On the subject of Topics

[Darcon]

There were a couple thoughts that went through my head when Topics was being discussed in Episode #935.

1. Assuming we accept Topics as is, with the benign subjects about each site, what is stopping the subjects from becoming targeted or falsified in the future? Yes the user can "see" the topics, but the browser could be showing a benign topic, but the actual topic is much more targeted. Ex: the displayed topic is: Health and Wellness, the topic actually being used is ED.
2. Steve mentioned a topic counter in passing during the discussion. It may have been an error, or it may be part of the topics information. Wouldn't a counter of a topic, be and indicator of tracking? How else would there be a counter on a topic?

Overall the Topics idea seems clean, and having the ability to turn it off is awesome from the person that is currently running 2 ad blockers, a privacy blocker and uses stricter Firefox setting all the time.

 

[miquelfire]

If I understand it correctly, the counter is just used by the browser, and it might control how likely the topic will be used in the set of topics given to sites.

 

[PHolder]

Wouldn't a counter of a topic, be and indicator of tracking?

Yes there is tracking, the entire point of topics IS tracking. The difference, if it matters, is where the tracking is being done. It's your browser that is tracking you now (with topics) and not Google's servers.