, bought Lightroom on the basis that it was the least worst application for my photo catalogue management needs. Not being available for Windows is a pain, but it is another weight on the scales in favour of an eventual move to Linux.

      3. paulf
        Thumb Up

        Re: Slurping and Subscription? ...Time to boot Adobe, M$_Win10, Autodesk etc...

        @John Miles

        Thanks for the pointer to Darktable. I have Adobe LR 4 on the Mac and have been wondering about alternatives (although LR4 remains quite capable for my needs). GIMP just wasn't up to it from my earlier investigations whereas Darktable looks like it could be just the job. Added to the trial list along with Linux Mint!

    3. Jedipadawan

      Re: Slurping and Subscription? ...Time to boot Adobe, M$_Win10, Autodesk etc...

      Good listing. To add a little...

      Okular under Mint Linux (I used KDE) is a FAR better pdf reader than anything for Windows, I swear!

      In regards to graphics.... GIMP is well known but not everyone likes it. ( get on with it OK, mind.) But Krita is developing FAST and very art orientated. It is now generally held that if you work with Krita and GIMP together you can do more than Photoshop... for free. Oh, and no subscription charging.

      Note that Mint also also supplies zipping software which, in the case of KDE, is beautifully intergrated.

      The file manager Dolphin is a beast of both beauty and power and everything that Windows explorer has ceased to be.

      Although it's not my area of operaton, the sheer range of sequencing software available in Mint is staggering!

      Generally speaking, I am finding that Linux/Open source software is now easier, more usable and often more powerful than the propitiatory equivalents. Certainly, on a price/performance scale Mint - the software in the repositories cannot be beat

      Even if one is forced to go Windows, it's well worth having at least a VM running something like Mint (I like the KDE edition a lot) and enjoying all that lovely free software bereft of activation codes, subscription charges, screen gobbling 'ribbon' apps and data slurping.)

      Now back to editing my latest Anime Music Video in Kdenlive.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Adobe in your fridge, what could go wrong...

    I hope you like yogurt. as there will be no fresh milk.

  14. redpawn

    Insufficient Pushback

    Between government and corporate intrusion we have lost all privacy online. El Reg readers understand better the implications of the end of privacy. However, it requires more work and technical understanding to avoid these intrusions than the general populace is up for.

    Education at the scale of being incorporated into schooling, and national campaigns would be what it would take to get people to protect themselves and push for reasonable privacy laws. Unfortunately governments have a stake in the continued slide in privacy and the construction of a more robust spy state. Computer makers and software companies have every incentive financially and likely from government pressure to continue eroding privacy.

    For now we can take action to avoid being spied upon. Short of switching to Linux it is becoming difficult to protect privacy. App stores make it difficult to load unapproved software on multiple platforms. Scary security messages have to be ignored just to run popular open source packages at this time. Outright blocking could be next as OS suppliers have of late worked to gain additional revenue streams from walled garden environments.

    Good luck with the privacy thing all. I have little hope.

  15. arctic_haze

    No Adobe here

    This one year old laptop has never been infected by an Adobe product. I never needed Java and luckily one year ago most Web pages I use stopped demanding Flash.

    And yes, I use Foxit for PDFs (and think about switching to Sumatra).

    You'll say I'm being track anyway by Microsoft. Maybe but this is a Windows 7 box with all the known tracking updates blocked.

    1. VinceH

      Re: No Adobe here

      I use Sumatra. It's usually a lot faster than I remember Adobe Reader to be, though sometimes it does seem to take a while to render a file. And (usefully for me) doesn't hold the file open when its displayed.

      However, I do still have Adobe Reader installed as a backup viewer, in case I encounter a PDF it doesn't like - which I have found now and again.

      1. BongoJoe

        Re: No Adobe here

        I am using Sumatra now. I use it constantly to open PDFs with lots of data over a hundred or so pages.

        And it's so, so much faster than Adobe.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: No Adobe here

      To correct you, this won't be a downloadable par-se, or optional install. More an integral part of the web page 'experience' (content delivery). For instance if you use firefox and lightbeam, then thirdparty web sites can ve viewed. Typically one visited site to many third party sites relationship. What adobe just announced is another bunch of these third party sites will appear, and will be collecting stuff from your clicks and the forms you fill in. All this in cooperation/collusion with the site owners, and their cooperative of friends - thus monetization by selling your arse to the highest bidder. There obviously isn't enough of this going on already. What's not clear is how they will asociate individuals with devices, registration data perhaps?, I for one am truly looking forward to the next level in personal service from the internet marketeers.

      Don't you just love internet 'freedom', 'freedom' of choice, 'freedom' of speech, 'freedom' of thought, 'freedom' to plan terrorist attacks - feel the 'freedom' it tastes good

  16. raving angry loony

    Adobe?

    Aren't they those producers of hackable-by-anyone software that allows just about anyone to do what they want with not just your data, but your computer?

    Yeah, thought so. Haven't used their products for quite a while, and I'm seeing fewer and fewer sites that require me to have their software (looking at you BBC, you tossers). I have a feeling their attitude to private data sharing is going to stick in the craw of a lot more people.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Adobe isn't just Flash and Acrobat people...

  18. HAL-9000
    Mushroom

    Fuck right off Adobe

    I for one have NEVER been surveyed EVER. I'm not happy being tracked and profiled. Further more 1010 'device owners' (I read employees of adobe) and 309 'marketeers' is not a significant nor representative sample for any broad sweeping statement of the sort "most consumers are only too happy to share their data." - No they fucking aren't, as if there was any option in the matter !!! VERY ANGRY NOISES

    Cute hijacking of otherwise benevolent collective term cooperative, it sounds almost benevolent.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Solution to this problem

    What we need is not the ability to block crap like this (that just leads to an arms race). We need to force-feed data into the tracking system. Data using something like the xkcd holistic browser.

    In other words, if I'm browsing for engine parts for a 1957 Chevy, my device should tell Adobe I'm looking for furry porn, the user browsing for furry porn should tell Adobe he's looking for pizza places in Edinburgh, and the guy looking for pizza places in Edinburgh should tell Adobe he's researching the unladen velocity of a European Swallow. Pollute the hell out of the data, making targeted ads useless (or strangely entertaining).

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