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Never connect to ProtonMail using Chrome

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Re: Never connect to ProtonMail using Chrome

#181

I would make the advice more general: avoid dealing with Google. Recently I had to install Hangouts app on the Android phone (it was easier than using it on desktop because I don't have the latest Chrome). One has to register a Google Account in order to use it, and I had to answer a lot of questions as if I was applying for a visa, including a phone number (of course I used a fake number) and date of birth. Then the…

If you have Google Play installed (doesn't matter if you ever use it) then you'll also have Play Framework or whatever they call it, and that probably has permission to just about everything. If you have an Android phone and don't trust Google then what their apps ask for seems a bit irrelevant - you've almost certainly already given them whatever you don't want them to have.

I had Google Play, but I didn't have Google Account set up on the phone. And it is not like I have much choice - iPhones are overpriced (I don't think is is a good idea to spend over $600-900 for just a phone) and even less open and I trust Apple as much as Google.

Re: Never connect to ProtonMail using Chrome

#183
post #161

When I visit a website in a foreign language I've never translated before, Chrome asks my permission to translate the site, it doesn't do so automatically. You could argue they could give you more details on what it will do when you click the 'Translate' button, but to argue they shouldn't offer the feature as a permission-requested option at all seems pretty extreme. I read a lot of foreign websites, and the built-i…

Question is, how does it know to ask? If it is based on analysis done by the local machine, no problem. However, if it is based on analysis done by google servers, big problem!

As mentioned in the reddit thread, it is done clientside by this library:

https://github.com/google/cld3

Re: Never connect to ProtonMail using Chrome

#184

I would make the advice more general: avoid dealing with Google. Recently I had to install Hangouts app on the Android phone (it was easier than using it on desktop because I don't have the latest Chrome). One has to register a Google Account in order to use it, and I had to answer a lot of questions as if I was applying for a visa, including a phone number (of course I used a fake number) and date of birth. Then the…

I recently talked with a peer about it and I was quite surprised. Googles move to log into chrome by default was just the tip of the iceberg what was already there. I never really noticed that google already is trying hard to merge/force all apps to run via a android login. While times have been fun and painless migrating to a new phone it is not what I asked for. It is even more worrying that google cripples their apps with this. I wonder if google one day turns unproductive when they have to untangle all that mess.

Re: Never connect to ProtonMail using Chrome

#185
post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue with XHTML is not parsing, it's generating valid one. The internet got years to try, failed, time to switch to something else... Because parsing invalid XHTML, which all browsers ended doing, is more complicated than parsing HTML5...

It's pretty easy to generate a valid XHTML doc. The issues come when someone is editing by hand and doesn't care. > Because parsing invalid XHTML, which all browsers ended doing, is more complicated than parsing HTML5... I don't understand what you mean. Isn't the non-strict parser for XHTML just the normal HTML parser? The complication levels should be equal.

The problem is that with the glut of document declaring strict conformance but failing to be, fallback mechanisms had to be implemented, making it like a two pass parser, where if strict fails, you reparse in non strict. In the end slightly more complex, and definitely slower.

Anything more would be paraphrasing http://www.webdevout.net/articles/beware-of-xhtml

Re: Never connect to ProtonMail using Chrome

#186
post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just went to create a google account to see for myself because this sounds egregiously bad. I think you are exaggerating quite a bit: * Phone number is clearly marked as optional and it says they use it for security. (Of course, Facebook said the same thing, and look how that turned out...) * The only information requests that I think are unnecessary are date of birth (they say because some services are age restric…

But I still hate that Google took my account from Hangouts and added it to all other Google Apps on the phone.

Because Google doesn't work that way. You don't have a Hangouts account, you have a Google account, which you added to your phone, not Hangouts.

Re: Never connect to ProtonMail using Chrome

#187
post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just went to create a google account to see for myself because this sounds egregiously bad. I think you are exaggerating quite a bit: * Phone number is clearly marked as optional and it says they use it for security. (Of course, Facebook said the same thing, and look how that turned out...) * The only information requests that I think are unnecessary are date of birth (they say because some services are age restric…

UPDATE: Location sharing is off by default. > Phone number is clearly marked as optional That is because your IP has a good reputation. For me registering a Gmail Account from Firefox looks like this [1]. Note that the text is misleading (this is not for my security, this is to prevent bulk registration). > date of birth (they say because some services are age restricted) If the user is over 18 you don't really need…

> If the user is over 18 you don't really need the day and month, year is enough.

But if the user is 18, you need them. It would be a really weird UI if it changed this dynamically... I wouldn't expect anyone to implement that.

Re: Never connect to ProtonMail using Chrome

#188

I would make the advice more general: avoid dealing with Google. Recently I had to install Hangouts app on the Android phone (it was easier than using it on desktop because I don't have the latest Chrome). One has to register a Google Account in order to use it, and I had to answer a lot of questions as if I was applying for a visa, including a phone number (of course I used a fake number) and date of birth. Then the…

This looks like a good reminder that Google isn't just a loose bunch of tools, they have developed a full integrated ecosystem.

If it's not what you want then it is overly intrusive and exceptionally hard to manage so you control just the functionality and personal security you want.

Most end users, I think, just want something to work and are happy for all the magic to just happen. When you embrace it a lot of what it does is very clever and very useful. Most people I know who have embraced it just find the integration fantastically useful and don't have most of the concerns the more technically aware people do.

Re: Never connect to ProtonMail using Chrome

#189
post #10

If you care about privacy these days: Remote self-destructible VM for browsing with Firefox in incognito mode (only sites you NEED to, that REQUIRE JS), through multiple VPNs over multiple proxies. Everything else is command line HTML parsers (also on different, remote VMs), or API endpoints (HN API as an example?). Need email service? Self-hosted, tiny email-server somewhere in eastern Europe. DDNS etc. Local machin…

The sarcasm is spot on. These things are so easy to a tiny subset of experts who seem incapable of stepping into the shoes of normal people. It's always frustrating when I want to improve privacy or security and it's just an "easy" but not actually, mess. Let's Encrypt is probably the great example of actually getting it right. But normal people won't really ever need it.

Didn't even realise this was sarcasm until about the end--this is actual advice you'd find on /g/.

Re: Never connect to ProtonMail using Chrome

#190
Google is an Ad company, 80% of its income is from serving Ads, mostly targeted Ads.

So any Google software is serving this goal - phishing as much user data as possible. That is Chrome, Android, GMail, iOS Google Maps, iOS Gmail, Google-Analytics scripts on websites, Google DNS, any software written by Google.

Don't.

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