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

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181–190 of 346 posts

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

#181
post #162

I don’t know anyone that works at Meta, so I’m hoping that someone here could answer this for me- What makes employees there feel good (or at least okay) about doing stuff like this? You're spying on people, no? Surveilling ordinary people, not enemy combatants or foreign militaries? Perhaps a friend of a friend or even a family member? This kind of thing is so creepy and disturbing to me, not that it’s anything new…

Money, it's just business. I think every big corp is morally bankrupt (otherwise they wouldn't be big). There are some exceptions, of course, if a company found a sustainable way to monetize their output. But the baseline is really bad.

This is basically it. There are a dozen ways to become huge, and they all are essnetially anti-humanity.

There's an expression: normalization of deviance.

This is where we are now. People idolize others because of their wealth, and that wealth is always gained by means which are ultimately harmful to the greater population. Even the wealthy philanthropistMS which will remain unnamed acquired their greatness by cheating and stealing. But as long as you make a great show and give it all away eventually (while living lavishly the entire time), you look good.

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

#182
post #162

I don’t know anyone that works at Meta, so I’m hoping that someone here could answer this for me- What makes employees there feel good (or at least okay) about doing stuff like this? You're spying on people, no? Surveilling ordinary people, not enemy combatants or foreign militaries? Perhaps a friend of a friend or even a family member? This kind of thing is so creepy and disturbing to me, not that it’s anything new…

> What makes employees there feel good (or at least okay) about doing stuff like this?

A big house, a fast car, more money.

Where else in SV are you going to go anyway? Every company does the same thing.

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

#183
post #162

I don’t know anyone that works at Meta, so I’m hoping that someone here could answer this for me- What makes employees there feel good (or at least okay) about doing stuff like this? You're spying on people, no? Surveilling ordinary people, not enemy combatants or foreign militaries? Perhaps a friend of a friend or even a family member? This kind of thing is so creepy and disturbing to me, not that it’s anything new…

Money, it's just business. I think every big corp is morally bankrupt (otherwise they wouldn't be big). There are some exceptions, of course, if a company found a sustainable way to monetize their output. But the baseline is really bad.

Its way less bad than some investors ie on Wall street or arms/military business, by huge margin. Folks scamming old people out of money or encrypting their HDDs for ransom should be shot in sight. But - this topic affects billions very directly, and its not about the effect now, but helping general direction which is outright evil by any moral standards.

I can pull out usual godwin's law plug but I guess we all know what would be there. People like to feel great about themselves, its subconscious. And if slightly tilting reality in their favor can achieve that then what's the problem, right. Again, this is not a conscious decision so most don't even notice that, and who would complain about feeling better about themselves.

Old enough, when you want to see such things like these biases in people around you, its very easy once you start looking for them. I guess we really are all heroes of our own stories (but what I mention is far from uniformly distributed, some folks are really stellar human beings and some opposite)

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

#184
post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The sad reality is that this behavior gets normalized in the name of making money. For employees it gets normalized at the first signal that your livelihood might be affected if you don't comply. As someone who's privacy conscious, it's an uphill battle to convince co-workers to actually follow laws instead of trying to find loopholes. I've worked at places who collect every possible data point and distributes it wil…

[flagged]

> um, what?

This is obnoxious.

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

#185
post #93

Anyone have tips on how to avoid having the WhatsApp app on your phone?

The question may need a little more context - it's easy to avoid by simply uninstalling it. If you're actually asking how to minimize its presence, consider using an app like Island which isolates the apps into a separate profile which can't see anything in your main profile.

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

#186

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.

I use FF but Chrome's dev tools have a lot more going for it including memory profiling and performance tools. On the other hand, Chrome's network panel is awful and it's a chore to see the domains and full URLs involved.

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

#187
post #2

Safari reports that it blocked 16 trackers on WaPos home page. So it’s probably best to avoid them for privacy too.

I wouldn't be using Safari if I were concerned about privacy. Privacy is more than just blocking trackers.

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

#188
Never used Chrome, and don't use Meta apps... and when I did, I did not give them any real information.

I'm disgusted by the number of people giving real personal information to these assholes. "Open"AI insisted that you give them a real, functioning phone number to use ChatGPT. No goddamned way.

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

#189
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)

Seems weird. I'm in Chrome right now and I can right-click on PDFs and click save as.

I mean once you get into a pdf. Sometimes web page opens it instead of allowing download. The built-in pdf browser of chrome has no option to save it locally on android phone. I have not been not precise in explaining, because I find Google and Android constantly reducing my ownership of my own phone and that's another brick in the wall here

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

#190
post #2

Safari reports that it blocked 16 trackers on WaPos home page. So it’s probably best to avoid them for privacy too.

I wouldn't be using Safari if I were concerned about privacy. Privacy is more than just blocking trackers.

How is Safari anything but strong on privacy?
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