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Product Updates Based on Your Feedback

blog.google

381–390 of 475 posts

Re: Product Updates Based on Your Feedback

#381
post #12

I have already switched to Firefox and loving it (Facebook container, tracking protection enabled), but these changes are welcome and responsive. I hope this is a wake up call that privacy implications need to be seriously considered during product design (even if the intent was better UX), and hidden changes without any UI/notice is going to make issues blow up far more than if there was clear in-app communication.

the problem here is that Google's incentives are directly opposed to user privacy

Re: Product Updates Based on Your Feedback

#382
post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of the total population of the chrome users, how many really use more than 1 computer? These benefits may apply only for few users, probably in single percentage figures, which does not justify pushing it down the throats of everyone.

It’s pretty common for people to have a “work” computer and a “home” computer.

And also most of android population use chrome.

Re: Product Updates Based on Your Feedback

#384
post #299
post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But what is the user facing benefit? Syncing bookmarks, recently opened tabs, passwords, autofill(?). These are genuine benefits when you're working with laptops, desktops, phones and tablets. Whether they're worth the cost of data mining is another matter of course.

These are genuine benefits when you're working with laptops, desktops, phones and tablets. I work with all of these devices. Yet I don't want any of that syncing. The thought that Google wants to send my 'recently opened tabs' to their servers makes me shudder. So they get the whole browsing history of every one of their users? Of all the pages that have nothing to do with them? Same with passwords. So they have a gi…

What if other people do want it?

Re: Product Updates Based on Your Feedback

#385

I don't see how having the sign-in sync turned on by default can be compatible with "privacy by design and default" as mandated e.g. by the GDPR. I wonder if they will have to offer a EU version of Chrome soon therefore. Anyway, 90-95 % of users will probably just stick with the default value because they either don't know about the option or don't care enough to change it, hence from Google's perspective introducing…

Sync isn't turned on by default. Sign in is. They're different settings.

With "sign-in sync" I meant the fact that signing in to a Google service will automatically sign you in to Google Chrome.

Re: Product Updates Based on Your Feedback

#386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problems were easily foreseeable, and they did it anyway. Anyone who accepts this as "listening the users", and addressing the issues will likely get burned again in the future. Google is a advertising company. Their customers are not their users, and therefore I think things are unlikely to change.

> Their customers are not their users, and therefore I think things are unlikely to change. Interesting concept. Care to expound? Would be interested in hearing more.

Nothing surprising: Google's revenues come from advertisers. Advertising is its main focus. Not developing browsers, or even providing search results. Those are merely means to an end. And of course, all the users are targets for ads, NOT customers. A farmer's cows aren't his customers; same logic here.

It's obvious really, and Google never denied it.

Re: Product Updates Based on Your Feedback

#387
post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are genuine benefits when you're working with laptops, desktops, phones and tablets. I work with all of these devices. Yet I don't want any of that syncing. The thought that Google wants to send my 'recently opened tabs' to their servers makes me shudder. So they get the whole browsing history of every one of their users? Of all the pages that have nothing to do with them? Same with passwords. So they have a gi…

It's possible that I want my passwords (of other sites) synced on all instances of Chrome across my devices, but I don't want Google to know these passwords (obviously). They have an "encrypt-passwords" feature for that. https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/165139 Perhaps you have never visited passwords.google.com :-)

My question is why is that not on by default? Why would it ever be acceptable for Google to have unencrypted copies of your bank password for example?

Re: Product Updates Based on Your Feedback

#388
post #275

Won’t change my mind and will stick to Firefox after having switched because of this. First I don’t want to be logged in in my browser at all. Second, and probably more important, software is about trust. Even for an open source project, no one has the time to review millions of lines of code. So unfortunately one has to rely on what one believes is the behavior of the authors of the software. And what google did is…

Oh please It wasn't done discreetly at all. This whole Google.. tracking mining profiling evil omg omg hysteria has became really comical TBH.

Re: Product Updates Based on Your Feedback

#389
post #293
post #275

Won’t change my mind and will stick to Firefox after having switched because of this. First I don’t want to be logged in in my browser at all. Second, and probably more important, software is about trust. Even for an open source project, no one has the time to review millions of lines of code. So unfortunately one has to rely on what one believes is the behavior of the authors of the software. And what google did is…

I don’t want to be logged in in my browser at all Same here. Why does Chrome log you in in the first place? I mean I know it from the companies perspective of course. They want to consolidate as much data about you as possible. And tie you into their ecosystem. But what is the user facing benefit? Syncing your bookmarks across devices?

Syncing almost everything across devices. Super useful.

Re: Product Updates Based on Your Feedback

#390
post #275

Won’t change my mind and will stick to Firefox after having switched because of this. First I don’t want to be logged in in my browser at all. Second, and probably more important, software is about trust. Even for an open source project, no one has the time to review millions of lines of code. So unfortunately one has to rely on what one believes is the behavior of the authors of the software. And what google did is…

I don't understand what "because of this" means. Chrome made some change that some famous blogger misunderstood, and everyone got up in arms over nothing -- https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/gyny83/google-chr...

Given that, their reaction on their blog seems above and beyond to me.

Edit: Downvoters, reply with how this is incorrect instead of downvoting.

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