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It’s time to ditch Chrome


pipedreams
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In case you didn't know this already.

As well as collecting your data, Chrome also gives Google a huge amount of control over how the web works

"Is Google too big and powerful, and do you need to ditch Chrome for good? Privacy experts say yes. Chrome is tightly integrated with Google’s data gathering infrastructure, including services such as Google search and Gmail – and its market dominance gives it the power to help set new standards across the web. Chrome is one of Google’s most powerful data-gathering tools."

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/google-chrome-browser-data

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Not too many alternatives that are truly private.  De-googled Chrome works if you were happy with Chrome, but it's not for all.  Hardened Firefox works, but breaks some websites which is a royal PITA.  Then there is Brave, which I like.  But they have some shady goings-on too.

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  • 4 weeks later...

MCE6G0F.gif

Nothing new. The only good thing out of it is the thing just works. MS Edge is a PITA as well. Can't even get rid of it, just turn everything off and don't use it. As best you can.

There are a few browser alternatives, but not sure if any are that great. All have had their episodes of question. Hey they have ot make a profit, but at what level of prying?

Search engines? Oh yea, there are plenty, well several, that work as well as Google, and even show you what Google decided you don't need to see. Yes, they really do that.

If you are terrified the .gov can see your p0rn accounts, then you are using the wrong media to watch it. You may seek out the nearest Blockbuster holdout. There are still a few rental places around.

Phones are the same way. So many go to great lengths to avoid "Smart phones" and what ever operating system. No matter what you have in your pocket, it is still in your pocket and the gatherers know where you are, at least close, and what you have searched. Oh they may just know you are in the 300 block of Elm street, but they also know Lowes is the only thing there. With the cameras and other "security", they may only know you are in the store looking at dry wall screws, instead of exactly which floor tile you're standing on, but they still know. 

Edited by LostinTexas
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11 hours ago, LostinTexas said:

Phones are the same way. So many go to great lengths to avoid "Smart phones" and what ever operating system. No matter what you have in your pocket, it is still in your pocket and the gatherers know where you are, at least close, and what you have searched. Oh they may just know you are in the 300 block of Elm street, but they also know Lowes is the only thing there. With the cameras and other "security", they may only know you are in the store looking at dry wall screws, instead of exactly which floor tile you're standing on, but they still know. 

Maybe this will help.

https://www.amazon.com/Mission-Darkness-Non-Window-Faraday-Phones/dp/B01A7MACL2

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2 hours ago, minderasr said:

That may help right up to the time you take it out of the bag to use it. Remember, you get no calls or massages while it is in the bag. If you do, the bag isn't working. As soon as it hits a tower, you are located. Anyone diligent enough to really be tracking you will put together the bread crumbs. Not many are that interesting, but it can still happen.

Any electronic device in this day and time can locate you. It may not be in real time, but you are still on the radar. Sad but true. What a world we have made for ourselves.

If you are going to put your phone in a potato chip bag, leave it in the potato chip bag. ~The Terminator

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  • 1 month later...
On 7/9/2021 at 9:38 PM, EdTracker said:

I switched to Brave once Opera became a resource pig and was canceling my add ins with regularity during updates.

 

Brave seems to be faster and has built in ad blocking. The setting and history transfer was a breeze.

 

On 7/9/2021 at 9:42 PM, Swampfox762 said:

Try Brave.

 

I've been using Brave for the last 7-8 months. It seems fine to me. 

Ever since Mozilla had their idiotic blog about going beyond deplatforming. They can go to hades.

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Firefox works fine for me.  Plus, it's got containers which keep snoops like Facebook from following you around the web.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/containers

I use https://duckduckgo.com/  

to keep my search data a little more private.

Download Firefox at this link if you've a mind to try it:

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/

 

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19 hours ago, Brad said:

More info on that?

Yea, they started the Brave Rewards and began tracing your searches so that they could "help" with pricing and alternate searches. It lasted a while, and went off the reservation. As far as I know, they got that under control, rather publicly.  I kept it turned off, and they did add that option. Seems there was another skeleton or two in the closet, not sure what, but that seems to have been remedied as well.

I tried very hard to like Brave, several times, but just can't. I have a couple of browsers on my machine that I like, but still gravitate back to FF. So far they are holding their end of the bargain, but who knows when that will change.

