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Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

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Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#431
post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to feel icky for being a corpo simp, but how is asking for payment for a service an "extortion attempt"? Not asking as a YouTube premium subscriber or watcher of of ads (can't pay for Premium in my country and cannot bear to watch ads, so I use Firefox and an alternative client on my TV). I find it hard to frame it as an ad free but still subscription free service I am entitled to, and any attempt by Google…

Google only sells YouTube Premium bundled with a music subscription in my Spotify-dominated country, because they obviously want to use their large video platform to expand into music. Classic monopolistic behaviour.

I'm going to guess the reason for this is you would be pretty annoyed if you get ads on music videos watch on YouTube even if you are paying for YouTube premium, and if you aren't 99% of users would.

You can't have your cake and eat it, Google neither and they will get what's coming but this is not the battle to pick, they do far worse than put ads on a video sharing platform

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#432

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, you're switching browsers not 3D modelling software. It's easy people. Switch to Firefox today.

All Chromium-based browsers have a feature that I can't get through my day without. I can write click on any website and say " translate this page into English ". I use this feature around 20 times a day, sometimes more. It's painstaking to do this in Firefox, even with extensions. Once every year or two I try switching to Firefox, then I remember this is the reason why I don't use it and I go back to Chrome. The day…

It's build into Firefox. If you're on a page not in your default language, a translate icon will appear in the URL bar. Click, done :)

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#433

I keep seeing Edge mentioned as a worthy alternative, and I just don't get it. First, all Chromium-based browsers will eventually block uBlock Origin for the sole reason that they can't maintain Manifest v2 on their own, and they all rely on Chrome's Web Store anyway. This won't happen immediately because Manifest v2 will probably stick around for longer because of enterprise users, but the writing is on the wall. Th…

>Then there's the fact that Edge is just Microsoft's spyware, being worse in my book than Google's Chrome. Out of curiosity, is there any objective proof that Microsoft-Edge is worse for privacy than Google-Chrome, or is it just a subjective "Google=Good Microsoft=Bad" feeling?

I already answered your question in the post you're replying to.

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#434
post #341

I keep seeing Edge mentioned as a worthy alternative, and I just don't get it. First, all Chromium-based browsers will eventually block uBlock Origin for the sole reason that they can't maintain Manifest v2 on their own, and they all rely on Chrome's Web Store anyway. This won't happen immediately because Manifest v2 will probably stick around for longer because of enterprise users, but the writing is on the wall. Th…

None of that is a problem in Firefox.

Indeed. I wrote that post, and I must say, I currently use Firefox, but I have a love-hate relationship with it.

I can list many things I dislike about Firefox, and I understand if people don't like it. But overall, yes, it's a good alternative for most people.

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#435

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Then there's the fact that Edge is just Microsoft's spyware, being worse in my book than Google's Chrome. Out of curiosity, is there any objective proof that Microsoft-Edge is worse for privacy than Google-Chrome, or is it just a subjective "Google=Good Microsoft=Bad" feeling?

I already answered your question in the post you're replying to.

But that wasn't an objective analysis, that's just your highly opinionated opinion with which I found some flaws in, as in you're wrong about several statements.

>Google's Chrome does not do this, and searching on google.com only asks for sharing of data with Google itself.

You mean sharing your data with Google THE ad-company which then shares your data to advertisers? How is that any more private?

>And in true Microsoft spirit, it also has telemetry, which you can't turn off.

Same as Chrome on this front.

>And Edge is hard-coded to use Bing.

No it's not, you can change it. https://www.google.com/homepage/search/sp-edge-p.html

Nothing wrong with having a strong opininated opinion on a matter, but you can't just sell it as objective facts.

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#436
post #73

FWIW I got annoyed with chrome's distracting home screen, and pondered how long it would take for a 10+ year chrome user to switch to firefox. The answer (on macOS) was 5 minutes. I was shocked how easy it was (and, frankly, how similar it was). When you first open firefox, it gives options to import all your chrome settings (including saved passwords etc). Super cool.

The way profiles (or tab containers) work in Firefox sucks compared to Chrome honestly. I could never find a way to open in the correct profile from external applications.

You don't need profiles in Firefox, there's a much better solution called Container Tabs. If you're using profiles to keep things like work and play separate, check it out and thank me later ;)

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#437
post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Adverts are a theft of time and attention, they are manipulative brainwashing by companies with more resources than the majority of countries.

Ads are fine. I've discovered so many fantastic products through them (did my research before buying, of course.) And they are also the only business model we have been able to think of that enables the free flow of information on the scale we see today. Unless governments step up to foot the bill for Maps, YouTube, Reddit, etc, ads are all we've got. I've never seen an ad that "stole" my time and attention. They are…

Companies don't spend $1000 a year to advertise to you unless they get a decent rate of return.

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#438
post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it annoying how I need a separate window for each profile in Chrome, I like that I can have one window and some windows are in the work container and some are not. You do need the (official) containers extension though.

I had to use chrome at work and the different windows for different profiles really pissed me off (like, more than is reasonable). I eventually discovered you can have multiple profiles in the same window, it just wasn't the default.

Try Container Tabs instead, it solves that use-case in a much nicer way.

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, you're switching browsers not 3D modelling software. It's easy people. Switch to Firefox today.

All Chromium-based browsers have a feature that I can't get through my day without. I can write click on any website and say " translate this page into English ". I use this feature around 20 times a day, sometimes more. It's painstaking to do this in Firefox, even with extensions. Once every year or two I try switching to Firefox, then I remember this is the reason why I don't use it and I go back to Chrome. The day…

The latest Firefox now has that functionality. Firefox translations also have the added benefit of being 100% on-device, your data doesn't have to go to a Google server somewhere.

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#440
post #259

I have been a happy Firefox user for 15 years... maybe more. I have seen people use and complain Internet Explorer in my younger days, from version 6 to 7, etc. Even though I mention Firefox to them, they stay with IE. What amazes me is how quick they transitioned to Google Chrome when it released. This was around 2009. It amazes me how quick people jump to something especially when it has a big company behind advert…

> It amazes me how quick people jump to something especially when it has a big company behind advertising it. Because it works . Advertising works. That's the bane of the conflict of interest between companies and users of Ad blockers. We (technical users) cannot complain that companies should not use and abuse Ads, because at the same time we (humanity as a collective) constantly show once and again that Ads do work…

> Ads do work excellently for their intended purpose.

But this is the problem, because their intended purpose is not the user experience. A lot of people block the ads because they find them distracting, and actually part of the intended purpose of ads is to distract your attention to them.

There is no "users of Ad blockers" vs "technical users", using an ad blocker is not some sort of purpose of why I use a browser.

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