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
Just subscribed to recurring donation to Mozilla. Thanks for reminder.
I don’t think Mozilla needs our donations. Like, at all.
In 2021:
- They received over $500 million from “royalties” e.g. Google.
- They had $340 million in expenses
But if we factor in donations:
- They received $7.4 million in donations
- Their CEO received a $5.5 million salary.
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.
There’s a huge difference between supporting something, and supporting it uncritically. I am in the former camp
Yeah and I still trust Firefox way more then Google.
Yeah, I don’t mind them taking money from Google, but I wish more of that money would be spent on the browser and related software.
They also recently acquired a shopping review checking add on, and they are trying to bloat up Firefox with it. Personally, I was upset they had purchased it, but I would have been less upset if it had just stayed an add-on…
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.
As I said in my previous comment, I have no problem with them accepting Google’s money. I just have a problem with how they then spend it.
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uMatrix has been abandoned hasn’t it? I thought the dev had incorporated some of uMatrix into uBlock?
Am I wrong in believing this?
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@neonred @lemmyingly I just run noscript. Not really comfortable with running outdated extentions
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You don’t even need NoScript. uBlock Origin has pretty much all of the features.
@netchami that’s true. I just use it to block ads and iframes
That’s what uBlock Origin is perfect for.
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Can you provide a list of the smaller stuff? Been meaning to switch to Firefox.
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Thanks!
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Double thanks!
Thanks!!
Firefox actually has most privacy stuff you need built-in nowadays. There are surprisingly few steps you need to harden it after install (on both desktop and mobile):
- Install the uBlock Origin extension.
- Switch Enhanced Tracking Protection to “strict”.
- Turn on HTTPS-only mode in all tabs.
Optionally:
- Switch your search engine away from Google. I’ve been using DuckDuckGo with zero problems for years, but there are others.
- Install the multi-containers extension, it can be used to load websites in isolated color-coded tabs so no data “leakage” can occur.
You do not need any other extension. There is some advanced stuff for fingerprinting protection but they can do more harm than good if you don’t know what you’re doing. Stick to the above, update Firefox when prompted and that’s all.
I’ve noticed DDG giving poor results lately and definitely putting me in a bubble. No matter what it gives hyper local results.
Same, I tried it for a while a few months ago but it never gave me as good results as Google. I’m very aware of the enshittification and will switch away as soon as I notice it not showing me what I want, though.
For the record I find it miles better than google, I just think they are getting to be more like Google in their results being tailored.
When I search something I want to learn about I’ll often get local examples whereas I used to get the wiki or some general discussions.
When I google it I get ads and pictures of myself in the shower.
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I love the possibility to have uBlock Origin on mobile. I have Privacy Badger and Decentraleyes installed as well. Toolbar on bottom is another thing I can’t live without anymore. That’s configurable through settings.
You can use uBlock Origin on mobile in the Firefox nightly build.
In the nightly build, you get to use pretty much all addons from desktop.
Thank you!
Firefox, and Vivaldi for the occasional site that doesn’t work on Gecko. (They’re built on the Chromium engine, but absolutely refusing to implement this crap)
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.
Yeah - this is the privacy model that ad targeting should have always taken. People are grabbing pitchforks not really knowing why.
Moving profiles to the edge and only letting ad servers know what to send rather than connecting the ads to profiles of centrally located browsing data and history would be a huge step forward in privacy for the average user.
The even better version of this would be the ad server sending “ad options” and the browser selecting what to show based on the internal profile, so even category data isn’t sent, just the potential linking of which ad is shown to which user (but not knowing if that correlated to an actual preference or if the other options were just equally poorly targeted).
No they should use context ads like duck duck go
They should ad an option to pay for the service with not tracking nor ads.
Steve is the best.
Max that’s a wonderful comment, but could you just tell me what to do, I ain’t reading all that.
tl;dr There are valid reasons to not use Chrome, and to be suspicious of Google. This, specifically, is not one of them and the fear is mostly overblown by people who have done zero research.
Right? “Here is a quick excerpt”. Then proceeds to post a whole article.
Within the context of the subject matter, that was a quick excerpt. And, in fact, the transcript from which that excerpt was extracted can probably be considered a relatively quick excerpt from the entire system.
Sometimes it is just not possible to simplify further or be more concise without just saying “trust me, it’s better than what we had up to now.” That is especially true when we have all learned, I hope, that “trust me, I saw it on the internet” is a really lousy way to make decisions.
Damn bro, my bad. I must have been cranky when I left that comment. Totally understood!
No problem! If that’s as nasty as we ever get, then I’d say we’re doing pretty damn good!
TL;DR: If you want to use Chrome then don’t be worried about Topics. It’s better privacy than third party cookies and other tracking methods.
You should really practice reading more if something that long is difficult for you.
Reading is a crucial life skill that everyone should practice daily.
Stop using Chrome either way. Topics are still tracking, just a different kind.
You’re in the wrong if you still have chrome installed.
Use Firefox now!
I am! I’ve been using it for a while now. I just accidentally started Chrome today and this popup came up. I decided to uninstall it for good.
Never stopped.
Was it ever fun?
Definitely! I remember how awesome and exciting it was when Google was handing out all this great free stuff, before we learnt how we were paying for it.
There’s no such thing as a free lunch.
It was! When Chrome first came out it was blazing fast and could render pages better than any other browser. It wasn’t this spyware that sent all your web usage for targeted ads.
No
This was the intention of Chrome from the start. A browser made by an advertising company was never a good thing.
The “No thanks” button should probably say “Fuck this”
You can say ‘Fuck this’ and switch to Firefox or LibreWolf (fork of Firefox with privacy improvements and preinstalled uBlock Origin, it also removes all the crap from Firefox like Pocket or Sponsored sites). Mull on Android is another great Fork of Firefox with improved privacy.
