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Apple, Firefox tools aim to thwart Facebook, Google tracking

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Re: Apple, Firefox tools aim to thwart Facebook, Google tracking

#71

Post by ma2rten »

Raphmedia wrote: post #63
ultimoo wrote: post #60

> To get the protections, you’ll have to break your habit of using Google’s Chrome browser, which by some estimates has more than half of the worldwide browser usage. Safari and Firefox have less than 20 percent combined. This point is key here. I switched to FF about 6 months ago and every time I'm showing something to co-workers they will usually remark how unusual it is that I'm not using Chrome. Chrome is the de…

Firefox (and Firebug) used to be THE environment used to develop for the web. Things changed and will change again. Chrome isn't some magic immortal browser.

People used to think that Chrome will never take over IE on Windows. Most people will just keep using the default browser. I think that was valid.

I don't really understand how Google managed to get people to switch. Is it just ads on google.com?

Re: Apple, Firefox tools aim to thwart Facebook, Google tracking

#72

Post by kart23 »

ma2rten wrote: post #71
Raphmedia wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefox (and Firebug) used to be THE environment used to develop for the web. Things changed and will change again. Chrome isn't some magic immortal browser.

People used to think that Chrome will never take over IE on Windows. Most people will just keep using the default browser. I think that was valid. I don't really understand how Google managed to get people to switch. Is it just ads on google.com?

I think it was that and the ui. It looked much cleaner and better than any other web browser, you could even customize it with themes and so on to match your personal taste. I guess people saw the ads and decided to try out their favorite search engines new product.

Re: Apple, Firefox tools aim to thwart Facebook, Google tracking

#73

Post by pkaye »

ma2rten wrote: post #71
Raphmedia wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefox (and Firebug) used to be THE environment used to develop for the web. Things changed and will change again. Chrome isn't some magic immortal browser.

People used to think that Chrome will never take over IE on Windows. Most people will just keep using the default browser. I think that was valid. I don't really understand how Google managed to get people to switch. Is it just ads on google.com?

At some point Firefox started being unstable and sluggish to my recollection. At this point Chrome was up and coming but it was pretty fast and clean. So we tried it and switched over. Now there is lots of inertia to switch back. Also if you use a lot of Google services, you can count on them been well tested with Chrome.

Re: Apple, Firefox tools aim to thwart Facebook, Google tracking

#74

Post by kart23 »

bogomipz wrote: post #37
jamespo wrote: post #32

When I'm logged into google I get aggressive recaptchas on other sites I can't solve, so I've moved to the google container plugin https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/google-contai...

Interesting, I would have thought there would be less. Any guesses as to why that is? My perception is I encounter them more frequently when browsing a VPN. I would be curious if anyone else has experienced similar. I think the pervasiveness of the Google recaptcha is one of the biggest scourges of the modern web. I understand the importance of utility of course.

Yes, captchas are broken with vpns. Sometimes, I was not even able to complete the captcha, if you click on the audio option it says to try again later because it thinks you are sending automated requests.

Re: Apple, Firefox tools aim to thwart Facebook, Google tracking

#76

Post by tialaramex »

wool_gather wrote: post #45
moedersmooiste wrote: post #42

What I would like is a browser plugin/extension that jails every website in it's own cookie space. That way websites(and all trackers on that website) can only read their own cookies. Is there anything like that out there?

Firefox's Facebook Container was mentioned in the article, and they have a related tool "Multi-account Containers" [0] that I think was mentioned on HN a few days ago. (Haven't tried either of them myself.) [0]: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/multi-account...

Facebook Container is very nice. It's curated by the development team, so you just install it and now "Pow" your Facebook is inside a Container. Like, if you click your existing Facebook bookmark, or follow an email link to a Facebook post, anything like that, the page is inside the container, but not only are your other tabs not in the container (so they don't share cookies etcetera) even the tab with Facebook in, stops being inside the container if you leave Facebook.

