I’m fucking done with Chrome. Fuck this.
Time to switch and start donating to Mozilla.
I was still using Chrome for some things at work, just because that’s our assumed default, but I know enough to switch over there too now. Maybe I’ll update the documentation to help other people switch too…
Insert “I’m doing my part” meme
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The CEO needs to be fired and unstead it should be used for Development.
They deoend on Google to keep it up.
Lol, I love when Lemmy supports privacy focused stuff then turns against itself realizing it is still a company making money and requesting money.
Yeah and I still trust Firefox way more then Google.
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Sure but browsers don’t make that much money.
People lambaste Mozilla for their non browser initiatives but I wonder how they expect mozilla to exist if the google money goes away.
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Just subscribed to recurring donation to Mozilla. Thanks for reminder.
I love how they position it as a privacy feature, and then fail to explain how it does anything to increase privacy.
Isn’t that false advertising? This literally does nothing for your actual privacy.
Sure it does… It invades your privacy.
The topics become a super valuable fingerprinting metric, as well as continuing a form of cross site tracking now that 3rd party cookies are taken more seriously
Fire that fox up! Mozilla Firefox
When was the last time Google made something objectively useful and not some ad bs?
Google used to be an awesome company.
They have turned into absolute garbage, something I never thought possible.
I’m locked into Gmail, that’s too big of a pain in the ass to switch, but everything else I try to avoid like the plague. From shitty hardware, to abandoned software to adinfested garbage, everything they are making right now is straight dogshit.
Google search has become some real garbage lately too. I can’t search for anything without getting a full page of generic useless crap that was either written by AI or an incompetent author.
Isn’t this a lab toggle?
Create a new email, forward all mails from gmail to this new email, start using the new email?
Yeah, this is what I’m talking about. I feel like we had all these things >10 years ago. It really feels like once they realized google+ wasn’t going to win over facebook, they were done.
I’m locked into Gmail, that’s too big of a pain in the ass to switch
Proton Mail makes it pretty easy to switch from Gmail with its Easy Switch feature
Street view is cool.
Maps, Earth, Translate, Android, Gmail, and a lot more. Unfortunately, most of these were made years ago.
Oh Maps is an ad-fest all right. Nothing like needing to read a street name or see a particular business but Google says, “Oh no, I this is what you really want to see!”
Maps and earth are ok at best, other businesses were better but then google bought them ( cough waze cough ). Translate is meh and deepl is better. Android is okish, but only if you use stock, lineageOS or GrapheneOS with at most minimal google services. Gmail… I never use.
They were services that started out nice, but got bloated with ad and spying over the years that theyve become meh at most in my book, sadly
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Android is okish, but only if you use stock or lineageOS with at most minimal google services.
GrapheneOS is probably the best Android ROM, it completely removes all Google services and makes significant privacy and security improvements to the entire operating system stack.
Ive never used grapheneOS tbh. Should give it a go someday then!
Ive always used LineageOS, and installed the nano google services package afterwards. Time to shake it up a bit if i can i suppose! ( i do use android auto, but with voice app disabled )Trust me, Graphene is awesome! Check out their website and read through the documentation, it’s truly amazing. So many security improvements, basically no bloatware, no Google apps or services whatsoever. All the Google network services are replaced by GrapheneOS proxies or can be entirely disabled, you can install Google Play services if you want to, but they are sandboxed and don’t have access to sensitive data on your phone. You can still pass SafetyNet checks and use most banking apps though. They also push out updates insanely fast, often on the same day, just a couple of hours later than on the stock OS. I think Graphene was the first major non-stock ROM that got Android 14.
Just did some research as it all sounds very good, and they dont support the fairphone 4. Some of their arguments are legit ( missing cpu features ), some of them are questionable ( fairphone not releasing security patches fast enough. Idk, lineagoeos seems to release weekly together with the android releases? ). Guess ill have to look at grapheneOS at the future when i look at a new phone ( so in 7 or 8 years lol )
i do agree maps, earth, and translate are very good, and their open source counterparts are not nearly as good, but android is not entirely made by google, and (i believe) aosp is fully foss with no google crap. gmail is admittedly very nice to setup and use, but is pretty unremarkable, being essentially just another email provider, but free
What’s so great about Gmail? It’s just another Email provider and it’s not even end-to-end encrypted. Use Proton Mail or Tutanota.
I don’t know about tutanota but Proton is only end to end encrypted to other users of Proton and that’s very rare to encounter.
