#Chrome Data

[blaksheepcreative]

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[catwire]

friendly reminder chrome fucking sucks as a browser and you should switch to firefox regardless even if you don't care if google collects your data

[izicodes]

Switching to Firefox

This post is to answer @leaveblackkbrosalone’s question on my post about me switching to Firefox!

I recently had an eye opener moment when researching about Google and how they collect data to alter the things they recommend you and other things. And it was astonishing how much data they collect on you and how they track you every movement whilst on Google/Chrome/Other Google services e.g. Google PlayStore.

I truly believe there are better alternatives out there than the default Google Chrome people tend to use. We now live in world of constant data breaches and online tracking, therefore protecting your online privacy and security has never been more important.

I’ve recently deleted Chrome from my phone and computer and switched to FireFox and I’ll explain why~!

What is Firefox?

Firefox is the famous fox web browser! It is a free and open-source that is developed by the Mozilla Foundation. It's designed to be fast, secure, and customizable, and is available for multiple operating systems, including Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Firefox includes a suite of built-in features, such as enhanced tracking protection, custom themes (so important obviously) and add-ons, and a flexible interface that can be tailored to the user's needs.

Why Firefox and not Google Chrome?

There are a bunch of reasons why I chose to delete Google Chrome and why I prefer FireFox now, let me list some:

Privacy

Firefox has a strong focus on privacy and security, with features like built-in tracking protection and a strict anti-tracking policy.

In contrast, Chrome is owned by Google, a company that relies heavily on data collection and advertising for its business model.

Customisation

Firefox has a much more flexible and customizable interface than Chrome, with a wide range of add-ons (equivalent to Chrome’s ‘extensions’ I believe) and themes available to personalize your browsing experience.

Open-source

Firefox is an open-source project, meaning that anyone can contribute to its development and review the code for security issues.

Chrome, on the other hand, is based on the Chromium project, which is also open-source but is controlled by Google.

Cross-platform compatibility

Firefox works on a wide range of devices and operating systems, including Windows, Mac, Linux, and mobile devices.

Chrome is also available on multiple platforms, but it's more heavily integrated with Google's services and ecosystem.

Performance

Firefox has made significant improvements in recent years and is now a competitive browser in terms of speed and efficiency.

Still, Chrome is known for its fast performance

Community-driven

Firefox is developed by the non-profit Mozilla Foundation, which has a strong focus on user empowerment and community involvement. This means that Firefox users have a voice in the development process and can contribute to the browser's future direction.

With all of that being said, there is one particular area that caught my eye that I mentioned briefly: the Privacy and Security.

Firefox’s Privacy and Security Advantages

Firefox definitely has advantages in these areas than Google Chrome surprisingly!

Enhanced Tracking Protection

Firefox includes built-in tracking protection that blocks many common types of trackers by default, including

third-party cookies, cryptominers, and fingerprinters

This helps to protect your online privacy and reduce the amount of data that's collected about you. Below are the options for the 'Enhance Tracking Protection' in the settings:

No Google Tracking

Oh boy, I like this one. So unlike Chrome, which is owned by Google and ties into its advertising and data collection ecosystem, Firefox is developed by the non-profit Mozilla Foundation and has no affiliation with Google or any other major tech company. This means that Firefox is less likely to collect and share your data with third parties.

No Sign-In Required

While Chrome requires you to sign in with a Google account to access certain features, Firefox does not require any sign-in at all. This means that you can still use Firefox without creating a user profile or linking your browsing activity to any personal information -

Don’t get me wrong, if you want to use the Google search engine WITHIN FireFox, it might still prompt you to sign in but you still don’t have to! Also, the choice is there to create an account just to sync bookmarks and tab from one device to another e.g. phone to laptop.

Private Browsing Mode

(Another very important part!) Firefox offers a Private Browsing mode that doesn't save your browsing history, cookies, or temporary files. This can be useful for browsing sensitive content or preventing others from seeing what you've been looking at.

