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Google tracks individual users per Chrome installation ID

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Re: Google tracks individual users per Chrome installation ID

#121

Post by nerdponx »

Engineering-MD wrote: post #65
bamboozled wrote: post #20

You should also donate to Mozilla because it’s an insanely good piece o software for the price!

So I pay for Pocket Premium as it is wholly owned by Mozilla as a way of diversifying their income away from search and donations. I like and use pocket and get something in exchange for my money (which makes me more likely to keep a rolling payment going on). II know it’s not open source, but tbh that doesn’t hugely bother me given that Firefox itself is. Does anyone object to this indirect way of funding Firefox? D…

I don't object. Personally I'd be happy to pay for Firefox Send, or better still for tech support in self-hosting Firefox Sync and Send.

Re: Google tracks individual users per Chrome installation ID

#122

Post by Diederich »

tapoxi wrote: post #83
DangerousPie wrote: post #15

If you haven't used Firefox in a while you should really give it another chance. It has vastly improved in terms of CPU and battery usage. It also has a lot of great privacy-enhancing features like tracking protection enabled by default and extensions like Facebook Container make it trivial to prevent tracking even further.

Or just use Ungoogled Chromium, and get the performance advantage of Chrome without the tracking.

Is there a quick summary of what major site/features that will be unavailable in Chromium vs. Chrome? I assume, for example, that 'netflix' will be prominently on that list. Thanks.

Re: Google tracks individual users per Chrome installation ID

#124

Post by Agenttin »

Iolaum wrote: post #68
w0m wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... what? If you aren't paying for it; you are the product. Simple.

Nowadays you are the product even if you pay. (E.g. Subscription news sites including trackers on subscribed users, smartTVs siphoning data etc)

Thing is the TV's you're only half the customer. That's why the TV's have gotten so cheap, the extra revenue stream from selling data. You can't even buy a dumb TV any more.

Re: Google tracks individual users per Chrome installation ID

#125

Post by bonestamp2 »

falcolas wrote: post #85
fortran77 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not odd at all. It's what the folks at Mozilla do. They jump in to every thread to push Firefox and Rust and make people think it's more widely used/better than it is.

Not everything is a conspiracy. I'm not a Mozilla employee, have never been one (probably never will be one). Firefox is awesome, fast, and extensible. It's my daily driver for all of my machines.

Side question: I've been trying to switch to firefox as my main browser but one thing is holding me up. When I'm using a private window, cookies are not shared between private tabs. I can see the advantage to that behavior, but is there a way to share them so that I can be logged into the same site in multiple private tabs? Unironically, I haven't had any luck googling this problem.

Re: Google tracks individual users per Chrome installation ID

#126

Post by Scarbutt »

a_wild_dandan wrote: post #12
swiley wrote: post #2

Google consumer software is almost universally an active full frontal attack on you. Stop using it.

This sounded harder to do than it was in my experience. I figured the alternatives to their products would be less polished. But I switched to Firefox and honestly prefer it to Chrome. (They allow extensions on Android, meaning adblock, which is a game changer for me.) DDG for search is great. Protonmail for email is fine, etc. There isn't much in the Google ecosystem that I miss tbh.

For me is google docs and maps.

Re: Google tracks individual users per Chrome installation ID

#127

Post by dleslie »

glyxbaer wrote: post #74
eitland wrote: post #27

I haven't read this carefully enough to decide exactly how bad it is, but one thing seems clear to me: From what I see many techies are now aware and upset, and hardly anyone seems to want to defend Google anymore. I consider it more likely than not that Google will take some real beatings in the years to come. Kind of like Microsoft was fined by the US and EU, forced to advertise for competing browsers and ridiculed…

When I moved into IT almost 10-15 years ago, Google was one of the companies that I adored (in a kind of naive way, but nevertheless..). Working at that company has always been a dream of mine. They had the reputation for hiring the best of the best engineers, with great benefits and work culture. Meanwhile I'd hate to apply for them. Everything they do in terms of tracking, etc. has become so vile and almost evil th…

We thought Microsoft was evil because of how they treated their partners and competitors.

We didn't consider that a greater evil would arise, and all it would take was a disregard of the sanctity of personal privacy.

Re: Google tracks individual users per Chrome installation ID

#128

Post by arexxbifs »

kevlarr wrote: post #64
kick wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefox should definitely be used, but donating to Mozilla is a mistake. They waste a lot of it, their executive compensation rates are way too high (especially given that MoCo just laid off employees), and Mozilla still hasn't kept up with promises they gave years ago (that Pocket is still proprietary being a notable and depressing example). Donate to smaller developers of software you use, it'll go a lot further, a…

Donations go to Mozilla "the non-profit organization" rather than Mozilla "the corporation". Mozilla (the corporation) has the typical/bad corporate structures and ridiculous executive compensations. Mozilla (the corporation) had the layoffs. Mozilla (the corporation) bought Pocket with money that comes from deals with search engines. That being said, though... > Donate to smaller developers of software you use, it'l…

I think the Mozilla Foundation is starting to look a lot like a sinecure employer for friends of friends in the non-profit biz.

Here are a few seemingly similar titles listed on their leadership page[0]:

  VP, Advocacy
  Director, Digital Engagement
  Director, Communications

  VP, Global Programs
  Director, Partnerships

  Director, Events and Training
  Interim Director, Leadership Programs
[0]https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/about/leadership/

Re: Google tracks individual users per Chrome installation ID

#129

Post by MichaelApproved »

deeblering4 wrote: post #116
izacus wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Safari has the same kind of AdBlock limits that Chrome team wants to implement. Also it's kinda behind the curve on iOS when it comes to features. Not to mention the fact that iOS users are forbidden from using any competitive browser, including Firefox.

I'm not sure what you mean by forbidden? Chrome and Firefox (and other browsers too) are readily available through the iOS app store.

Those iOS browsers you see in the app store are just wrappers for the same Safari browser engine.

They all use Safari to display the page, they just wrap the Safari browser engine with their own toolbars and other features.

Re: Google tracks individual users per Chrome installation ID

#130

Post by DangerousPie »

tapoxi wrote: post #83
DangerousPie wrote: post #15

If you haven't used Firefox in a while you should really give it another chance. It has vastly improved in terms of CPU and battery usage. It also has a lot of great privacy-enhancing features like tracking protection enabled by default and extensions like Facebook Container make it trivial to prevent tracking even further.

Or just use Ungoogled Chromium, and get the performance advantage of Chrome without the tracking.

Is there actually still a performance advantage these days? Would be curious to see some benchmarks.

I will say that Gmail/Hangouts feels faster in Chrome but that's obviously not a fair comparison.

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