Got this notification when I opened Chrome when coming back to my desk after lunch.
“We changed our privacy settings to allow us to snoop on what you’re looking at and shove you ads accordingly. Feel free to opt out, but we’ll probably opt you back in when you aren’t paying attention.”
Why are you using Chrome?
At work I can choose between Edge and Chrome as my only two options. I use Edge, but there’s really no benefit for me to use one over the other. Technically I think I can request Firefox, but it’d have to go through VP-level approvals or something stupid like that.
Based on the “coming back from lunch,” I’d assume this person is on their work computer.
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Does anyone know if this is coming to (Chrome based) Edge?
For the last year and for all of the crap Google has been changing in Google Chrome, I’ve actually been pretty happy with Edge (never thought I’d be saying that).
Side chat… am I the only one who has started finding Bing more useful than Google? I never thought I would type that statement out in my life…
It’s truly shocking but yes, I don’t immediately change search engine preferences when Edge defaults to Bing now.
My guess is that it’s unlikely, Microsoft doesn’t want to empower Google even more, and running your OS is everything they need to plunder your data
“More useful ads”
I think wanting stuff for free and not wanting ads don’t go together. Either we pay or we watch ads or use open source.
I think a balance can be struck. Early internet ads didn’t have to watch you all across the internet. As far as I know DuckDuckGo ads are just old school keyword matches, too. Newspapers don’t feel the need to know the last 10 stores you visited. It’s this obsession with personalized, targeted ads that brings up all this spyware crap.
No, actually, fuck all that. Ads are not a necessity for things to be free. Do you want that one black mirror episode? Cuz that’s how we get that one black mirror episode.
Which one? xD
[Fifteen million merits](http://www.Fifteen.com/ million merits)
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That’s like saying we should gouge out our eyeballs if we don’t want to see banner ads in real life. Fuck that noise.
This is why I use Linux at home, along with TOR and a VPN. I’m not doing anything other than looking up woodworking and camping stuff, but fuck all ya’ll for being nosy.
Literally Ron Swanson
There are worse fates.
My dude. All the feels right here.
Same here I only do mild stuff like look at computer parts, servers and burglar tools. Damn nosy bastards.
What’s the benefit of Tor and a VPN? Isn’t a VPN sufficient?
Doubly paranoid, doubly protected. Lol.
Ironically enough, using a VPN makes TOR protection weaker
Can you explain this, or point me in the right direction to learn more?
That really depends on what you’re trying to do.
A VPN just makes it look like you’re somewhere else, but it doesn’t really add any amount of anonymity. You’ll still get tracked around the Internet like you normally would, but sites will just think you’re somewhere else.
Tor is an anonymizing network, so your traffic gets mixed with a bunch of other people’s traffic so websites get really confused about where you are. It’s almost impossible to track someone using Tor because Tor will change how your packets are routed from request to request.
So if you just want to get access to different Netflix shows, a VPN is probably what you want. If you want to truly be anonymous, you need Tor. Just know that anonymity through Tor comes at a price, a lot of sites block Tor traffic, and performance is nothing to write home about because your traffic is routed through a bunch of other people’s machines.
Ah, Enhanced, the folks that brought us interrogation.
“new privacy feature” and then “sites you visit can determine what you like”
translated: “this new privacy feature reduces the amount privacy you have!!! what a great thing you like!!!”
Idk why the heck you just got downvoted into oblivion for pointing out the irony in google calling this a “privacy feature.” Good old reddit moment it seems.
lol it’s no worries. actually I have the privilege of being bot-downvoted by CCP sympathizers because of comments on this post https://lemmy.world/post/2338419, there is also the possibility that I’m just an asshole.
Damn, you’re still copy pasting that? That link doesn’t even go anywhere lol
He thinks he’s getting bot downvoted, but there’s actually people invested enough to stalk him. Cute.
Yeah, he’s definitely “important”
I don’t particularly care about your or his internet spats or attempt to control the all important narrative on lemmy. You are the one giving him rent free space in your brain and on your keyboard though.
Lol wat
didn’t think about it like that! i feel loved :)
See WarmSoda!? This is why I shouldn’t have stopped. People ask this question, your advice was wrong! I’m going to continue what I was doing before you called me stupid.
edit: The link points to lemmy.world which is intermittently getting DDOS’ed.
Please ignore my negative initial vote score, as I have the privilege of being bot-downvoted by CCP sympathizers because of comments on this post https://lemmy.world/post/2338419, there is also the possibility that I’m just an asshole.
This is why I use Firefox
Plain Jane Firefox ain’t any better than Chrome. Just putting your info in a different database.
Would you rather your data be sent to a browser company or the largest advertising agency in the world?
… Tell me again how these are the same?
That’s a false dichotomy. I’d rather it not be sent to anyone…
Your data isn’t just sent to a browser company. The browser company shares all of it with an ad agency.
You said “isn’t any better” than chrome. Given the choice between the two, there is clearly a better option
In regards to privacy, I disagree.
That ad company is probably just selling your data back to Google anyway.
… the ad company IS Google
Firefox collects diagnostics and some usage data, not browsing history, Google collects absolutely anything and everything.
