How C.H.E.D.D.A.R. is your browser?

(Update: switched to BlockAdBlock.)

Doc Searls writes,

To have a deal, both parties need to come to the table with terms the other can understand and accept. For example, we could come with a term that says, Just show me ads that aren’t based on tracking me. (In other words, Just show me the kind of advertising we’ve always had in the offline world — and in the online one before the surveillance-based “interactive” kind gave brain cancer to Madison Avenue.)

Read the whole thing.

"Just show me ads that aren’t based on tracking me" is a message that you can send and receive today. You can build C.H.E.D.D.A.R. ads if you go to the right ad network, or install the right ad server. You can run a C.H.E.D.D.A.R. browser today, if you install (for example) Privacy Badger and Self-Destructing Cookies on Firefox.

All the pieces of C.H.E.D.D.A.R. exist, but they're just not integrated, branded, or made easy to install everywhere.

Are you already running a C.H.E.D.D.A.R. browser? Let's find out.

Detecting...

So, now all the JavaScript programmers have done a "View Source" on this page, and you're all like, wtf, that's it? A tracking protection detector and a check for a first-party ad element?

Yes, that's it. You can always write more refined versions of these, but the point is that you can do C.H.E.D.D.A.R. on the client without waiting for any new code on the server side, and you can do C.H.E.D.D.A.R. on the server without waiting for any new code on the client side.

Wouldn't C.H.E.D.D.A.R. be better if we added an extra layer of protocol, or a special HTTP header, or something? No, because no server can tell how a client is configured. If a browser or extension sends some future new intent message, it doesn't reliably tell the site if the user is also running a conventional ad blocker. Considering that ad blockers are the most popular browser extensions, it's likely that many people who install a "we welcome ads not based on tracking" extension will also have tried an ad blocker, and might not even remember they left it on, or not know they have to turn it off.

Actually testing for the delivery of a legit ad, or fake ad element, is necessary. Combine that with DNT and tracking detection, and you get a reliable "Just show me ads that aren’t based on tracking me" message.

That doesn't mean that C.H.E.D.D.A.R. is anywhere near done. If you want to build software around it, there are a lot of potential projects.

• Better tracking protection and tracking detection

• New ways to test that a DNT-respecting ad has been delivered to a human user

• DNT-respecting, fraud-resistant web analytics

• A "Just show me ads that aren’t based on tracking me" button in privacy tools and ad blockers.

• C.H.E.D.D.A.R. detection built into web content management systems

The problem with web ads, legit and otherwise, is much like the problem of opt-in email newsletters and email spam. Somehow the idea of a "spam-free replacement for SMTP" never really caught on. Instead, we got:

• Legit email is the kind of email that makes it through existing spam filters.

• A good spam filter is the kind of filter that lets legit email through (but blocks "spam")

The first spam filters got started before legit email senders had to be concerned about deliverability—but because of spam filters, deliverability is big business today.

If you write a new spam filter, or set up an email service, you have to let through the mail that people agree is legit. If you start a new service that sends mail, you have to pass the existing spam filters.

Different services have different ToSs, but we can send and receive email as ToSs change, because they all reflect a common set of norms around what is and isn't spam. And we never actually have to agree on a common definition of "spam".

We'll never get the web advertising problem nailed down in precise legal and technical terms. There will always be a mix of old and new clients and servers, a variety of laws and norms, and new inventions and business models. Whatever we come up with will have to be messy, imprecise, and resilient in order to stand a chance.