Trust Google with your data, don't be surprised if they act like the corporation they are. Seriously, I don't understand why after all these years and all the examples people still treat google as this "cool tech company".
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Google moderates Google Collections items
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Re: Google moderates Google Collections items
#22use firefox. the personal information stored on their cloud service (such as bookmarks) can't be accessed even by mozilla. so, c'mon. just use firefox.
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Re: Google moderates Google Collections items
#23This is about Google Collections (a sort Pinterest built into recent Android and potentially sharable) not your Chrome browser bookmarks which are private. Of course, e2e encryption is also optionally available for much of browser sync content, bookmarks included - if you're extra paranoid, turn that on. https://www.google.com/collections
Why is E2E opt-in?
Re: Google moderates Google Collections items
#24I like that they tell you the link they deleted so at the least you haven't lost any data.
You've lost functionality of course since this is a publicly viewed set of links. My comment isn't any sort of defense of google (why would I defend them?). But it is funny, as if "our lawyers/my boss said we had to delete this so I'm going to publish it one more time"
Re: Google moderates Google Collections items
#25This is about Google Collections (a sort Pinterest built into recent Android and potentially sharable) not your Chrome browser bookmarks which are private. Of course, e2e encryption is also optionally available for much of browser sync content, bookmarks included - if you're extra paranoid, turn that on. https://www.google.com/collections
Why is E2E opt-in?
I don't know, I don't make Chrome. But if I had to guess, most people want to be able to lose a key (in this case a completely separate password) without losing all their syncable browser stuff.
Edit: a fun way to think through the design constraints is to think about "how come Apple default-e2e syncs all sorts of things without an extra password but Chrome doesn't"
Re: Google moderates Google Collections items
#26This is about Google Collections (a sort Pinterest built into recent Android and potentially sharable) not your Chrome browser bookmarks which are private. Of course, e2e encryption is also optionally available for much of browser sync content, bookmarks included - if you're extra paranoid, turn that on. https://www.google.com/collections
On the other hand, if users are confusing Collections and sync'd bookmarks, is that really the user's fault? Or is it Google's for designing a UX that has people "accidentally" sharing bookmarks thru Google instead of using the E2E-able browser sync?
I can see someone saying, "ok, we launched Collections, your KPI is to increase usage by X%", and some UX designer figures "oh then we need to put Collections above Bookmarks and make it difficult to tell what's the difference so that we can say that Collections 'has traction'".
Re: Google moderates Google Collections items
#27This is about Google Collections (a sort Pinterest built into recent Android and potentially sharable) not your Chrome browser bookmarks which are private. Of course, e2e encryption is also optionally available for much of browser sync content, bookmarks included - if you're extra paranoid, turn that on. https://www.google.com/collections
Why is E2E opt-in?
Same same reason it always would be: it is inconvenient and can lead to loss of data.
Lose your old device, get a new device, and you won't have the key. A normal user going through this flow would be furious. Only technically competent users understand that e2e has downsides and how to mitigate those.
Re: Google moderates Google Collections items
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why is E2E opt-in?
Same same reason it always would be: it is inconvenient and can lead to loss of data. Lose your old device, get a new device, and you won't have the key. A normal user going through this flow would be furious. Only technically competent users understand that e2e has downsides and how to mitigate those.
Given that Google already stores passkeys and other encryption credentials, I'm sure they could come up with an scheme to securely manage E2EE keys across devices.
Re: Google moderates Google Collections items
#29I am as horrified as you probably are, but Google is quite possibly not allowed (by law) to share certain links. Even if technically allowed, their lawyers would likely not let them participate or facilitate sharing links to sites that would be deemed "facilitating illegal activity". People are starting to learn why all their s*t should not be up in the cloud.
Section 230 of the CDA shields Google from liability for the links users choose to share using their services or not.
Re: Google moderates Google Collections items
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
Same same reason it always would be: it is inconvenient and can lead to loss of data. Lose your old device, get a new device, and you won't have the key. A normal user going through this flow would be furious. Only technically competent users understand that e2e has downsides and how to mitigate those.
Given that Google already stores passkeys and other encryption credentials, I'm sure they could come up with an scheme to securely manage E2EE keys across devices.
Given that the most common transition here is
I have 1 device -> I have 0 devices because I lost my phone
I think what you mean is "Google can do this for users with more than one device". Which they do.
E2EE has meaning, and being convenient to recover isn't in it.