INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Authors: TheIndianSubcontinent News AgencyMozilla, creator of Firefox, is conducting an experiment to see if online advertising can be made
ethical.Ads pay the bills for most 'free' tools and services – including browsers – and those ads are more effective (and less annoying)
if they're tailored to suit your interests
Mozilla accepts that fact, but it wants to see if it's possible to customize ads without compromising users' privacy.It's doing this through
Pocket – a save-it-for-later service that lets you save articles and videos that you'd like to read or watch later
Mozilla integrated Pocket into Firefox in 2015, and early last year Mozilla acquired the company so the two could work even more
closely.Your browser, your dataWhen Firefox Quantum launched late last year, it came with a new feature: Pocket Recommendations
When you open a new tab, you'll see a selection of stories recommended by Pocket
These are articles and videos other users have saved to Pocket, and are based on your browsing history.However, your data is never sent to
Mozilla, Pocket, or any third parties
Instead, all the personalization happens on your own device. "It does use your browsing history to determine what to show you, but that all
happens client-side," Nate Weiner, CEO and Founder of Pocket, told TechRadar
"Your data isn't sent to any servers
It's a pretty cool way to get recommendations, and users don't have to give up their privacy."For a small group of Firefox users, those
Pocket Recommendations include the occasional sponsored article (ie an advertisement). "We've been doing some sponsored content for the
last few years in Pocket, and we've started experimenting with showing the occasional sponsored post in Firefox," explained Weiner
"It's only being tested in the US at the moment
In our minds we're always experimenting, and we want to keep experimenting until we feel confident about it."If you want, you can turn off
Just click the 'New tab preferences' gear icon and uncheck 'Recommended by Pocket'
You can also opt out of sponsored articles via the same menu.No clickbaitPocket is very particular about what goes into sponsored
recommendations, so you won't be seeing 'one old trick' articles appearing in your new tabs any time soon
At the moment all sponsored recommendations are articles, but there may be videos on the way too – though nothing that plays
automatically"All the content we show you goes through our quality guidelines," said Weiner
"The content has to provide value
It can't just be clickbait; it has to be useful."There's no schedule for rolling out Sponsored Recommendations more widely yet, but Weiner
says the response from Mozilla's test subjects has been very positive
If it works, it could be a solution to the problem of mishandling personal data that has caused Facebook so much pain this year.