Their primary, nor secondary, source of revenue is not selling your data. You can also disable it entirely pretty easily. You cannot do that in Chrome.
Given the two options, one is clearly better.
the ad company IS Google
No it’s not. It’s called admarketplace
Firefox collects diagnostics and some usage data, not browsing history,
They collect everything. It’s all spelled out in no uncertain terms in their privacy policy. I’d suggest you have a look.
The browser company in question is primarily funded by the advertising company in question.
Doesn’t really make a difference. Google pays to keep their search engine the default, same as they do for Apple.
Please disable firefox telemetry if u care abt ur privacy
I mean, at least FF allows that. Hardened FF is a blessing.
I never understood what is so problematic about anonymized telemetry, especially for a open-source product.
It provides a really valuable feedback for developers regarding feature usage, performance and error logs – you get the product for free so give something back.
While it is mostly helpful, I still do it. To be honest, I would have been alright with it if it was a little more relaxed. What I mean by that is I’m okay with opt out, as long as it’s a product I trust, and I would say I do trust Firefox as a project (Not too sure about the Corporation, the Foundation is fine). What I’m not fine with is the “Data will be deleted within 30 days”. What if someone does not want to give that data in the first place, huh? I’m okay with it, because it’s Firefox, but many people arent, so it’s a matter principle for the people that aren’t. So if someone didn’t want any telemetry collected on them, that telemetry has not only been collected, but is now stored on Mozilla servers for 30 days, which means they can use it for analytics, whether you like it or not. Again, I don’t care, because it’s Firefox, but for the people that do, at the very least, don’t give me or them or anyone else fhat “We will delete within 30 days” thing. Automate it and do it now.
Exactly! It’s more “Help me help you” than anything nefarious.
Why are you using chrome if you care about things like this?
They’re at work.
What kind of cruel IT person installs Chrome and forbids Firefox
A lot. My IT company does the same. Fortunately, my team got an exception and we don’t use IT’s computers, but instead we manage it ourselves.
So I use macOS for work, while the rest of the company is on locked down Windows. I’d prefer Linux, but beggars can’t be choosers.
The kind that needs to maintain their users’ access to lazy shitty vendors who only develop their sites for the browser with the largest market share.
Half the vendors we use webapps/websites from jumped to Chrome when IE was dying, the other held on to IE kicking and screaming until forced out, then jumped to Chrome. They aren’t going to spend the resources to ensure cross compatability unless they have significant financial incentive to, and they don’t. And IT isn’t going to tell the business side to forget about getting work done until they find a better vendor just because IT wants to make a stand on browser vendors.
the kind that doesn’t know 'bout ‘portable apps’, which is what i did when the ITs did that to me back then.
In IT’s defense, there are a lot of REALLY stupid people. Plus given the added cost of developing internal apps that work for both, I can understand why corporations would choose to lock you into Chromium. I don’t like it, and I wish there was more trust in the end user, but I do get it.
Soo enhanced privacy means “Give as more data”? I’m so happy I moved to firefox. It was pain, but worth it.
I’m in the process myself, definitely feeling good about it; the plugins alone make it worth it.
Question: if personalized ads are so great, why can’t I just go into my google account’s settings and put there all the info about me? My income, my interests, ages of my children, my favorite food… Since personalized ads are so good every google users will just fill it in to get the best ads possible, right? Why not give people this option instead of implementing all this trackers?
They do give you that option for a lot of it: https://myadcenter.google.com/
You can set whether information like income, profession, education, etc is used, + or - different topics/brands, as well as see the ads you’ve been shown in the past.
This feature that the OP posted about however is about doing all this in the browser instead of doing the tracking on their servers and across various websites with embedded analytics/tracking code. The end goal is also to get rid of third-party cookies entirely, hopefully shutting down that method of tracking, while still being able to provide targeted advertising.
I’m joking of course but if people really wanted relevant adds they would just set it up like they create playlists in spotify. Spotify doesn’t have to track your browser history to guess what music will you enjoy because people just tell them that. Obviously no one wants personalized ads. Google knows this but they keep pretending that all this tracking is to improve your experience.
I love how targeting yourself with ads relevant to your interests is presented as something advantageous for us. Sorry, I don’t desire to be constantly prodded to take interest in new gadgets and cat foods.
You actually can in Google ad settings, not that you should give them more info though.
I would fill it up with false information.
Then you will not get all those super useful, personalized ads! How will you know what do you need?
On my work devices I try to Google and use as many websites in Spanish as possible. So now when I get Ads I at least get the benefit of learning some new Español
Because everyone in the game is making money off those trackers. Just because you give them your address and general interests doesn’t mean they know you’re shopping for a new fence for your house or different daycares for your kids at a specific given time.
They are also scarily accurate too. To the point where some people were finding out their teenage daughters were secretly pregnant when Target would send them an infant coupon package in the mail that was intercepted by them. That was guessed solely on data Google and other entities sold them, that’s crazy.
> Privacy
> Chrome
Yeah…
I’m already seeing all the ads I want to see.
Fucking. None.
“More useful ads” Well the best ads is no ads.
