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Google will use Chrome browsing data for ad tailoring

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Re: Google will use Chrome browsing data for ad tailoring

#171

Post by dajohnson89 »

neotek wrote: post #142

You can't go to Google and say "I want to buy a dataset (anonymous or otherwise) of males aged between 18 to 34 who likes cars and drink beer". You can go to Google and say "here's an ad I want you to show to a group of people, none of whom will ever be identifiable to me in any way, who are male aged between 18 to 34 who like cars and drink beer." That's what I don't understand about all this outrage - nobody, not F…

Even if the data is anonymized, isn't there a risk of a data leak, someone inferring your identity based on your browsing preferences? Like imagine someone who lives in a small town who's really into model railroads, and nobody else around is. Whoever from xyz location has done lots of browsing about model railroads, is likely that person and now we can see what else he/she's been browsing.

Re: Google will use Chrome browsing data for ad tailoring

#172

Post by bad_user »

wtbob wrote: post #162
bad_user wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The new system, Firefox Sync, is the one that encrypts your history with a password-derived key, by means of HKDF. Mozilla cannot decrypt and read your data.

> Mozilla cannot decrypt and read your data. Completely false: they can if they want to. All they have to do is serve a new login page to you which transmits your password as well as the derived key. They control the login page, they control the JavaScript which derives the key. They can do it at any time, invisibly. This is different from trusting them to make a trustworthy browser, because you download the browser…

> the old protocol was very suitable

It wasn't, because I've managed to lose my history with it. I very much prefer my history to be synchronized to a server I cannot lose.

If your objection is not about cloud storage, then your objection isn't about the protocol, but its implementation (e.g. usage of HTML/Javascript): https://github.com/mozilla/fxa-auth-server/wiki/onepw-protoc...

> you download the browser once

That's not true. Modern browsers are set to upgrade automatically in the background, without notifying the user.

If you're paranoid, you can self-host your own Sync server, but then if you don't trust the vendor of your browser, then you've got bigger problems and I hope you're compiling your own binaries.

Re: Google will use Chrome browsing data for ad tailoring

#173

Post by Tactic »

neotek wrote: post #142

You can't go to Google and say "I want to buy a dataset (anonymous or otherwise) of males aged between 18 to 34 who likes cars and drink beer". You can go to Google and say "here's an ad I want you to show to a group of people, none of whom will ever be identifiable to me in any way, who are male aged between 18 to 34 who like cars and drink beer." That's what I don't understand about all this outrage - nobody, not F…

For me the reason is that things change. They find new and innovative ways to use that data. Ways that I may not agree with. Ways that I may not be asked about.

But what doesn't change is they have the data. So my preference is they don't have it in the first place. Then I don't have to be concerned about the changes.

Re: Google will use Chrome browsing data for ad tailoring

#174

Post by lagadu »

zimbatm wrote: post #101

If you have the time, try Firefox Developer Edition[1]. It's one of the first edition of Firefox to have the per-tab sand-boxing enabled (called Electrolysis). Some plugins can interfere with Electrolysis. To check if it's enabled go to about:support and look at the "Multiprocess Windows" entry, it should be 1/1 or higher. https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/developer/

Be warned, e10s is still very green and it's easy to run into bugs. If all your tabs turn black for no apparent reason disable it.

Re: Google will use Chrome browsing data for ad tailoring

#175

Post by jobigoud »

stefanix wrote: post #107
corecoder wrote: post #103

I don't know, I'm starting to think that all this is either propaganda for ad sellers or a prank Google, Facebook et all are doing to me. Google has my full search history, all my hangout chats, all my e-mails, and yet: * On my Android, it keeps proposing ultra boring "stories to read" about soccer, wannabe celebrities and YouTube videos of stupid teenagers doing stupid things; * With the sole exception of when the s…

Same. Although Youtube recommendations are very good at times.

I wouldn't have said "good". They are very relevant to what you watched recently. But watch one random shit once and your side bar is now defaced with thumbnails you can't throw away. I really wish I could opt out altogether from this one.

Re: Google will use Chrome browsing data for ad tailoring

#176

Post by [deleted] »

swsieber wrote: post #64
drdre2001 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any other ideas of how browsers are going to make money? Without charging their customers?

Nope - we thought that wasn't quite needed since they were being set up as a public service, not a monetization platform. We need a project like the Linux kernel, except for a good browser.

[deleted]

Re: Google will use Chrome browsing data for ad tailoring

#178

Post by makomk »

fauigerzigerk wrote: post #95
timothya wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, Chrome has exactly that feature to, and let's the user choose what they want.

But Google has created a perverse incentive here. They give me a ton of choices, so many and so vaguely explained that I couldn't possibly understand what they really mean and I get suspicous of everything they offer me. So what I do is disable everything without even thinking. Later when something isn't working as expected and it turns out it's because of one of those privacy settings, I start to think about whether…

Google also has an obnoxious "if we can't keep it, you can't either" approach to user data. For example, I have location history turned off for obvious reasons and tried using the Google Maps app. I wound up having to re-enter my destination several times due to accidentally doing something that cancelled the navigation and caused it to instantly forget the destination. As another example, Google's new Allo messaging app supports end-to-end encryption but it's not on by default and activating it blocks local logging - if they can't get a copy of your chat history and use it to work out stuff about you, they won't let you have one either.

Re: Google will use Chrome browsing data for ad tailoring

#179

Post by pietroalbini »

wtbob wrote: post #162
bad_user wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The new system, Firefox Sync, is the one that encrypts your history with a password-derived key, by means of HKDF. Mozilla cannot decrypt and read your data.

> Mozilla cannot decrypt and read your data. Completely false: they can if they want to. All they have to do is serve a new login page to you which transmits your password as well as the derived key. They control the login page, they control the JavaScript which derives the key. They can do it at any time, invisibly. This is different from trusting them to make a trustworthy browser, because you download the browser…

You can also use your own auth server if you want... Just host it on your machines and change the URL in about:config.

Re: Google will use Chrome browsing data for ad tailoring

#180

Post by theandrewbailey »

zimbatm wrote: post #101

If you have the time, try Firefox Developer Edition[1]. It's one of the first edition of Firefox to have the per-tab sand-boxing enabled (called Electrolysis). Some plugins can interfere with Electrolysis. To check if it's enabled go to about:support and look at the "Multiprocess Windows" entry, it should be 1/1 or higher. https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/developer/

e10s rollout will begin with the next release next month.

https://asadotzler.com/2016/06/06/firefox-48-beta-release-an...

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