It's unfortunate that there doesn't seem to be a truly "neutral" browser anymore, if you count only the ones that can run the JS-required app-sites which are an increasing percentage of sites that people need to use. Big Tech has made it effectively impossible for other independent browsers by making the "standards" extremely complex and continuously churning them, since only they have the resources to effect such complexity and continuous change; they also popularise the new stuff and attempt to "infect" as many sites with it as they can, usually by way of frameworks. This constant churn of the ecosystem helps reinforce the monopoly. To them, simple static pages which can be viewed with browsers other than the ones they "support" are a threat.
Chrome client “variations” can be used to identify you (2020)
51–60 of 79 posts
Re: Chrome client “variations” can be used to identify you (2020)
#52This is great and all - but what's the alternative? I've been using Firefox as my primary browser for about 2 years now - and the javascript engine on it has recently... sh*t the bed (I cannot paste links or images into facebook, I cannot paste text with line breaks into twitter, I cannot paste using reddit's "markdownmode"). I use google-chrome for netflix, recently chromium stopped working for netflix (apprently th…
> (I cannot paste links or images into facebook, I cannot paste text with line breaks into twitter, I cannot paste using reddit's "markdownmode").
This is not normal, something's broken with Firefox in your setup. Probably worth filing a bug.
(Also it's almost certainly nothing to do with the JS engine.)
Re: Chrome client “variations” can be used to identify you (2020)
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
That means you were already logged into google. At that point just use Bitwarden.
I'm not familiar with Bitwarden. After a bit of Wikipedia and web search research on them, I'm not sure why I'd trust 8Bit Solutions over Google for storage of my PII. Do they have the resources to keep it secure? What is their incentive structure to do so? What happens if they get bought? Should I be concerned about past errors such as "In March 2018, Bitwarden's web vault was criticized for embedding unconstrained…
Bitwarden can be self hosted and there is at least one independently developed server.
Re: Chrome client “variations” can be used to identify you (2020)
#54Chrome only sends these headers to Google-owned domains. As an attack surface, if you're worried about being spied on by the company that you got your browser from, I'd be more concerned about the closed-source control they have over the code in the browser itself than the unique identifier you're sending to their servers when you use their browser.
Can addons remove these headers? Like say I'm using uBlock Origin, does that do anything?
Possibly with Manifest V2. While it lasts.
Re: Chrome client “variations” can be used to identify you (2020)
#55It's unfortunate that there doesn't seem to be a truly "neutral" browser anymore, if you count only the ones that can run the JS-required app-sites which are an increasing percentage of sites that people need to use. Big Tech has made it effectively impossible for other independent browsers by making the "standards" extremely complex and continuously churning them, since only they have the resources to effect such co…
seems like there's one:
Re: Chrome client “variations” can be used to identify you (2020)
#56Chrome also syncs your browser history and passwords with their servers. They have your search history. They have your private email. They have your YouTube history. They have your private documents and photos. They run your phone. They possibly run your laptop. I guess my point is it goes far beyond Chrome. Google is running the Borg hive mind.
This is why China bans these companies long ago. Imagine handing your population’s intel on a silver platter to your adversary.
These companies are banned for refusing to share the data they collect with the government. Essentially the Chinese government is a competitor when comes to harvesting user data, not a privacy guard.
Re: Chrome client “variations” can be used to identify you (2020)
#57The author talks as if this isn't documented... https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/privacy/whitepaper.htm...
> Additionally, a subset of low entropy variations are included in network requests sent to Google. The combined state of these variations is non-identifying, since it is based on a 13-bit low entropy value (see above).
Re: Chrome client “variations” can be used to identify you (2020)
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
Bitwarden uses end-to-end encryption. So you don't have to trust them as much as Google.
um, no? See the famous story of Hushmail [0], which used end-to-end encryption and claimed to have no access to user email until receiving a court order. Then they modified the code they send to one client to exfiltrate encryption keys to law enforcement, and decoded all the "end to end encrypted" email. Sure, they claim they are open source and that the infrastructure was audited, but this does not prevent them from…
Alright, that's fair. Guess self-hosting is the only foolproof approach for complete privacy then.
Re: Chrome client “variations” can be used to identify you (2020)
#59It's unfortunate that there doesn't seem to be a truly "neutral" browser anymore, if you count only the ones that can run the JS-required app-sites which are an increasing percentage of sites that people need to use. Big Tech has made it effectively impossible for other independent browsers by making the "standards" extremely complex and continuously churning them, since only they have the resources to effect such co…
The problem a new browser would face is much simpler, but far harder to solve, than anything on the tech side - why would users switch to it? Neutrality is not a benefit for most people. It wouldn't harm them, but it isn't enough of a reason to put the effort in to switching either. People being tracked en masse is a problem for society, but not really an issue for any individual.
Expecting people to put in the time and effort individually to understand the benefit of switching browser, the tech knowhow needed to download and install the software, and how to move their data over to it, all for the benefit of society as a whole, is a pretty big ask.
For a new, neutral browser to take any significant market share there has to be a benefit for individuals that's more than simple neutrality. Either that, or there would need to be some sort of international regulation of browsers to force vendors to stop tracking users so much. I don't see either happening.
Re: Chrome client “variations” can be used to identify you (2020)
#60It's unfortunate that there doesn't seem to be a truly "neutral" browser anymore, if you count only the ones that can run the JS-required app-sites which are an increasing percentage of sites that people need to use. Big Tech has made it effectively impossible for other independent browsers by making the "standards" extremely complex and continuously churning them, since only they have the resources to effect such co…
Apple is doing quite well not implementing most of Google’s “standards”.