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Google Chrome just rolled out a new way to track you and serve ads

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Re: Google Chrome just rolled out a new way to track you and serve ads

#411

Post by scarface_74 »

pixl97 wrote: post #410
scarface_74 wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So instead I should let the government be in control? Without bringing in my own viewpoints. Just think about how the “other” party that you disagree with can and will abuse any power you give it. > Once they are big enough to rent seek, they become the primary lobbying power, and you're back in the exact same position of being under a hostile government. Can any of the corporations with power put people in jail or c…

Lets move from the street to 'private spaces' You attempt to go to your local grocery store. They use 'Google Identity' which they are perfectly allowed to as a private business. You are accused of sending spam by Google (who the hells knows why, they never explain anything) and you are barred access. Being the staunch libertarian you are, you leap over the public roadway afraid of catching communism if you touch it…

And this completely fantastical future pails in comparison to what the government and the police state do today without any repercussions.

This is what police will do today to people who disagree with them

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/08/23/us/marion-county-record-n...

> We busted monopolies and company stores years ago because businesses harassed and murdered people left and right!….

I’m sure I need to be more worried about Google murdering people than some yokels claiming they were doing a “citizens arrest” where the prosecutor covered up video taped evidence…

https://www.wtoc.com/2022/12/28/timeline-former-brunswick-da...

But I guess I should be more worried about Google putting a cookie on my computer…

Not that I would ever personally use Chrome

Re: Google Chrome just rolled out a new way to track you and serve ads

#412

Post by datavirtue »

sphars wrote: post #319
datavirtue wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Duck Duck browser is my go-to. There is no downside at all. Sometimes I specifically use chrome...well, very rare.

I use DDG's browser too, especially when I need to access site and don't care about cookies or saving history of that site (the private address generating feature is nice too). On my Pixel, I use FF mainly, but also have DDG and Chrome (for Google-specific sites only).

You can fireproof the sites you want to maintain cookies for.

Re: Google Chrome just rolled out a new way to track you and serve ads

#413

Post by latexr »

lenkite wrote: post #112
latexr wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and you won't miss anything. I would very much miss AppleScript support. It’s the number one reason I (and many users of my tools) don’t touch Firefox. Fortunately, Webkit browsers (Safari, Orion) have got that covered. Unfortunately, Chromium browsers are a more common choice.

Isn't AppleScript effectively dead ? Apple disbanded the Mac Automation team back in 2016 and even fired the product manager AFAIK. At some point in time, it will be removed from the macOS stack and very few people will even notice.

I used to think so too, but I have a ton of experience with AppleScript and its JavaScript counterpart and they’re still solid. JXA’s Objective-C bridge is a convenient way to access macOS APIs in a scripting language.

One might think the introduction of Shortcuts would be the best time to retire AppleScript, yet Apple made it possible to run shortcuts via AppleScript and one of the standard tasks allows you to run AppleScript from within.

Re: Google Chrome just rolled out a new way to track you and serve ads

#414

Post by latexr »

fouc wrote: post #138
latexr wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and you won't miss anything. I would very much miss AppleScript support. It’s the number one reason I (and many users of my tools) don’t touch Firefox. Fortunately, Webkit browsers (Safari, Orion) have got that covered. Unfortunately, Chromium browsers are a more common choice.

Super curious what you're doing with AppleScript + the browser. I definitely prefer Safari over Firefox. Haven't tried Orion yet but I'm super stoked there's another webkit browser.

One example is a script to quickly grab the URL of the current tab and send it to mpv¹ for playing or yt-dlp² for downloading. Or send some JavaScript to that same tab. Or grab the URLs and titles of all tabs in all windows that match a specific domain, close them, and then reopen them together in a brand new window (or save it to clipboard to send someone). Alfred³ has a ton of automations that allow you to do that without having to code it yourself.

