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Google finally revealed how much personal data they collect in Chrome

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Re: Google finally revealed how much personal data they collect in Chrome

#61

Post by jjice »

ricardbejarano wrote: post #11

Controversial opinion: Half the data Chrome collects is harmless, and the other half is up to the user to give up: - Location data: you are asked and must approve for Chrome to use (at least on macOS) - Financial data: you must enter it manually and click "save for future use". Could it be better? Sure! But I think DDG is exaggerating here. We're not _that_ bad.

I think a critical view is important to prevent further advancement in privacy violations. If we are all okay with Chrome now, they're likely to include more privacy violating data collection in the future. A critical view doesn't necessarily mean the product is bad (it's very good at its job), but it is important to understand how much of our data we're allowing to be collected, especially when the user approves of it mindlessly (we've all been there).

Re: Google finally revealed how much personal data they collect in Chrome

#62

Post by jkaplowitz »

simonh wrote: post #59
ericmay wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Location data: you are asked and must approve for Chrome to use (at least on macOS) Now if only we could take away Apple's ability to create a walled-garden...

If only we could take away customer's satisfaction with, and preference for a well maintained walled garden. Alternatively, if only people who don't like Apple's solutions would just go away and leave those of us who do alone.

And yet, people inside the walled garden want to interact with people outside the walled garden.

Re: Google finally revealed how much personal data they collect in Chrome

#63

Post by passivate »

ricardbejarano wrote: post #51
reaperducer wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Half the data Chrome collects is harmless If true, that still doesn't negate the other half that is not harmless. More importantly, how about I get to choose what I consider harmless, rather than having a Silicon Valley advertising agency do that for me? Also, there's no way of knowing what Google shoves into the "other" category. Sunlight disinfects, even in Mountain View.

Fair enough. But beware, Chrome's lead on render speed is most likely thanks to the performance data they collect. Any other browser you may choose might not collect that data, but don't be surprised if it halves your battery life and takes twice the time to render stuff (such as Firefox in macOS about 6 months ago, don't know how it performs now). There are reasons for data collection, and I don't think everything i…

>There are reasons for data collection, and I don't think everything is used for malitious intent, which is DDG's point.

That is not DDG's point at all. Their point is right in the linked tweet - "Spying on users has nothing to do with building a great web browser or search engine."

Re: Google finally revealed how much personal data they collect in Chrome

#64

Post by sp332 »

technofiend wrote: post #37
tinus_hn wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you chose to allow Chrome to know your location, so it can show you on the map, do you consent to have your location tracked continuously and associated with your Google account?

The interesting thing is the failure mode if you don't agree to continuous tracking. Google uses the last place it was allowed to track you to instead of allowing the user to specifically enable a location update for "near me" queries to maps or the assistant. It may not be meant as one but it feels like a dark pattern, particularly when you can tap an icon to update your position in maps but any "near me" requests s…

It definitely is. You can't even set a "home" or "work" location without enabling continuous tracking.

Re: Google finally revealed how much personal data they collect in Chrome

#65

Post by BalinKing »

Crash0v3rid3 wrote: post #44
sp332 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, officially almost three years ago. https://gizmodo.com/google-removes-nearly-all-mentions-of-do...

What a terrible article. Look at what the last paragraph says despite the title: The updated version of Google’s code of conduct still retains one reference to the company’s unofficial motto—the final line of the document is still: “And remember… don’t be evil, and if you see something that you think isn’t right – speak up!”

I feel terribly misled—for several years now, I thought they removed "don't be evil" entirely (apparently, courtesy of overhyped news headlines and whatnot). Obviously it doesn't matter much in the grand scheme of things (I don't suddenly trust Google a whole lot more), but it feels bad to have both believed and passed on misinformation.

(And, yeah, it's also my fault for not having checked primary sources at the time.)

Re: Google finally revealed how much personal data they collect in Chrome

#66

Post by EasyTiger_ »

ricardbejarano wrote: post #51
reaperducer wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Half the data Chrome collects is harmless If true, that still doesn't negate the other half that is not harmless. More importantly, how about I get to choose what I consider harmless, rather than having a Silicon Valley advertising agency do that for me? Also, there's no way of knowing what Google shoves into the "other" category. Sunlight disinfects, even in Mountain View.

Fair enough. But beware, Chrome's lead on render speed is most likely thanks to the performance data they collect. Any other browser you may choose might not collect that data, but don't be surprised if it halves your battery life and takes twice the time to render stuff (such as Firefox in macOS about 6 months ago, don't know how it performs now). There are reasons for data collection, and I don't think everything i…

> Any other browser you may choose might not collect that data, but don't be surprised if it halves your battery life

This is literally what Chrome does on a MacBook, the battery drain is insane

Re: Google finally revealed how much personal data they collect in Chrome

#67

Post by aeturnum »

zepto wrote: post #29
ricardbejarano wrote: post #11

Controversial opinion: Half the data Chrome collects is harmless, and the other half is up to the user to give up: - Location data: you are asked and must approve for Chrome to use (at least on macOS) - Financial data: you must enter it manually and click "save for future use". Could it be better? Sure! But I think DDG is exaggerating here. We're not _that_ bad.

Seems hard to make the argument to make that browsing history is harmless, given how often it is used in police investigations and court cases.

I agree "harmless" is absolutely the wrong word.

I also think that data that might be harmful to a user because it could record them breaking a law should be thought of differently than data that could be harmful when used maliciously by a third party. Even allowing for the often oppressive and unfair application of the law, data that is harmful to the user when sent to the authorities should be considered differently than other data because there is obviously a balancing question around relative harms to different parties. If you witness a crime, reporting it might be good, but it isn't always.

Re: Google finally revealed how much personal data they collect in Chrome

#68

Post by livre »

ricardbejarano wrote: post #11

Controversial opinion: Half the data Chrome collects is harmless, and the other half is up to the user to give up: - Location data: you are asked and must approve for Chrome to use (at least on macOS) - Financial data: you must enter it manually and click "save for future use". Could it be better? Sure! But I think DDG is exaggerating here. We're not _that_ bad.

Location data is sent by default to the default search engine and there's no way to disable that unless you deny location permissions from the OS to Chrome. If you want to use a map and give permission only to that (Bing maps for example) you have to allow Chrome to gather location data which will also be sent to the default search engine (usually Google). There's only the illusion of choice there (you can change the default search engine and send location data somewhere else though).

Re: Google finally revealed how much personal data they collect in Chrome

#69

Post by passivate »

ricardbejarano wrote: post #11

Controversial opinion: Half the data Chrome collects is harmless, and the other half is up to the user to give up: - Location data: you are asked and must approve for Chrome to use (at least on macOS) - Financial data: you must enter it manually and click "save for future use". Could it be better? Sure! But I think DDG is exaggerating here. We're not _that_ bad.

>Could it be better? Sure!

Is there anything that _cant_ be better? I'm sure as engineers we can all come up with proposed improvements on pretty much anything. :)

>But I think DDG is exaggerating here. We're not _that_ bad.

The point (that DDG is making, paraphrased here) is spying on the user is not necessary to build a great browser/search engine. Do you disagree with that? I don't.

Re: Google finally revealed how much personal data they collect in Chrome

#70

Post by tesseract »

sp332 wrote: post #24
tinus_hn wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you chose to allow Chrome to know your location, so it can show you on the map, do you consent to have your location tracked continuously and associated with your Google account?

No, that's a setting in your Google account and not in the browser. https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/3118687?hl=en

But would people necessarily associate "I gave Chrome the OS-level location permission, so I could enable location on " with Chrome itself tracking the location and connecting it to a Google account?
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