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I'm fucking done with Chrome. Fuck this.
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this post was submitted on 25 Oct 2023
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privacy
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Wow, this comment section is a giant echo chamber. Really, guys?
Yes, Google and Chrome are dumpster fires for privacy. But this is at least inching in the right direction, however small. Now the next time you shop for a present for your girlfriend on Valentine's Day, you can prevent yourself from getting underwear ads for the next month.
Also, if this is your last straw... you've had your head in the sand for over a decade. Google has been watching every single thing you do, categorizing it, and selling ad placement for that topic to the highest bidder ever since ads became their primary business model. Chrome just made it easier to do that.
I ditched Chrome a short while ago due to its poor memory management and its inexplicable inability to handle certain sites that Edge can somehow handle fine for a third of the RAM hit. This wouldn't have been my deal breaker.
What? Before, for many, many years, they didn't even ask how you would like your toppings on your shit sandwich and you happily gobbled it up. They're giving you the option to opt out of some topics, and NOW you're pissed? It may not be a privacy slam-dunk (why are you using Chrome, anyway?), but it's better than the nothing that existed before.
Of course Google doesn't care. They're not going to give you an opt-out option. They're an ad company, and their whole business is knowing your interests to get you to buy from advertisers. The search engine is just to get you in the door. The moment you press enter, they're selling you something.
Google was selling ads about 4 years before their IPO when the "Don't Be Evil" motto was first revealed to the public. There is a "History of Google" page on Wikipedia if you want to brush up on the facts and timeline.
The fact remains that they're now an advertising company. This was their monetization model and how they've amassed 90%+ of their wealth.
You can fiddle with your security however you want. I settle for "good enough" with things that aren't Chrome, because my time isn't worth analyzing each individual cookie on a page to get the info I am looking for. Firefox and uBlock Origin are a good enough layer of protection.
Nothing about that is in defence of Google.
Attacking ignorance isn't the same as defending evil.
I have 4 different browsers installed, I use Chrome for work activities, as it supports the Outlook and Teams PWA's and I'm not browsing ad-ridden sites. I use qutebrowser for personal stuff/bookmarks, and Firefox for uh, video browsing.
I'd recommend using Edge for work. The Office integrations are impressive and make work that much more streamlined.
On linux? No thanks.
This is one of those situations where people are mad at the right person for the wrong reasons and I never know how to respond. I hate misinformation, so I lean towards wanting to try and point out what's wrong, but long-form nuanced explanations don't fit well with the situation and will change zero minds so why bother? At least there's some people switching to Firefox as a result, I guess.