¹ https://mpv.io

² https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp

³ https://www.alfredapp.com

Re: Google Chrome just rolled out a new way to track you and serve ads

#415

Post by latexr »

HeckFeck wrote: post #105
latexr wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and you won't miss anything. I would very much miss AppleScript support. It’s the number one reason I (and many users of my tools) don’t touch Firefox. Fortunately, Webkit browsers (Safari, Orion) have got that covered. Unfortunately, Chromium browsers are a more common choice.

Ah, got me :) How are you using AppleScript with your browser? It's something I've yet to explore on MacOS.

See my other answer: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37475250

Re: Google Chrome just rolled out a new way to track you and serve ads

#416

Post by latexr »

kjkjadksj wrote: post #164
latexr wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and you won't miss anything. I would very much miss AppleScript support. It’s the number one reason I (and many users of my tools) don’t touch Firefox. Fortunately, Webkit browsers (Safari, Orion) have got that covered. Unfortunately, Chromium browsers are a more common choice.

You don’t need applescript to script events in firefox. You could probably do it in pure bash.

I’m not scripting events, I’m extracting information from the open tabs, such as titles and URLs. See my other answer: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37475250

Re: Google Chrome just rolled out a new way to track you and serve ads

#417

Post by Kamq »

mulmen wrote: post #229
Kamq wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The “following” part is especially creepy. I think that was the point. It's an analogy for what the article is talking about. The behavior of Chrome is legitimately creepy.

But it’s targeted at the author of this article and not the people doing the tracking.

I believe the logic goes something like this:

- The author is defending analogous behavior

- Therefore the author is ok with this behavior

- Therefore the behavior is ok to use on the author

It's not actually ok, but nobody actually did it either. They just made a snarky comment on the internet to make a point, which has a much lower bar than actually doing the thing.

Re: Google Chrome just rolled out a new way to track you and serve ads

#418

Post by pixl97 »

scarface_74 wrote: post #411
pixl97 wrote: post #410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lets move from the street to 'private spaces' You attempt to go to your local grocery store. They use 'Google Identity' which they are perfectly allowed to as a private business. You are accused of sending spam by Google (who the hells knows why, they never explain anything) and you are barred access. Being the staunch libertarian you are, you leap over the public roadway afraid of catching communism if you touch it…

And this completely fantastical future pails in comparison to what the government and the police state do today without any repercussions. This is what police will do today to people who disagree with them https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/08/23/us/marion-county-record-n... > We busted monopolies and company stores years ago because businesses harassed and murdered people left and right!…. I’m sure I need to be more worri…

I like how you associate the police with the broadband part of the government like there all the same group.

Even better, we had your magical word where the police didn't exist in the past... It was not a pleasant place unless you were the strongman. The police state was just as bad back then, or bully state.

Re: Google Chrome just rolled out a new way to track you and serve ads

#419

Post by scarface_74 »

pixl97 wrote: post #418
scarface_74 wrote: post #411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And this completely fantastical future pails in comparison to what the government and the police state do today without any repercussions. This is what police will do today to people who disagree with them https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/08/23/us/marion-county-record-n... > We busted monopolies and company stores years ago because businesses harassed and murdered people left and right!…. I’m sure I need to be more worri…

I like how you associate the police with the broadband part of the government like there all the same group. Even better, we had your magical word where the police didn't exist in the past... It was not a pleasant place unless you were the strongman. The police state was just as bad back then, or bully state.

So you really think that a future President Desantis with his “War on Woke” wouldn’t love to leverage any power you give him to suppress speech he doesn’t agree with? He’s already doing that with Disney in Florida

Re: Google Chrome just rolled out a new way to track you and serve ads

#420

Post by makeitdouble »

xkcd1963 wrote: post #226
makeitdouble wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another way is to make it problematic for a commercial entity to provide high value services for free. Basically an anti-dumping law, but for digital goods.

Google Chrome is easily replaceable and is thus not a high value service

The largely dominant browser is never "easily replaceable".

We could write PHD thesis about why, but we can take a meta look at it: there's reasons they became dominant in the first place, and those reasons need to disappear before it's easily replaceable (of course additional reasons will pile up the longer the browser stays dominant)

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