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

Am I logged in or not? GDPR case study on the example of Chrome browser change

blog.lukaszolejnik.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

361–370 of 507 posts

Re: Am I logged in or not? GDPR case study on the example of Chrome browser change

#361

Post by Kim_Bruning »

cm2012 wrote: post #73
jonbronson wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lesson to companies should be, don't provide a Hobson's choice up front like this. Offer the webpage you meant to offer, and simply don't try to nickel and dime all the data out of your visitors.

It's not like content producing companies are these super profitable behemoths that are just greedy for $1 more. Not using ad trackers would your reduce your revenue by 50% at the minimum - it's how scaled advertisers spend money, if you're not doing it, you're not getting those advertisers. It is indeed a Hobson's choice - do it or stop providing whatever content it is the reader wants.

Am I the only person who liked the web a lot better before it encountered its own Eternal September?

I'm not trying to be snarky! It's just that I'm not actually sure I like the direction the web took, and I'm not sure these "content producing companies" are indeed a net positive.

Perhaps forcing a lot of (the more shady) commercial activity off of the web is actually the best thing that could happen. (Though they probably wouldn't leave quietly)

Re: Am I logged in or not? GDPR case study on the example of Chrome browser change

#362

Post by ObsoleteNerd »

adrianrocamora wrote: post #343
james_pm wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had been using Chrome only for G Suite stuff (forced by my employer to maintain this account) and FF for everything else. This change resulted in the deletion of Chrome from my computer and a move to FF with Multi Account Containers set to segregate various services from each other. I'm half thankful for the Chrome team doing this because it was just the push I needed to finally rid myself of Chrome once and for al…

FF with Multi Account Containers is heaven

FF itself since Quantum has been heaven for me personally.

I've always used FF and Chrome, flipping back and forth as Chrome filled in where FF had issues and vice versa, but after a week or 2 on Quantum I just didn't need Chrome anymore and uninstalled it. Haven't regretted it once.

Re: Am I logged in or not? GDPR case study on the example of Chrome browser change

#363

Post by kevingrahl »

modzu wrote: post #347
kevingrahl wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just in case you weren’t aware; Opera is owned by a Chinese consortium. I personally wouldn’t touch Opera with a ten foot pole.

your shirt was probably made by a chinese consortium too. why not touch opera because of that? americans.

Sorry to disappoint but I’m not American nor do I own any clothing from China (or any other countries that may rely on sweat shops for production).

From a security and privacy standpoint though there are possible implications when a tech-product/service is owned/controlled by a Chinese company. China’s influence on it’s businesses (especially tech related) can’t be denied. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if news would break that the Chinese government has it’s hands in Opera’s cooking pot somehow.

Sorry if I have offended you but that’s just reality. I don’t trust Chinese tech companies.

Re: Am I logged in or not? GDPR case study on the example of Chrome browser change

#364

Post by macintux »

bigiain wrote: post #341
tptacek wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is not at all my understanding. If you don't have sync enabled, nothing automatically enables sync . You have to go through a large confirmation dialog (with an "undo" button) to enable sync.

Yet...

You’re being downvoted, but this is exactly the concern that a sweeping change like this provokes. Who’s to say Google won’t decide that a lack of sync is a problem they can silently fix too?

Re: Am I logged in or not? GDPR case study on the example of Chrome browser change

#365

Post by explainplease »

adrianrocamora wrote: post #343
james_pm wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had been using Chrome only for G Suite stuff (forced by my employer to maintain this account) and FF for everything else. This change resulted in the deletion of Chrome from my computer and a move to FF with Multi Account Containers set to segregate various services from each other. I'm half thankful for the Chrome team doing this because it was just the push I needed to finally rid myself of Chrome once and for al…

FF with Multi Account Containers is heaven

I wish Mozilla would give some kind of guarantee that they won't drop the feature, otherwise I don't feel like investing time into building a workflow around it is worthwhile. And it's sad that this is even an issue.

Re: Am I logged in or not? GDPR case study on the example of Chrome browser change

#366

Post by macintux »

lrem wrote: post #222
tedivm wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that using this incident as a recruitment pitch is a good idea.