You can also use openPGP on Gmail, but that is also very uncommon since pretty much no one uses openPGP.
Gmail is great because it’s free and does its job perfectly fine. An email provider doesn’t need more.
Apparently Gmail was the best many years ago but I guess everyone else caught up.
Proton encrypts the messages in your inbox, they can’t read them, only you can. Google on the other side can look at all of your messages, as they have access to the encryption keys. Also, Proton is open source allowing you to verify everything yourself.
You can encrypt your emails on Gmail too.
I have thought about switching for many years, but I haven’t pulled the trigger. Sounds like a lot of work
It also seems like K9 mail isn’t supported with proton and thunderbird support is a little more annoying to set-up.
And you know, free is nice.
5 euro a month is little more than I would want.
You can encrypt your emails on Gmail too.
You can’t encrypt your inbox, Google will always be able to read everything.
Sounds like a lot of work
I switched from Gmail to Proton, trust me, it’s not that much work. Especially with Easy Switch.
It also seems like K9 mail isn’t supported
Yeah, but the (open source btw) Proton Mail Android app is totally fine.
And you know, free is nice.
Proton Mail also has a generous free plan
Are you really quit posting about a keylogger/distributed compute platform posing as a web browser like 10 years too late?
Don’t shame me.
Kinky
Firefox is for people with big cocks
I can say with great confidence that people with small members also use it.
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I turned it off the first time I was asked. Something on my phone opened in Chrome, rather than Firefox, and this came up again with a different question. I was pretty sure I said no but wasn’t convinced that what I had chosen was doing what I asked. Sure enough diving into settings it was enabled.
I’ve loved Chrome for years but this is bullshit. Firefox isn’t perfect but I love that I can use uBlock Origin. Fuck Chrome.
How about a setting like “I don’t want to be tracked and I don’t want to see any ads” that is enabled by default?
Browsers will subscription based soon
operating systems might eventually be subscription based too… oh wait
Linux, the superior operating system, will never be subscription based.
Red hat shifting nervously in its seat
Technically the subscription is for the enterprise customer support, not for the software itself.
So far. Never trust a publicly traded company when they think there is money to be made.
Never trust a publicly traded company.
the only kind of based that linux wont be
Fucking true
Can you even imagine?
Wait what ? we’re not there yet are we ?
apparently windows 12 is planned be a subscription, or at least have something be a subscription. this is just what ive heard tho
Fr ? It’s high time to ditch that sorry excuse of an OS 🙁
For now it’s just rumor from a developer file that said something along the line of ‘subscription_status:###’.
Don’t give them any ideas.
It was never great.
I haven’t used chrome in about 5 or 6 years now. Firefox all the way. I can’t support a monopoly on the web.
We need an Internet reset.
Gemini is having a go at it.
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a protocol for the distribution of arbitrary files, like http. A hypertext format, which http was intended for. Using mature technologies such as a bunch of stuff that http already uses.
This is just http with extra steps. The problem is not in how the data is sent, but what data is sent. This is the equivalent of noticing people sending a lot of hate mail via snail mail, and the “solution” to that being to use square envelopes instead.
“What would incentivise companies to use it over a regular website with tracking and whatnot?”
Nothing…and that’s kinda the point.
There is a lot of misinformation being shared in this thread.
A good excerpt from Steve Gibson covering Topics on SecurityNow #935
What I do know, though, is that user profiling via tracking represents the height of privacy intrusion. As far as I know, an immutable record of every website I have ever visited is squirreled away in multiple massive hidden and inaccessible-to-me profiling databases. And I have zero control over that. That’s the world we’re in today. But if Topics succeeds, and Google would appear to be in the position to singlehandedly deliver its success, it is a far less intrusive profiling technology. And in addition to being a much weaker information gatherer, Google has chosen to provide its users complete control over the Topics their browser presents to the world, including turning it off altogether for full anonymity. I’ll explain that further in a minute.
So if only on that basis, Topics at least represents a huge step in the right direction. Yes, by default some interest profiling remains. But the means of obtaining those significantly weakened profiles is no longer tracking. And users have complete visibility into their online profile and are able to curate, edit, and even delete any of it or all of it as they choose. So it’s a compromise. But there are many websites begging for our support. My feeling is, if voluntarily letting them know something about who we are allows them to generate, as they claim, significantly more revenue from our visit, is that too high a price to pay? Again, it’s an individual decision. But now, in a world with Topics, at least, it’s one we’re able to make.
