I guess the majority of people on HN already know this more or less. The problem is still this: We still don't have good alternatives to Google's products and services. 1) Android: Google still owns all our phones. Even on rooted phones it hard to remove google services that god know send so many requests containing whatnot to the eeee addresses. Just install no-root firewall and you will be amazed the amount of pend…
Google Maps has the wrong street names near me, so I looked for something from OpenStreetMap. But there's nothing that works with Android Auto. In fact, there are only two Android Auto navigation apps, Google Maps and Waze. Both owned by Google, and Waze seems happy to send me through the most confusing intersections if it thinks it will save 5 seconds of driving time.
Google finally revealed how much personal data they collect in Chrome
241–249 of 249 posts
Re: Google finally revealed how much personal data they collect in Chrome
#242Earlier quoted context omitted.
Switching to DDG? It’s 95% as good. I would say for personal stuff (ie, non-programming) it is. For programming, I continually have to switch back to google. DDG is way worse for me. Maybe it's just me, but the types of things I search for just don't work on DDG and I've wasted way too much of my time looking for answers using DDG, only to find them quickly with Google. It totally frustrates me, because I would much…
Even for personal searches, I find myself using the g! operator in DDG about 50% of the time to find what I'm looking for. Critical operators like "site:" are not available in DDG.
Re: Google finally revealed how much personal data they collect in Chrome
#243Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even for personal searches, I find myself using the g! operator in DDG about 50% of the time to find what I'm looking for. Critical operators like "site:" are not available in DDG.
"site:" is definitely available in ddg and has been for a long time
Re: Google finally revealed how much personal data they collect in Chrome
#244Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, are you aware billion dollar corporations get away with leaking terabytes of information, so a smalltime ad company will get away with leaking data over time? Are you aware someone has to manually pursue startpage? If I can't ssh into their servers and have a look-see or run my own instance, then their claims are unverifiable.
You're completely right, Big Tech gets away with a lot - including collecting/selling a ton of data to make profit. That's because their revenue model is based on behavioral advertising. For Startpage it's always been based on contextual advertising. And, you don't need personal data for that. And, it happens that System1 is interested in "capturing" that revenue from contextual advertising. "System1 is interested in…
Re: Google finally revealed how much personal data they collect in Chrome
#245Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're completely right, Big Tech gets away with a lot - including collecting/selling a ton of data to make profit. That's because their revenue model is based on behavioral advertising. For Startpage it's always been based on contextual advertising. And, you don't need personal data for that. And, it happens that System1 is interested in "capturing" that revenue from contextual advertising. "System1 is interested in…
You really like to shill startpage for some reason despite a search engine needing 0 advertisements?
Advertising on a search engine is main form of revenue > pays employees > updates > keeps current users and gets new users. You could make the argument for crowd sourcing, but it doesn't always work.
Re: Google finally revealed how much personal data they collect in Chrome
#246Earlier quoted context omitted.
You really like to shill startpage for some reason despite a search engine needing 0 advertisements?
As mentioned above - I'm a Startpage employee. I know quite a bit about the subject so I jump in when it comes up. Advertising on a search engine is main form of revenue > pays employees > updates > keeps current users and gets new users. You could make the argument for crowd sourcing, but it doesn't always work.
Re: Google finally revealed how much personal data they collect in Chrome
#247Re: Google finally revealed how much personal data they collect in Chrome
#248Earlier quoted context omitted.
1) I use VPN anyway, so Bing doesn't know who I am. 2) Bing belongs to Microsoft whose primary business is to sell software, not ads, so they are less dependent on collecting user information. 3) If I wanted a search aggregator, I would use a non-US company, for example, Qwant.
1) VPNs only hide your IP address. They don't make you anonymous. Search engines and websites can still track you. 2) If it's non-private, it still collects personal data. 3) Or Startpage - HQed in the Netherlands, hides IP address, Anonymous View feature lets you visit results in private, and Google results.
Re: Google finally revealed how much personal data they collect in Chrome
#249Earlier quoted context omitted.
> AFAIK DDG may be doing all of those things too. Except that DDG explicitly says they are not: https://duckduckgo.com/privacy
The word "location" is nowhere in your link.
When you access DuckDuckGo (or any Web site), your Web browser automatically sends information about your computer, e.g. your User agent and IP address.
Because this information could be used to link you to your searches, we do not log (store) it at all. This is a very unusual practice, but we feel it is an important step to protect your privacy.
If they don't store IP addresses then (I believe) they can't use wifi-router-based methods to find your location. Your browser also doesn't get a popup asking to give ddg your location.
So yeah I stand by my link and my interpretation of it.