If you like Opera, try Vivaldi. A bit of a pain to set up, or was, but bone simple afterward. It reports back to the Mother Ship and I don't know what it exactly reports, but I have yet to get any sort of ad pile from using it. No where near the add ons and personalization as FF, and to be honest I don't think anything tops them in that department, and no containers. I know no one even offers a comparable add on at all.

Brave, Vivaldi, and just about every other browser besides FF is a Chromium based browser, FWIW. Not bad, and the open source Chromium is pretty good, but lacks a lot of features these days, to work well with a lot of sites. Still a great base program.

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54 minutes ago, LostinTexas said:

Yea, they started the Brave Rewards and began tracing your searches so that they could "help" with pricing and alternate searches. It lasted a while, and went off the reservation. As far as I know, they got that under control, rather publicly.  I kept it turned off, and they did add that option. Seems there was another skeleton or two in the closet, not sure what, but that seems to have been remedied as well.

I tried very hard to like Brave, several times, but just can't. I have a couple of browsers on my machine that I like, but still gravitate back to FF. So far they are holding their end of the bargain, but who knows when that will change.

If you like Opera, try Vivaldi. A bit of a pain to set up, or was, but bone simple afterward. It reports back to the Mother Ship and I don't know what it exactly reports, but I have yet to get any sort of ad pile from using it. No where near the add ons and personalization as FF, and to be honest I don't think anything tops them in that department, and no containers. I know no one even offers a comparable add on at all.

Brave, Vivaldi, and just about every other browser besides FF is a Chromium based browser, FWIW. Not bad, and the open source Chromium is pretty good, but lacks a lot of features these days, to work well with a lot of sites. Still a great base program.

Thanks for the info on Brave. I will check it out.

I was a FF diehard for years. Then Mozilla published their blog earlier this year stating deplatforming isn't enough and they have to do more. Mozilla can go to hades.

 

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2 minutes ago, Brad said:

Thanks for the info on Brave. I will check it out.

I was a FF diehard for years. Then Mozilla published their blog earlier this year stating deplatforming isn't enough and they have to do more. Mozilla can go to hades.

 

Skip Brave, go to Dissenter. It's stripped down eve more than Brave. It's been my daily driver for the last few years. Remember, Brave and Dissenter, and Opera are all based on Chrome.

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41 minutes ago, Brad said:

Thanks for the info on Brave. I will check it out.

I was a FF diehard for years. Then Mozilla published their blog earlier this year stating deplatforming isn't enough and they have to do more. Mozilla can go to hades.

 

I don't read their blog, but heard they stepped on their pepe so to speak. The woke female group that orchestrated the hostile take over left, and still leaves a bad taste.

I heard the feedback from their announcement earlier in the year, or was it last year, was met with a very toxic reaction. Maybe they are smart enough to take proper action and back off their agenda. Dunno.

The CEO and founder of FF left and started the Brave project. The good folks at Opera left when it was overtaken by a firm from China (IIRC), and started Vivaldi. I hated Opera, and love Vivaldi even though it has the fingerprints all over it. I think some of the programmers from FF went along with the Vivaldi project as well.

If either ever starts the personalization that FF has, and/or offers containers, they may just put a dent in the FF machine. Mozilla is on shaky ground, and has been for several years, but keep doing the right thing in the end of the day. That is subject to stop at any minute, just like all of them.

 

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4 hours ago, Sherlock said:

Skip Brave, go to Dissenter. It's stripped down eve more than Brave. It's been my daily driver for the last few years. Remember, Brave and Dissenter, and Opera are all based on Chrome.

Been playing with Dissenter since I read it here. It is Brave under another name. Oh I'm sure both do exactly what they say, or is that don't do what they say, but I have figured out why I don't like Brave and a few other formats.

The are all Chrome. Gutted, no tracking, or what, they are Chrome and I hate it. Down to the last setting, designation, and having to use Chrome for extensions and themes. No deviation or out of the box thinking. Just the box label is changed. To top it off Dissenter is Brave, down to the last command. They didn't even try to make it look or work different. Seems to be a total copy and paste.