So long as you aren't relying on Facebook to log you into other sites, it's pretty seamless, and any edges (including that one) are consequences of the containerisation itself, they're evidence it's protecting you. For example, I pay for Youtube, so I don't see adverts, but inside the Facebook container Youtube has no idea that's me, so any Youtube videos embedded in Facebook have ads like for other users. If I leave Facebook and play the same video outside, no adverts.

Multi-account containers aren't curated (well, you do the curating) so for non-trivial sites (where they'd be most useful) you can expect to spend time tweaking things to ensure that e.g. MyBank-savings.example is inside the same container as MyBank-account.example and NewBrandFor-MyBank.example as otherwise confusing stuff can happen as the containers isolate things you actually wanted connected.

Re: Apple, Firefox tools aim to thwart Facebook, Google tracking

#77

Post by 43920 »

tvanantwerp wrote: post #62
ultimoo wrote: post #60

> To get the protections, you’ll have to break your habit of using Google’s Chrome browser, which by some estimates has more than half of the worldwide browser usage. Safari and Firefox have less than 20 percent combined. This point is key here. I switched to FF about 6 months ago and every time I'm showing something to co-workers they will usually remark how unusual it is that I'm not using Chrome. Chrome is the de…

I switched back to FF with Quantum. It was faster and the devtools weren't noticeably different--in fact, devtools was better because of CSS grid support. I'm still disappointed by the comparably small add on ecosystem, but I haven't been tempted to switch back.

I'm not sure if you've seen this already, but if you install the "Chrome Store Foxified" addon, you can install any Chrome extension in Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/chrome-store-...

Re: Apple, Firefox tools aim to thwart Facebook, Google tracking

#78

Post by josephh »

ultimoo wrote: post #60

> To get the protections, you’ll have to break your habit of using Google’s Chrome browser, which by some estimates has more than half of the worldwide browser usage. Safari and Firefox have less than 20 percent combined. This point is key here. I switched to FF about 6 months ago and every time I'm showing something to co-workers they will usually remark how unusual it is that I'm not using Chrome. Chrome is the de…

Can someone help me figure out the set of privacy features that I miss out by using Chrome even with all the appropriate extensions/settings enabled (e.g. uBlock Origin etc) when compared to using FF?

Re: Apple, Firefox tools aim to thwart Facebook, Google tracking

#79

Post by abdullahkhalids »

bogomipz wrote: post #2

>"Apple and Mozilla are able to push the boundaries on privacy because neither depends on advertising. Google makes most of its money from selling ads." I am curious will Google at some point push back on Mozilla's efforts here? Isn't the placement of Google search as the default search engine in Firefox a significant source of funding?

I wonder if Mozilla has something to offer which will let Apple fund them. Because sooner or later Google is going to dump Mozilla. Clearly, Apple has the money and they could probably get some of the regular heat off themselves by moving some of their offshore money back into the US through mozilla.

Re: Apple, Firefox tools aim to thwart Facebook, Google tracking

#80

Post by bogomipz »

JoshMnem wrote: post #68
s_dev wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably part of the reason why they built and maintain Chrome. Firefox will always have a dedicated user base -- if Google want to be the default search engine on that browser they will have to pay for it otherwise services like Bing will occupy that space.

Google also built Chrome to send people to Google Search and click on ads on the way to their destinations. That's why auto-completion in Chrome is terrible. You will often end up on Google Search rather than the destination site. The ads are now disguised so well that most people probably click on them without realizing that they are ads. Unfortunately, Firefox is now making a mistake by copying Chrome and mixing se…

>"That's why auto-completion in Chrome is terrible. You will often end up on Google Search rather than the destination site."

Interesting I have noticed this lately as well. Really bad one character a second latency. This is recent-ish phenomenon no? I don't remember this ever being an issue before.

>"Unfortunately, Firefox is now making a mistake by copying Chrome and mixing search results with URLs in one box"

I completely agree. I wonder if this is why Google removed the home icon by default in more recent version of Chrome? If you take away the search home button there is no delineation between search and typing a URL. Is this another dark pattern?

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