Firefox's Private Browsing mode offers a more robust set of features for privacy and security than Google’s Incognito mode. Within the ‘Settings’, you can customise your privacy settings more extensively than Google Chrome. You can choose to block all third-party cookies, prevent websites from accessing your location data, and clear your browsing history and data automatically when you close the browser.

Google's Incognito mode does not block all cookies or prevent all forms of tracking.

Open-Source Security

Like I mentioned before, Firefox is an open-source project, meaning that anyone can review the code and contribute to its development. This helps to ensure that security vulnerabilities are identified and addressed quickly, and that the browser remains as secure as possible. You too can find something and report it to the repository via creating an issue!

To Conclude

Of course, these are just some general reasons why you might prefer Firefox over Chrome, and the choice ultimately comes down to personal preference and priorities. I know with developers, they would prefer Chrome for the dev tools and I think it’s almost a standard to use Chrome (though at my workplace we use Microsoft Edge), anyhoo Google is just a default for web browsing and search engine. I also know it’s hard if you have a whole Google ecosystem set up like Google docs to Sheet to Slides, emails, calendar etc, you can still use them but on a safer browser.

I would also recommend using ‘DuckDuckGo’ for a search engine as they too are really good with security and privacy but as a search engine (plus on their phone app they have a cool animation when you want to delete you browsing data from the tabs hehe)!

Links to interesting pages for more information on this topic:

YouTube videos: video 1 | video 2 | video 3 | video 4

Articles: article 1 | article 2 | article 3

I’d say give it a go, if you don’t like it I still recommend anything but Google Chrome! Well, that’s all and thank you for reading! 🥰👍🏾💗

[melyzard]

Time for a new edition of my ongoing vendetta against Google fuckery!

Hey friends, did you know that Google is now using Google docs to train it's AI, whether you like it or not? (link goes to: zdnet.com, July 5, 2023). Oh and on Monday, Google updated it's privacy policy to say that it can train it's two AI (Bard and Cloud AI) on any data it scrapes from it's users, period. (link goes to: The Verge, 5 July 2023). Here is Digital Trends also mentioning this new policy change (link goes to: Digital Trends, 5 July 2023). There are a lot more, these are just the most succinct articles that might explain what's happening.

FURTHER REASONS GOOGLE AND GOOGLE CHROME SUCK TODAY:

Stop using Google Analytics, warns Sweden’s privacy watchdog, as it issues over $1M in fines (link goes to: TechCrunch, 3 July 2023) [TLDR: google got caught exporting european users' data to the US to be 'processed' by 'US government surveillance,' which is HELLA ILLEGAL. I'm not going into the Five Eyes, Fourteen Eyes, etc agreements, but you should read up on those to understand why the 'US government surveillance' people might ask Google to do this for countries that are not apart of the various Eyes agreements - and before anyone jumps in with "the US sucks!" YES but they are 100% not the only government buying foreign citizens' data, this is just the one the Swedes caught. Today.]

PwC Australia ties Google to tax leak scandal (link goes to: Reuters, 5 July 2023). [TLDR: a Russian accounting firm slipped Google "confidential information about the start date of a new tax law leaked from Australian government tax briefings." Gosh, why would Google want to spy on governments about tax laws? Can't think of any reason they would want to be able to clean house/change policy/update their user agreement to get around new restrictions before those restrictions or fines hit. Can you?

SO - here is a very detailed list of browsers, updated on 28 June, 2023 on slant.com, that are NOT based on Google Chrome (note: any browser that says 'Chromium-based' is just Google wearing a party mask. It means that Google AND that other party has access to all your data). This is an excellent list that shows pros and cons for each browser, including who the creator is and what kinds of policies they have (for example, one con for Pale Moon is that the creator doesn't like and thinks all websites should be hostile to Tor).

[generallemarc]

Do you want to help people in countries with censored internet?

