Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Washington Post's Privacy Tip: Stop Using Chrome, Delete Meta Apps (and Yandex)

tech.slashdot.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 346 posts

Re: Washington Post's Privacy Tip: Stop Using Chrome, Delete Meta Apps (and Yandex)

#101

Post by arealaccount »

t-writescode wrote: post #92
m-localhost wrote: post #84

Zen Browser (FF) on Win and Firefox on iOS (for sync) works well for me. Edge for all M365 related stuff. Still use Chrome for web dev. Not sure what to move on in that regard...

I'm a relatively new web dev and I've been quite happy with Firefox's Web Dev tools. What does Chrome's dev tools give someone that Firefox's doesn't? I can edit css on the fly, see where a css rule is being overwritten, debug javascript, etc.

FF dev tools just don’t work sometimes, notably with iframes, sometimes with source maps, and other edge case types things.

I use FF for 99% of dev, open Chrome maybe once a quarter. It’s a better browser.

Re: Washington Post's Privacy Tip: Stop Using Chrome, Delete Meta Apps (and Yandex)

#102

Post by voytec »

IgorPartola wrote: post #97
kvdveer wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NoScript is indeed very effective at blocking tracking, but it also breaks a lot of websites. If that is an acceptable compromise, you could also try ditching the Internet altogether, as that not only blocks all online tracking, it also blocks a lot of fraud, misinformation and all kinds of harmful content.

That’s always my problem with NoScript being suggested. For some people who consume stuff off RSS feeds or static sites and Wikipedia that probably works. But for literally anything more than that you can’t do that.

It's not about living like a caveman. You can enable 1st party JS without JS from 20 ad/tracking hosts.

Re: Washington Post's Privacy Tip: Stop Using Chrome, Delete Meta Apps (and Yandex)

#105

Post by godelski »

xnx wrote: post #6

Without the suggestion to install an adblocker, this is not credible advice.

The advice is fine, just incomplete.

It is better than nothing and definitely for the more "normies" advice. Let's start there and then we can get them onto adblock and other stuff.

Btw, the ArsTechnica article they link offers more advice[0]

[0] https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/06/meta-and-yandex-are...

Re: Washington Post's Privacy Tip: Stop Using Chrome, Delete Meta Apps (and Yandex)

#106

Post by Grazester »

Aurornis wrote: post #74
p0w3n3d wrote: post #28

I've noticed that recent Chrome version does not allow me to download the pdf I'm viewing. I had to open it in Firefox. The Chrome browser only allowed me to save it to drive (cloud)

I downloaded a PDF within updated Chrome earlier this morning without problems. I would be looking at your setup to see what makes it unique.

You can absolutely download PDFs on the all Chrome versions including the most recent. You need to do is set chrome to download them instead of open them.

I am a developer but have to deal with questions on this regularly from people's at my company due to the IT department being small.

Re: Washington Post's Privacy Tip: Stop Using Chrome, Delete Meta Apps (and Yandex)

#107

Post by ndriscoll »

righthand wrote: post #94
0x_rs wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, that was Firefox. Chrome's spread was fueled by literal malware or spyware bundling it to get some of Google's sweet money and some of the most aggressive advertisement campaigns for any online product ever.

Was it Firefox? I remember Firefox existing at the time but I don't think it's ever really had dominant market share, perhaps when it was Netscape? I do remember the IE campaign went on quite a long time to where eventually Chrome showed up to the party and people shifted over as well as shifted their family and friends over. You don't see that kind of active effort for Firefox ever.

According to Wikipedia, Firefox share peaked around 31%. It was very much taking over and gaining share from IE before chrome appeared.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers#Ol...

Re: Washington Post's Privacy Tip: Stop Using Chrome, Delete Meta Apps (and Yandex)

#108

Post by gcau »

hk1337 wrote: post #47
bitpush wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're drinking Apple kool-aid if you think Safari isn't holding web back. Lots of anti-google people dislike Safari. Safari isn't the only non-google option you know.

Apple is slow to adopt new features, sure but Google bulldozes features to be first to market so it can implemented the way they want it implemented.

>Google bulldozes features to be first to market so it can implemented the way they want it implemented

Can you give an example of this?

Re: Washington Post's Privacy Tip: Stop Using Chrome, Delete Meta Apps (and Yandex)

#109

Post by someNameIG »

kstrauser wrote: post #62
hungryhobbit wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Developers don't convince anyone of anything! They just build stuff according to standards (which are inevitably set not by standards orgs, but by the most popular browsers), and then they expect all browsers to follow those standards and "just work". When a browser like Safari fails to adhere to those standards, sites will break ... but you can't expect developers (of most sites; I'm not talking about the top 100 or…

Wikipedia says Safari’s their #2 browser, with 17% traffic share: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers Web devs ignore Safari at their own risk, lest 100% of iPhone users be unable to use their site.

If Apple wanted more web devs to support Safari they should port it to Linux and Windows. The web is supposed to be an open standard, you shouldn't need a devices and software from a specific manufacturer to develop for it (I say that posting from a Mac).

Re: Washington Post's Privacy Tip: Stop Using Chrome, Delete Meta Apps (and Yandex)

#110

Post by SoftTalker »

blacksmith_tb wrote: post #79
demosthanos wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A full-featured ad blocker (uBlock Origin original, not the neutered Lite version that runs on Chrome now) will intercept requests at the network level and prevent your browser from requesting the advertisers' JavaScript code. Your browser not only won't show the ads, it won't run the code that was supposed to show them or even send a request to the advertisers' servers. This blocks most existing tracking methods. Th…

1st-party would likely be prevented by disabling cookies? Obviously they could fingerprint every visitor on every request, but most just set an ID cookie and check it on subsequent pages I think, since that's good enough for tracking most people (who aren't actively trying not to be tracked). Of course, that breaks things that need a session (like a cart), but depending on what you want from a site, it could be fine.

There are ways to maintain a session without a cookie, but cookie is very convenient so that is mostly what is used.
Post reply on HN