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Google Chrome to remove detailed cookie and site data controls

lapcatsoftware.com

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Re: Google Chrome to remove detailed cookie and site data controls

#111

Post by shock-value »

DangitBobby wrote: post #27
Kiro wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same for Chrome so not sure what this article is about.

The article is quite clear. The question is, why did they go backwards on functionality. They took a simple user interface and removed a single useful feature from it, and what remains is a much more tedious way to do the same thing. Why? What was the benefit? The author speculates that it's to make user cookie control more difficult.

The reason was probably that no one ever needs to delete just a subset of cookies from a site. I certainly never have, and I'm a pretty technically-minded user. (Other than for development, in which case I'm using dev tools anyway.)

Re: Google Chrome to remove detailed cookie and site data controls

#112

Post by jonnycomputer »

SomeBoolshit wrote: post #109
deadbunny wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But with the competition as good as dead they can do whatever they want Firefox works well enough for me.

They've taken away user control over cookies per site years ago. People complained, Mozilla ignored the complaints and somehow this all just blew over because of browser extensions against tracking cookies. There's still no replacement for the "ask me every time" cookie dialog.

Yes. But you can see it all in developer tools. Just not as accessible. At least when you are on that site. Which is a limitation for sure.

Re: Google Chrome to remove detailed cookie and site data controls

#113

Post by x0x0 »

cptskippy wrote: post #94

So why do developers still use Chrome?

I have access to browser stats for a b2b saas. The majority of our customers use chrome for the app. Approx 70% chrome, 28% chromium, 2% safari (almost entirely mobile). NB: we discourage mobile or you'd see more ios; the main site is approx 50% safari (of that, > 95% mobile).

Last time I looked, only one person had used firefox in the trailing 3 months.

Re: Google Chrome to remove detailed cookie and site data controls

#114

Post by magicalist »

jacquesm wrote: post #64

They are really on a roll there, how many user hostile moves is that in the last 30 days? I think I lost count at 4. And all in the name of 'helping our users to improve their experience'. Since when is removing features that users depend on a positive? But with the competition as good as dead they can do whatever they want: the bulk of the audience is now captive and has lost either the willpower or the means to att…

"how many user hostile moves is that in the last 30 days" seems a bit much for something that they are "planning on deprecating". It's not even clear if "making chrome://settings/content/all the place to manage storage" doesn't just mean everything is just going to move from two pages to one but have the same functionality.

Re: Google Chrome to remove detailed cookie and site data controls

#115

Post by thih9 »

jacquesm wrote: post #64

They are really on a roll there, how many user hostile moves is that in the last 30 days? I think I lost count at 4. And all in the name of 'helping our users to improve their experience'. Since when is removing features that users depend on a positive? But with the competition as good as dead they can do whatever they want: the bulk of the audience is now captive and has lost either the willpower or the means to att…

> Since when is removing features that users depend on a positive?

Most google chrome users aren't techincal users; they aren't familiar with cookie data controls and won't care if they're gone.

Google consistently drops technical features in the name of improving or simplifying UX for most of their userbase (in a way that's aligned with google's interests). This happens since the beginning of Chrome (merging the address bar and search bar seems like that to me); This approach is present in other google products too (e.g. it's harder than ever to override defaults in google search).

Re: Google Chrome to remove detailed cookie and site data controls

#116

Post by rapnie »

melbourne_mat wrote: post #15

I'm privacy conscious but would not consider looking at such detailed information. For me it's delete all site state on exit. Do people actually look at this stuff?

I use FF, uBlock and Privacy Badger. Of those - while uBlock is most powerful - I value Privacy Badger the most. It shows me 'number of cookies' in the toolbar icon on every page, and in the dropdown I can quickly toggle any 'suspicious' domains to be blocked. Only much less often do I take the time to do more intricate stuff using uBlock Origin.

Re: Google Chrome to remove detailed cookie and site data controls

#117

Post by nicce »

hpoe wrote: post #33

This is part of a strategy to eliminate the openness of the web, right now your client still has full view and control of the code running on it in the browser to a certain degree. Companies do not want this, this makes it possible to reverse engineer their process, to view what they are doing, and basically takes away control. They want a future where your browser is instead a portal to the web where various compani…

I don’t know why you are getting downvoted, but this is the reality already. Maybe reasons behind are sometimes different, but the end result is the same.

Google is rebuilding their Docs for using canvas only[1]. You have no control over it.

Similar things are happening. Web assembly is getting more popular, and in more cases browser is just a sandbox running arbitrary code. E.g Microsoft has huge interest[2].

[1]: https://workspaceupdates.googleblog.com/2021/05/Google-Docs-...

[2]: https://www.infoworld.com/article/3613873/microsoft-gets-ser...

Re: Google Chrome to remove detailed cookie and site data controls

#118

Post by Sunspark »

deadbunny wrote: post #101
jacquesm wrote: post #64

They are really on a roll there, how many user hostile moves is that in the last 30 days? I think I lost count at 4. And all in the name of 'helping our users to improve their experience'. Since when is removing features that users depend on a positive? But with the competition as good as dead they can do whatever they want: the bulk of the audience is now captive and has lost either the willpower or the means to att…

> But with the competition as good as dead they can do whatever they want Firefox works well enough for me.

Firefox in addition to user-friendly features, also has containers which are an environment to isolate and manage cookies. A noteworthy example being the facebook container: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/facebook-cont...

Linking here to a previous discussion on Firefox containers: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28353876

Re: Google Chrome to remove detailed cookie and site data controls

#119

Post by simfoo »

melbourne_mat wrote: post #15

I'm privacy conscious but would not consider looking at such detailed information. For me it's delete all site state on exit. Do people actually look at this stuff?

Not just on exit - cookie autodelete is awesome. 10s after I switch site all past cookies are gone

Re: Google Chrome to remove detailed cookie and site data controls

#120

Post by mark_l_watson »

A bit off topic, but I frequently just delete all cookies on all browsers on my devices. Since I just use Safari on iOS/iPadOS/macOS and Chrome on Linux, this is such a quick thing to do.

I also try to make using a private browser tab or page as my normal way to do web browsing.

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