Well, kinda. Now the choice is made at what browser you use.
How long before Google forces you to have a Google Account to even search? I think we all know it's probably going that direction eventually.
I think that's backwards. Google without Search has very little to most of the Internet, and Google knows it. Search is the basis of Google's Ad money, and they won't do anything to restrict that.
Other search engines are good enough to work if a user's unhappy, and Google hopes that users never have a reason to notice that.
Keep in mind that while everybody here is all outraged about this, nobody else is. Because the experience is so nice. It's the reason why I can search for "prefecture Melun" on my laptop, then jump in the car, open up maps on my phone, Start typing "1" and watch it suggest "12 rue de Gambas, Melun 77320", which happens to be the address of the Melun prefecture. That sort of thing happens for me every day, and i think…
This is an old as time debate of "Security vs Convenience". It's a lot easier to maintain web servers if they are only using the http protocol and not https. Does that mean I should not enable https? Same thing with letting Google start to categorize and selling your profile to organizations. It might be nice now, but in 5-10 years what will the landscape look like? It's ultimately your choice to determine how much o…
Giving up privacy for most people is not a security reduction. Privacy is extremely important, but it is relevant only to a tiny minority of people who care about it or otherwise require it. Most people neither care nor use their rights to privacy, so in practice, losing it, for them, is no real loss. It is an increase in convenience—at no cost. The cost is a societal one, borne only when “no privacy” becomes a widespread default. As it stands, there are other browsers that offer better privacy for those who care about such things.
>Please tell your particularly non technical friends and relatives to avoid Google like plague For anyone that has never had a conversation like this, you really have to be careful with this and pick your battles wisely. Some people are so non-technical, that they will not understand what you are explaining to them, or why you are even bothering them. You will be perceived as a tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy theorist…
Exactly. I regularly argue about this with my colleagues who are all mostly trained statisticians with some programming experience. Generally, what happens is that people are in awe of the "innovation" coming from Google and my protests are generally laughed off.
There are things that can be explained but can be understood only by direct experience. This is one of them. They'll eventually get burned by their faith in Google and suddenly they'll understand.
Keep in mind that while everybody here is all outraged about this, nobody else is. Because the experience is so nice. It's the reason why I can search for "prefecture Melun" on my laptop, then jump in the car, open up maps on my phone, Start typing "1" and watch it suggest "12 rue de Gambas, Melun 77320", which happens to be the address of the Melun prefecture. That sort of thing happens for me every day, and i think…
Also, even those of us who care about privacy are not all outraged about this. I have been using Chrome Sync (with a clientside encryption passphrase) for years. It always surprised me that there were separate login states for gmail and the browser. This change saves me a step, and reduces user confusion too.
Keep in mind that while everybody here is all outraged about this, nobody else is. Because the experience is so nice. It's the reason why I can search for "prefecture Melun" on my laptop, then jump in the car, open up maps on my phone, Start typing "1" and watch it suggest "12 rue de Gambas, Melun 77320", which happens to be the address of the Melun prefecture. That sort of thing happens for me every day, and i think…
Every feature you've listed works without forced log-in. Taking away the choice to share everything about one's life with an ad company is what people are angry about.
There is no forced login. You can still use Chrome without logging in to anything. You can also disable Chrome Sync even if Chrome is logged in after logging in to gmail, so “forced” is the wrong term.
Thanks, but no thanks. Ditch Chrome and don’t worry about ugly hacks to remember or bookmark or ask about in the future when they no longer work. Life is too short to put up with such nonsense. There are better alternatives [1] available. P.S.: When you uninstall Chrome on certain platforms, it’ll open your default browser and direct you to a feedback page. Be honest and tell them why, and that you wouldn’t recommend…
Ditching Chrome is not an option for the security conscious; there is no other browser that has the security resources dedicated to it that Chrome has. It’s not even close.
Linux users. Put: { "SyncDisabled": true, "RestrictSigninToPattern": ".*@example.com" } in a file called disable_sync.json (for example) and place in the following location: Chrome: /etc/opt/chrome/policies/managed/disable_sync.json Chromium: /etc/chromium-browser/policies/managed/disable_sync.json
It worked on Chrome Version 69.0.3497.100 (Official Build) (64-bit) on Ubuntu 16.04 but it didn't work with Chromium Version 69.0.3497.81 (Official Build)
Keep in mind that while everybody here is all outraged about this, nobody else is. Because the experience is so nice. It's the reason why I can search for "prefecture Melun" on my laptop, then jump in the car, open up maps on my phone, Start typing "1" and watch it suggest "12 rue de Gambas, Melun 77320", which happens to be the address of the Melun prefecture. That sort of thing happens for me every day, and i think…
From what I've read, the main objection to this isn't the linking of the accounts for people who want it, it's that there's no way to opt out for people who want to use Google services on the web but don't want to log into the browser itself at all. I don't think there's any reason that they couldn't make it so that logging into Chrome automatically logs you into your Google account on the web as well without doing the reverse as well. To me, this feels like an even worse version of the "opt-in by default" issue; to opt out, you also have to opt out of logging into any Google accounts at all while in Chrome, which is a huge ask even for privacy-minded people who don't want to log into the browser itself.
Thanks, but no thanks. Ditch Chrome and don’t worry about ugly hacks to remember or bookmark or ask about in the future when they no longer work. Life is too short to put up with such nonsense. There are better alternatives [1] available. P.S.: When you uninstall Chrome on certain platforms, it’ll open your default browser and direct you to a feedback page. Be honest and tell them why, and that you wouldn’t recommend…
Ditching Chrome is not an option for the security conscious; there is no other browser that has the security resources dedicated to it that Chrome has. It’s not even close.
>there is no other browser that has the security resources dedicated to it that Chrome has.
I disagree. Firefox uses the exact same URL filtering system [0] used by Chrome to block access to potentially harmful malware-ridden sites. Add some solid extensions like uBlock/uMatrix and Privacy Badger to that, you get a browser that's as secure, if not more, than Google's bloated browser.