Function well, but not something I can get enthused over.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Brave has a long history of not paying out to those participating in their "watch ads, get paid - Brave Rewards" scheme.  The reddit sub r/brave_browser is full of posts from people complaining of not being paid or their credits (or BATs) magically disappearing.

With that said, I use Brave as my daily driver (rewards disabled).  But I still use Firefox too.  Both allow me to use the add-ons/extensions I like (most privacy based), and if I come across a site that doesn't work on one, I find it usually will work on the other.

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It's difficult to live Google-free if you're on the internet.  All sorts of Google "products" injected/in-use by websites across the net.  Almost all internet browsers are (or are soon to be) Chromium based.  For Google to argue they are not a monopoly is a complete farce.  But the brain surgeons running our government take the bait hook, line and sinker.

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27 minutes ago, minderasr said:

It's difficult to live Google-free if you're on the internet.  All sorts of Google "products" injected/in-use by websites across the net.  Almost all internet browsers are (or are soon to be) Chromium based.  For Google to argue they are not a monopoly is a complete farce.  But the brain surgeons running our government take the bait  Money hook, line and sinker.

FIFY FWIW, Chromium isn't a google product, or wasn't in the beginning. If it were there is no way it would be open source and no way they wouldn't be pulling royalties and control. Chromium project was and is open, that is why so many use it as a base program, despite what the Internet and Google search may tell you. I discovered it years before Chrome in the Linux community. 

It used to be quite the stand alone browser, and still is in many regards, but it just won't work well with many sites and functions because it hasn't been kept up.

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Okay so, unless you're living on your own private island, divorce yourself from all  computerized contrivances, use cash for all transactions, never use the Internet for anything and communicate via CB or HAM radio, you are being tracked. You can't drive anywhere anymore or visit any place of business without being photographed, your license plate is OCR'd and many businesses now use facial recognition. Can you say Minority Report? Welcome to the technological, invasive HELL we've created for ourselves. Every technical convenience we've created for ourselves is now being used to track our movements, predict our spending habits and manipulate our choices.  Everything you say and do, every website you visit and every post you create is cataloged and categorized for future reference. As we have seen in recent years, the internet never forgets. Someone will find a website post, careless picture or video and use it against you. I won't even begin to discuss the invasiveness and exposure that social media creates.

However, because of my job and current lifestyle, I'm fully "Google-ized". I use a good many of their free apps and cloud storage.  I am the age now where I really don't care what people know about me, I do not have a vast Fortune that someone can make off with in the middle of the night, secret political view points or anything else that could be exposed because one of my passwords was hacked. 

I'm just an older guy trying to make it to retirement at which point I will probably spend most of my time fishing or doing something that has absolutely nothing to do with technology. 

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25 minutes ago, inthefrey said:

Okay so, unless you're living on your own private island, divorce yourself from all  computerized contrivances, use cash for all transactions, never use the Internet for anything and communicate via CB or HAM radio, you are being tracked. You can't drive anywhere anymore or visit any place of business without being photographed, your license plate is OCR'd and many businesses now use facial recognition. Can you say Minority Report? Welcome to the technological, invasive HELL we've created for ourselves. Every technical convenience we've created for ourselves is now being used to track our movements, predict our spending habits and manipulate our choices.  Everything you say and do, every website you visit and every post you create is cataloged and categorized for future reference. As we have seen in recent years, the internet never forgets. Someone will find a website post, careless picture or video and use it against you. I won't even begin to discuss the invasiveness and exposure that social media creates.

However, because of my job and current lifestyle, I'm fully "Google-ized". I use a good many of their free apps and cloud storage.  I am the age now where I really don't care what people know about me, I do not have a vast Fortune that someone can make off with in the middle of the night, secret political view points or anything else that could be exposed because one of my passwords was hacked. 

I'm just an older guy trying to make it to retirement at which point I will probably spend most of my time fishing or doing something that has absolutely nothing to do with technology. 

Eventually I will kick all new tech out of my life. Not because of the tracking, but I'm sick and tired of being connected at all times like a braindead battery cell in the matrix.

I miss the old days, where the technological excitement came down to renting a movie on VHS tape once a month, playing music on a cassette recorder and maybe owning a 80s C64 computer for some very basic offline games.

Yeah, **** Biden and big tech.

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