…
Okay. So here’s how Topics works. The essence of Topics are individual topic tokens - zero, one, or many - which are assigned to individual websites. For example, my GRC.com site might be associated with Computers and Electronics/Network Security, and Computers and Electronics/Programming, and Networking/Internet Security. So when someone visited GRC.com, their own web browser would record their interest in the topics associated with GRC.com, those topics, those three. But their visit to GRC.com itself would never be recorded other than in their regular local browser history as is always done. The only thing retained by the browser to indicate their interest in those topics would be those three numbered parameters.
For example, in Google’s current 349-topic list, which they refer to as a “taxonomy,” there’s “Arts and Entertainment” as a general topic if nothing more specific is available. But then there’s “Arts and Entertainment,” and then under that “Acting and Theater,” and “Comics,” “Concerts and Music Festivals,” “Dance,” “Entertainment Industry,” “Humor.” And under “Humor” is the subtopic “Live Comedy.” And it goes on like that with “Arts and Entertainment” having a total of 56 token entries before we switch to “Autos and Vehicles,” which has 29 subcategories, which brings us to “Beauty and Fitness” and so on. You get the idea.
So here’s how Google’s specification explains this. They said: “The topics are selected from an advertising taxonomy. The initial taxonomy proposed for experimentation will include somewhere between a few hundred and a few thousand topics.” They said: “Our initial design includes around 350.” And I counted them, it’s 349. “As a point of reference, the IAB Audience Taxonomy contains around 1,500 individual topics and will attempt to exclude sensitive topics.” And they said: “We’re planning to engage with external partners to help define this. The eventual goal is for the taxonomy to be sourced from an external party that incorporates feedback and ideas from across the industry.”
…
Google explains: “The topics will be inferred by the browser. The browser will leverage a classifier model to map site hostnames to topics. The classifier weights will be public, perhaps built by an external partner, and will improve over time. It may make sense for sites to provide their own topics via meta tags, headers, or JavaScript, but that remains an open discussion for later.”
It seems unlikely, though, that advertisers will give up on the nuanced tracking they can get by other means, right? Whether to show you the $2 rip off umbrella that works for a single rainy day, or the $52 Proposal Pink ™ ultra-certified umbrella that keeps the rain off for a single rainy day.
They won’t be given the choice. The point is giving them some compromise in order to disable other tracking abilities from the browser. The big question with all of this isn’t whether it improves on the user’s privacy from the status quo. It’s what happens when Google effectively monopolizes most of the access to advertising data. I’m not crying for third party ad companies, I think there might be some unforseen consequences for users down the road.
They won’t be given the choice.
But how so? Just that Google will stop feeding them personal data the ways it currently does? Or that Chrome would actively work to block fingerprinting and trackers the way and blockers and Firefox do?
Because fingerprinting happens whether the user’s browser ‘allows’ it or not.
Google effectively monopolizes most of the access to advertising data.
Ok, so you mean most of what most companies get is fed from Google’s tracking? So most would lose most of their data. But not that rely on Amazon/Meta/etc who are doing their own dirty work.
Or that Chrome would actively work to block fingerprinting and trackers the way and blockers and Firefox do?
I think they’ll do this.
Ok, so you mean most of what most companies get is fed from Google’s tracking?
Today everyone installs cookies and what not and tracks however they can. Once Google goes the Firefox route disabling and mitigating tracking abilities in Chrome, the only gateway to tracking data will be the data gathered by Google via Chrome and exposed via some Google-controlled API to third parties. So I think that eventually what most companies get fed by will be Google’s tracking.
So most would lose most of their data. But not that rely on Amazon/Meta/etc who are doing their own dirty work.
Yup. And probably.
So better than the status quo, unless you’re a smaller ad company.
What’s sad is that I’ve always been a huge Google supporter but they keep on moving in a direction that I’m no longer comfortable with.
I’m also a certified Google proctor, which allows me to officially tutor and troubleshoot problems with anything Google.
I just don’t see myself ever using that skillet in the future due to the current assault on its users’ privacy from Google.
I know, right??
I got practically everyone I know into using the whole Google ecosystem. Now I deeply regret it. Their “do no evil” motto was ditched and it’s all about profits now.
The Google Skillet. Another product that nobody’s heard of :)
Why is anyone surprised by this?! Google is an ad company.
Even though google bought double click I some times wonder if it was just double click wearing a google skin the whole time scobbydoo style
