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Google Chrome pushes browser history-based ad targeting

theregister.com

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Re: Google Chrome pushes browser history-based ad targeting

#2

Post by tobr »

Just got this blocking modal. In mine, the title says “Turn on an ad privacy feature”. That is misleading to say the least. This is a privacy-invading feature, leaking summaries of my browsing history to anyone who wants to have a look. What’s worse, the modal completely blocks the UI, so you can’t even search for it to understand more.

Why am I even using this browser anymore?

EDIT: Note this section about privacy goals, from the draft proposal by two Googlers: “Users should be able to understand the API, recognize what is being communicated about them, and have clear controls. This is largely a UX responsibility but it does require that the API be designed in a way such that the UX is feasible.” [1]

I guess it’s just a little oopsie that made the people responsible for the UX present it to the user through misleading copy.

1: https://github.com/patcg-individual-drafts/topics

Re: Google Chrome pushes browser history-based ad targeting

#3

Post by samspenc »

Related tweet from Paul Graham: https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1699021936573940154

"If you go to chrome://settings/adPrivacy you can turn off the spyware that got inserted into the latest version of Chrome."

And I found PaulG's tweet from this earlier Hacker News discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37392517

Re: Google Chrome pushes browser history-based ad targeting

#5

Post by ht85 »

tobr wrote: post #2

Just got this blocking modal. In mine, the title says “Turn on an ad privacy feature”. That is misleading to say the least. This is a privacy-invading feature, leaking summaries of my browsing history to anyone who wants to have a look. What’s worse, the modal completely blocks the UI, so you can’t even search for it to understand more. Why am I even using this browser anymore? EDIT: Note this section about privacy g…

The popup is absolutely disgusting. I would love to think this would backfire and push more people towards Firefox but their target is obviously not HN readers, they know what they are doing.

Re: Google Chrome pushes browser history-based ad targeting

#6

Post by xmprt »

ht85 wrote: post #5
tobr wrote: post #2

Just got this blocking modal. In mine, the title says “Turn on an ad privacy feature”. That is misleading to say the least. This is a privacy-invading feature, leaking summaries of my browsing history to anyone who wants to have a look. What’s worse, the modal completely blocks the UI, so you can’t even search for it to understand more. Why am I even using this browser anymore? EDIT: Note this section about privacy g…

The popup is absolutely disgusting. I would love to think this would backfire and push more people towards Firefox but their target is obviously not HN readers, they know what they are doing.

I was wondering why I didn't see this popup and realized that I've been using Firefox for almost a year now. Haven't looked back.

Re: Google Chrome pushes browser history-based ad targeting

#7

Post by weikju »

tobr wrote: post #2

Just got this blocking modal. In mine, the title says “Turn on an ad privacy feature”. That is misleading to say the least. This is a privacy-invading feature, leaking summaries of my browsing history to anyone who wants to have a look. What’s worse, the modal completely blocks the UI, so you can’t even search for it to understand more. Why am I even using this browser anymore? EDIT: Note this section about privacy g…

> Why am I even using this browser anymore?

Yeah, stop putting up with all these anti-features! Firefox, Brave etc are not perfect but at least they're not THAT. No matter how many hoops you jump through, still using Chrome means it is being endorsed. Wish more people would reconsider it like you and jump ship!

Re: Google Chrome pushes browser history-based ad targeting

#10

Post by jtriangle »

samspenc wrote: post #3

Related tweet from Paul Graham: https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1699021936573940154 "If you go to chrome://settings/adPrivacy you can turn off the spyware that got inserted into the latest version of Chrome." And I found PaulG's tweet from this earlier Hacker News discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37392517

Or you could... use any other chromium based browser that doesn't do this.

Might I suggest Vivaldi? It's nice, lots of built in features that you probably are running extensions for currently.

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