Chrome, your friendly spyware browser

[Tuxman]

So - has everyone left Firefox yet?

Good luck.

https://mobile.twitter.com/phlsa/status/754337623964053504

TL;DR: the world's largest ads provider wants its piece of the cake that is you.

[wraith808]

Disconnect Me - https://disconnect.me/
uBlock - https://www.ublock.org/

[Tuxman]

You did not quite get the implications of the announcement, I guess. Good luck taming the code itself.

[wraith808]

You did not quite get the implications of the announcement, I guess. Good luck taming the code itself.

So educate us rather than looking down at us. 

[Tuxman]

In which way do uBlock and Disconnect Me stop your browser from sharing data with a web service you are not actively visiting?

[4wd]

I think what he means is, if you're signed into Google (or even not signed in probably) and using Google's Chrome browser, how are you going to stop the browser from reporting to Google everything you've been doing?

This isn't a case of a website tracking you, now it's the program you are using.

It may even be the case that the browser logs everything you do until the next time you log into your account, then sends it.

Not sure uBlock or DisconnectMe are going to help you much since so many sites now rely on something from Google that in a large number of cases they fail to work properly unless a connection to Google is allowed.

[wraith808]

I never log into google, and use disconnected search also.

[Deozaan]

1. That picture is cropped in such a way as to make it look like you either have no choice in the matter or that it's opt-out. It's actually opt-in, as shown here: https://twitter.com/masohnry/status/755178336691884032

2. In my experience, targeted advertising is so bad--as in wrong and not at all aligned with my interests--that it almost might as well not be targeted. It just sucks. I'm with this guy: https://twitter.com/bobajeff82/status/754831240637902848

3. In my experience, Google products are some of the best, most convenient to use. If their products weren't so great I'd have a harder time dumping them because of crap like this (spyware). I'd really like to use products with comparable features, but without the tracking/spyware.

[4wd]

I never log into google, and use disconnected search also.

Isn't the problem now though, that it doesn't really matter whether you use Disconnected Search or not, the possibility exists that whatever you've typed/looked at/etc is now tracked by your browser.  Whether or not that info ends up at Google by some way or another isn't the real issue as I see it, just as Windows 10 has become all invasive so it seems has Chrome.

I'd really like to use products with comparable features, but without the tracking/spyware.

Just as a matter of interest, isn't Chrome based on Chromium?

Would it not be better, (as in less tracking, etc), to use Chromium?

I don't use either, hence the question.

[Tuxman]

3. In my experience, Google products are some of the best, most convenient to use.

Google tends to dump products which don't make them enough money though. Remember Google Reader, the only Google product I've ever used despite of the already existing alternatives?

[Deozaan]

Just as a matter of interest, isn't Chrome based on Chromium?

Would it not be better, (as in less tracking, etc), to use Chromium?

Yes Chrome is based on Chromium. Just because it's open source, doesn't mean it doesn't have tracking. Doesn't Firefox have tracking?

But maybe I misunderstood what Chromium is all about. I always thought Google made Chromium, too, but it was a version with less branding or proprietary parts so Linux users could use it. But now that I'm typing that "out loud" it doesn't seem to make sense. Time to look deeper into Chromium!

3. In my experience, Google products are some of the best, most convenient to use.

Google tends to dump products which don't make them enough money though. Remember Google Reader, the only Google product I've ever used despite of the already existing alternatives?

Yes. And since the loss of Google Reader, I just stopped using RSS feeds altogether, having never found anything as convenient. Which isn't to say that I looked very hard, or for very long. But I tried out a few alternatives and nothing suited me. I intended to wait a little while until a good alternative was made or discovered, but eventually I kind of forgot about it and never bothered looking into it again.

[Tuxman]

Newsblur is great. Other than that, I host a public Tiny Tiny RSS instance with a couple of skins, plug-ins and users, just in case.

[Deozaan]

I always thought Google made Chromium, too, but it was a version with less branding or proprietary parts so Linux users could use it.

I just looked more into Chromium. The blog is the Chrome blog. Any link from the Chromium website to a stable version of the browser just takes me to a download for Chrome. The link to the development version of Chromium takes me to development versions of Chrome. As I suspected, they are essentially the same browser, made by the same people. I'm not sure why Chromium is "for Linux" and Chrome is for Windows/MacOS but as far as I can tell, there is no Chromium browser for Windows, other than possibly unstable builds.

[MilesAhead]

Just as a matter of interest, isn't Chrome based on Chromium?

Would it not be better, (as in less tracking, etc), to use Chromium?

I don't use either, hence the question.was

Yes, chromium is the open source browser that is the basis of google chrome.  For a couple of years I used chromium portable snapshots.  It loaded quickly and was very fast.  The original issue that made me aware of it was that google chrome had a unique identifier that was accessible to the web server when you used chrome.  So other flavors of chrome such as SRWare Iron started popping up that did not have this ID built in.  After finding some extensions did not work as I wanted with the Iron flavor I figured I would go right to the horse's mouth and use chromium.  It was fine for a couple of years.  Then I started having issues.  I forget what they were now.  The upshot was I went back to Firefox.

Now Firefox is such a dog off the disk that I use SlimJet(yet another chrome flavor) as my default.  I was on the chromium email list for a while.  But it became obvious they were going in a direction I did not like and they were not going to turn off the road because of my objections.  The usual plot starring Peter Lorre.  For a time chromium portable snapped off the disk and roared.  But then the inevitable code bloat ensued.

[TimmyMouse]

Yep........ I know cHrome is a spyware browser but can't help using it.  It's so convenient for searching and surfing web.
I haven't used FF for 5 years but now i use it quite often for my work.
I think IE is still the most secured web browser, rignt?

[Tuxman]

Actually, Emacs is the most secured web browser.

[panzer]

I'm not sure why Chromium is "for Linux" and Chrome is for Windows/MacOS but as far as I can tell, there is no Chromium browser for Windows, other than possibly unstable builds.

"...Welcome on this auto-updated website to easily download latest stable version or good build of Chromium browser ...":
http://chromium.woolyss.com
http://chromium.woolyss.com/#windows
http://chromium.woolyss.com/download/

[dantheman]

Can Vivaldi be considered as Chromium class category or a Google Chrome?