I already know this.
So what happens if you just block every ad topic?
Youtube constantly tries to admonish me for leaving my watch list disabled so it can’t send me recommendations – like I actually give a flying fuck what Google things I should be interested in.
I LOVE having that section of youtube blank.
Oh even if you have it on it will try Shapiroing you, or slip in some crying Peterson. It really takes some time if you try to tame it. I think I’m in some zone where they just quit on me. But then I’ve never in my life clicked on anything recommended.
I guess you just don’t see personalised ads
Oh no!
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me too! i want to set it to “none, ever, fuck you”
That’s what uBlock Origin is for! NextDNS also helps with blocking ads on your entire network! Alternatively you can self-host Pi-Hole or AdGuard Home.
With both Chrome and Edge enshittifying themselves, nows a great time for Apple to ship Safari for Windows again.
What for? Firefox is faster than Chrome these days.
Oh please no, Safari is… weird. It’s the new IE for front-end developers.
“Hey Safari, here’s the response from an API call.”
Safari: Oh, you didn’t specify how to cache this. I guess I’ll just cache it… forever!
You guys see ads?
Yeah, sometimes. Archive.org has a nice collection of vintage ones.
Now I do, thanks to YouTube.
Firefox + ublock origin solves that
FreeTube has been very nice to me.
I tried invidious and it’s great but my issue with it is I can’t see my subscriptions, see which videos I’ve already watched or leave likes on videos :/
can’t see my subscriptions
FreeTube has good instructions for how to export your existing subscriptions from YouTube and then import those into FreeTube. Those go into the default “All Channels” profile. From there, you can make more profiles, and add subscriptions into those. I have several now: News, Academia, Bushcraft, Motoring, more. Switching between them is seamless, you don’t lose your place.
see videos I’ve already watched
There is a History you can go to, although it appears to only show history for “All Channels” (does not filter based on profile subscriptions used above). There is a settings toggle for “Hide Videos on Watch.”
leave likes on videos
That’s true, you can’t leave likes on or comment on videos (though you can view comments). I’m in the “oh fucking well” camp on that.
but freetube is an application right? I’d rather watch videos in my browser
… Okay? I guess?
I mean, a browser is an application, too. Add the Privacy Redirect extension to your browser, and it’ll open all YouTube links in FreeTube, so it’s really pretty seamless.
I’m not sure what’s got me promoting FreeTube so much right now. I just started using it less than a week ago. The learning curve is quite shallow, and since I only watch videos on my desktop (not on my shitty shitty phone), I don’t have to be concerned with my history and subscriptions being synced anywhere.
yeah a browser is an application but this requires me to install yet another application and idk it feels weird to install an application just for watching YouTube… I’m just hoping there’s other alternatives like invidious that are available on a browser
We need an Internet reset.
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Gemini is an application-level client-server internet protocol for the distribution of arbitrary files, with some special consideration for serving a lightweight hypertext format which facilitates linking between hosted files. Both the protocol and the format are deliberately limited in capabilities and scope, and the protocol is technically conservative, being built on mature, standardised, familiar, “off-the-shelf” technologies like URIs, MIME media types and TLS.
That looks really cool. What would incentivise companies to use it over a regular website with tracking and whatnot?
we need a company-free web. today you search the web for anything and you only obtain garbage SEO optimized results because of the commercialization of the web.
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.
Absolutely nothing.
Unfortunately this.
Not only would companies not want to use it because of no incentives like what they get from the internet with monetary gains, it’ll likely only exist as an incredibly niche thing because not many people will hear about it due to the first part.
That said, maybe that’s the best part of the whole thing. With less things to exploit, it wards off companies and “influencers” just using it to make money and it becomes more focused around hobbies like the internet once was.
Not only would companies not want to use it because of no incentives like what they get from the internet with monetary gains, it’ll likely only exist as an incredibly niche thing because not many people will hear about it due to the first part.
That sounds amazing!
That’s incredibly snob from you… and I agree with you.
… it’ll likely only exist as an incredibly niche thing because not many people will hear about it…
Sounds like they need some ads! :)
Really pulling for Solid.
The fact that they want you to do this again every 4 weeks is downright laughable.
It says that they’re auto deleted, there’s no action needed every 4 week by the user.
The fact that anyone in /privacy/ uses any google products or services is also quite laughable.
Nice gatekeeping bro, keep it up
I don’t think that word means what you think it means
What does it mean then, if not implying that you’re not a real Privacy user or cannot be interested in improving your privacy situation if you use Google products?
I honestly, i think it’s the truth. You can’t be a privacy enthusiast if you use google products. It’s the antithesis of privacy.
What about someone who has been slowly degoogling themselves but isn’t all the way there yet?
On that note, any suggestions for a privacy-friendlier alternative for my favorite but most difficult-to-replace Google service, location history?
I think mosquito does location history. But it’s usually self hosted.
That’s like worrying about privacy while using Facebook and tiktok. Moreover, accessing all of your personal information on a device created by Facebook.
I mean, you’ve got to start somewhere.
It will be more often than that. The ad topics will be generated in a rolling fashion so expirations will be staggered.
It was never great. The only use for chrome was to load the two or three sites that would only load in chrome and then ignore it.
Fire that fox up! Mozilla Firefox
Using Mull right now and Librewolf for PC. Never browsed so good before.
Try its forks: LibreWolf (desktop) and Iceraven (Android)
Mull is another option for Android.
Or Fennec.
Nope. I hate saying the name.
Waterfox as well!
Better late than never I guess.