Install the Snowflake browser extension to help people access the uncensored internet by using your computer's signature! I'm 95% sure there's one for Firefox too, and it comes bundled in with Brave-just go into the settings and turn it on! All you have to do is have a working PC with internet access and live in a country with low internet censorship. Brave even has an option to let it do it's thing even when you don't have the browser open, so that you can be doing this literally as long as your computer is on. Would not recommend using it on Opera though, as Opera is Chinese-owned and is thus not something you should ever have on your computer.

[nando161mando]

Chrome/Google is blocking HSTS encrypted content sites like Wikipedia because this encryption blocks their plagiarist data/info crawler.

Google is NOT protecting "your" security.

[commiepinkofag]

profits over people — the corporate hellscape of internet censorship, safety, privacy, data mining…

[thoughtportal]

NBTV

[goofnuggetkarlaa]

well it seems youtube on firefox is no longer letting me play videos in anything higher than 720p, and some its only allowing me to view in 360p. and while duckduckgo's duck player works fine, if i stream it over discord, no audio can be heard on the stream (╬▔皿▔)╯

guess im stuck having other people be forced to stream the videos for me i guess until some tech genius starts having this problem as well and creates a workaround.

fuck youtube, fuck google, fuck every big tech company (and every non-tech company while we're at it), fuck every greedy capitalistic pig who is purposefully making my life more irritating and inconvenient for me just because they can. now where's that damn guillotine

[kachimera]

welp, now my computer is having issues loading pages so i might run off into the void again

[ellenembee]

Looks like Google Chrome browser just opted us all into targeted ads that collect and share our data (again). You should get a notification about this to be able to turn them off, but in case you missed it, be sure to go into "settings" > "privacy and security" > "ad privacy" and turn off all the options.

Also adding an obligatory plug for Firefox here at the end. I have to use Google for work, but otherwise, I use Firefox or Duck Duck Go browsers. Both are available as mobile apps as well.

[infosanjay]

What are the features of browser security? 

Keeping your stuff safe online is super important. When you're browsing the web, you want to make sure nobody's sneaking in to steal your info. That's where web browsers come in. They're like your online bodyguards, keeping the bad guys out.Think of it like walking through a busy street. There are shady characters trying to pickpocket you, but your browser's security is like having a strong friend who watches your back. So, when your browser has good security, it's like having a tough bodyguard who keeps you safe from viruses, fake websites, and people trying to mess with your accounts.Browser security is all about making sure you can surf the web without worrying about someone stealing your stuff. So next time you're online, thank your browser for keeping you safe!

Here are some important features of browser security that will help you ensure a safe browsing experience —

First, update your browser - It is very important from a security aspect.

Secure and Encrypted Connections –  Modern browsers use secure protocols, such as HTTPS, to establish an encrypted connection between the user's device and the website they are visiting. This encryption ensures that the sensitive information, such as login credentials and payment details, is transmitted securely and cannot be tampered with by hackers.

Anti-Malware and Phishing Protection – Browsers often come equipped with built-in features that can detect and block malicious software and phishing attempts. These features can flag suspicious websites, warn users about potential threats, and even block harmful downloads that could infect their devices.

Pop-up Blockers – Pop-up windows can be not only annoying but also potentially dangerous. They can contain malicious ads, deceptive messages, or attempts to trick users into downloading malware. Most browsers have pop-up blockers that can prevent these windows from appearing, reducing the risk of users by clicking on harmful links.

Cookie and Tracking Controls – Browsers allow users to manage cookies, which are small files that websites save on a user's device.

[cosmicboyinthesky]

just switched to firefox!!!! :D it's so much faster already lol

[takitori67]

I wonder why my chrome's automatic translation can't function well... It has already gone on like this for a few months

[jolikmc-thoughts]

So. I uninstalled and reinstalled Google Chrome on my mobile device. And... all of my logins, Bookmarks, and everything are completely gone. Absolutely and totally erased without a god damn trace.

Thanks, Google. Appreciate that.

[ugli-ly]

i use firefox and have two adblockers on. why am i getting ads for google chrome on youtube