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Tell HN: Using Gmail? You will be force logged into Chrome

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Re: Tell HN: Using Gmail? You will be force logged into Chrome

#271
post #13

A typical tendency in distasteful projects: couple everything, remove choice. Make it one-size-fits-all. Switching to Chromium.

Chromium has this behavior too, at least if you enabled the sync previously—and it's not new, it's been around for a long time, like a couple years or more.

Re: Tell HN: Using Gmail? You will be force logged into Chrome

#272

It started with an older version. Logging into Google automatically linked your Google account to the settings page. At least in the last version, clearing your private data (ctrl-shift-delete) no longer deleted Google cookies. To completely log out required manually digging into the advanced settings and then rebooting the browser. Google fundamentally doesn't respect user privacy, and people should use Firefox.

Yup, it's quite old, likely two years or more. And notably, Chromium also has this feature, at least if you enabled the sync previously.

Re: Tell HN: Using Gmail? You will be force logged into Chrome

#273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Gmail at work. I don’t want it to auto log me in.

I'm curious what the privacy implications are with having a work managed gmail account. While I know that in many cases the 'employer managed gmail' can be read by the employer, it isn't clear whether this also applies to bookmarks and other stuff. Recently chrome has started associating bookmarks with gmail/google accounts (if you are logged into that account) which I have never heard of a browser doing before. Pret…

Besides possible privacy issues one major problem with google accounts is that google doesn't work with "accounts". It works with "people" or "corporations". So if they think that corporate account X and private account Z are actually same person (decided by some obscure algo) they will link them in their DB and in case of any infraction, real or not, they will hellban both of them. And as we know there is no such thing as human support or appeal process with google. Don't use your private accounts anywhere where they might be linked, not even for password restore field. There are already enough horror stories about people losing gmails, youtube channels and so on, forever.

Re: Tell HN: Using Gmail? You will be force logged into Chrome

#274
post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Google fundamentally doesn't respect user privacy, and people should use Firefox. This has been true for a many years now but I still see tech people ignoring it completely. I no longer believe tech people are very intelligent. They are easily lured into whatever good looking tech comes along and will sacrifice their privacy at the drop of a hat.

Tech people were never very intelligent. By definition, they were (and are) informed/educated in one specific discipline, but that has no correlation whatsoever with being intelligent. This is true regardless of the discipline. You can meet astoundingly stupid heart surgeons, astrophysics PhDs, etc.

"Yes, it's true: I am a rocket scientist" often quothe one of the stupidest persons I have had the opportunity to meet on this ball of dirt, because he had a PhD in aerospace engineering.

That said - he was good looking, had a reasonably good sense of humor and knew where the good parties were - so he could be forgiven this small vanity.

Re: Tell HN: Using Gmail? You will be force logged into Chrome

#275
post #172

It started with an older version. Logging into Google automatically linked your Google account to the settings page. At least in the last version, clearing your private data (ctrl-shift-delete) no longer deleted Google cookies. To completely log out required manually digging into the advanced settings and then rebooting the browser. Google fundamentally doesn't respect user privacy, and people should use Firefox.

I agree, sadly its never that simple. I tried diligently (all in) to use Quantum when it came out, for over a month. It just wasn't stable/fast enough when running a larger number of tabs. I'm hopeful it will get there soon and I can ditch Chrome but its just not there for me, yet.

I'm currently using FF 61, I've been using FF for a decade, with no special configuration. I currently have over one thousand tabs open, no sweat. Of all the reasons to prefer Chrome to FF, I don't understand how performance on larger numbers of tabs could possibly be it.

Re: Tell HN: Using Gmail? You will be force logged into Chrome

#276
post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried mailplaneapp.com?

That looks really nice. If I end up staying with OSX, I'll give it a try. Thanks!

No. Can’t recommend it enough, to be honest. Their dev team/CS is also extremely responsive (I generally hear from Lars). Honestly, it’s the only way I can handle using gmail regularly.

Re: Tell HN: Using Gmail? You will be force logged into Chrome

#277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you using any plugins to achieve this number of open tabs and and still have good performance?

It appears to work fine even without extensions (Ubuntu 16.04, Firefox 62), but I have some garbage-blocking extensions installed. In my main Firefox profile, I use umatrix[1] to browse the WWW with all CSS and JS turned off by default, enabling them only when needed. Reader mode makes most articles readable with a single click. Firefox's built-in privacy protection is also enabled. If a website doesn't work with my…

Thanks. I'm also a fan of umatrix.

I'n curious why you disable CSS, obviously I understand why you would want to turn of JS. Is this part of the override for Stylus to work? It didn't look like it from the link.

Re: Tell HN: Using Gmail? You will be force logged into Chrome

#278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> to you so it comes off as a bit of a complaint for the sake of it. People like you really rise my blood pressure. No, it's not important to him/her, bad defaults[1] are important for everyone because they are incorrect design. The correct design is not to synchronize anything before obtaining informed consent. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_pattern

People like you really rise my blood pressure. May I suggest that this is a very ugly, condescending, dismissive way of talking to anyone. The phrase has no place on a forum like HN.

> May I suggest

Perhaps your suggestion could be valid.

Since you pointed that out, what set me off primarily is similar sentiment when parent hinted that op might be arguing in bad faith with "so it comes off as a bit of a complaint for the sake of it". General dismissive attitude of HN to anything privacy related (like this thread getting downvoted) only exacerbates things further.

Re: Tell HN: Using Gmail? You will be force logged into Chrome

#279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Gmail at work. I don’t want it to auto log me in.

I'm curious what the privacy implications are with having a work managed gmail account. While I know that in many cases the 'employer managed gmail' can be read by the employer, it isn't clear whether this also applies to bookmarks and other stuff. Recently chrome has started associating bookmarks with gmail/google accounts (if you are logged into that account) which I have never heard of a browser doing before. Pret…

Every browser that offers "sync" (which includes Forefox) must associate your browser data with your account.

Re: Tell HN: Using Gmail? You will be force logged into Chrome

#280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it harmful to log in once to both apps that use the same account in the same browser? Gmail and Calendar already share the same login. Is that hurting anyone?

> Is that hurting anyone? It's actually hurting me: I'd like to be able to sign into YouTube on an untrusted device without signing into Gmail at the same time.

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