"Somebody should do a better job!" "Why don't you try yourself?" Seems like a somewhat reasonable train of thought. A lot of good things can come out of outrage, as long as people are willing to take action (no, I don't claim going through Google recruitment to be the optimal strategy, but it is an option)(I actually got my first job as a result of my technical complaints, obviously not in Google).

I would no more work for Google than I would work for Facebook exactly because of their disregard for privacy, no matter what their policies may be.

Re: Am I logged in or not? GDPR case study on the example of Chrome browser change

#367

Post by bogomipz »

Sidnicious wrote: post #327
ewjordan wrote: post #303

I'm still not clear about what the actual change in behavior even is - seeing some statements on Twitter from someone on the dev team, it sounded to me like there isn't actually any difference, just a UI change to show which Gmail account is currently logged into. If that's really all it is, I don't really get what people are upset about. Specifically, if there's no additional data being stored connected to your acco…

I work at Google, but all statements/opinions are my own. My understanding is that there were two changes: 1. General responsibility for authenticating to Google services has been moved to Chrome, and being logged into Google is equivalent to being logged into Chrome. If sync is set up, logging back into Google also fixes your sync session, if it was broken (common — the warning in the toolbar is easy to ignore). 2.…

>"It raises a question for both users and browser vendors: What does it mean to be logged into a web browser?"

Which is a question so absurd that no user should ever need to ponder it. The question wasn't "raised." Your diction suggests it arose in some organic fashion and it did not. Let's be clear - the question was forced upon the user.

Re: Am I logged in or not? GDPR case study on the example of Chrome browser change

#368

Post by manigandham »

kryogen1c wrote: post #72
Analemma_ wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don’t understand why the Chrome team is picking this hill to die on Because they’re not “dying on a hill” at all, because nobody cares. Nobody outside Hacker News and Twitter infosec people only followed by other Twitter infosec people cares about this. > I really expect this change to push a lot of people away from chrome Care to bet on that? Because I would happily take the opposite side of that bet. I think th…

I'm typically out of touch with normal people so I'm probably proving your point, but this has pushed me off chrome and Google. Ive always loved google. Installed chrome when it was released. I'm writing this from a pixel 2 XL because I broke my pixel 1 XL. I've had a Gmail account almost since it's been possible (I have my firstnamelastname@gmail.com). I now use firefox. I don't know what mail I'll switch to, and I…

> personified by the removal of their slogan "don't be evil"

It's always interesting to see how the most technical users seem to take such an irrelevant vague throwaway marketing line so seriously.

It's also still in the code of conduct but now moved to the end so it was never actually removed from anything anyway, if it actually matters.

Re: Am I logged in or not? GDPR case study on the example of Chrome browser change

#369

Post by ewjordan »

bigiain wrote: post #339
Sidnicious wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work at Google, but all statements/opinions are my own. My understanding is that there were two changes: 1. General responsibility for authenticating to Google services has been moved to Chrome, and being logged into Google is equivalent to being logged into Chrome. If sync is set up, logging back into Google also fixes your sync session, if it was broken (common — the warning in the toolbar is easy to ignore). 2.…

> It raises a question for both users and browser vendors: What does it mean to be logged into a web browser? And who - exactly - ever asked for the ability to "log into a web browser"? And what benefits are there for the user? There would be zero confusion about "Am I logged in to Google or logged in to Chrome?" without the unwanted and unexpected existence of a "logged in to a web browser" status. This is privacy d…

I use several different computers and operating systems regularly, and it's really useful to have my browser history, bookmarks, extensions and other configuration synced up.

That's not to say I'd be miserable without it, but it's a nice convenience that almost immediately upon starting up a new machine, my browser is set up exactly the way I like just logging in.

Re: Am I logged in or not? GDPR case study on the example of Chrome browser change

#370

Post by eudora »

quickben wrote: post #325
rifung wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work at Google; opinions are my own. > I don't understand why the Chrome team is picking this hill to die on- their team (managers and developers) are all over twitter and reddit trying to explain the privacy violations away as if the people upset about this are just not understanding what's going on. My impression is that this is the new norm at Google. It happens with everything, internal or external. The sad rea…

Use checkboxes?

Oh man, this always Madden's me when a company takes away some option in the name of simplifying for the majority of users.

Put it on a screen called advanced options or something, even about:config, and let us decide!

That is, if you're really not just manipulating your users.

Post reply on HN