Wonder about the data Google collects in Chrome and links to you? Now we know

Martin Brinkmann
Mar 16, 2021
Updated • Mar 16, 2021
Google Chrome
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Up until now, it was clear that Google was collecting data through its Chrome web browser and other services, but most users probably did not know the exact data types and data that Google was collecting. Microsoft revealed what it collects from users of its Windows 10 operating system, and other browser makers, Mozilla for example, reveal more details when it comes to telemetry.

All applications on Apple's App store need to reveal to users the data that they collect and link to the user. I stumbled upon this through a tweet by DuckDuckGo.

If you open the Google Chrome listing on Apple's App store website, and click on the "see details" link under App Privacy on the page, you will get the list of data that is linked to you when you are using the browser on Apple iOS devices. It is likely, but not confirmed, that most of these are also collected and linked in Chrome on Android and desktop devices.

google chrome privacy data collection

The collected and linked data is sorted into the three categories analytics, product personalization and app functionality.  Here is the entire list:

Analytics

  • Location -- Coarse Location
  • User Content - Audio Data, Customer Support
  • Browsing History -- Browsing History
  • Identifiers -- User ID, Device ID
  • Usage Data -- Product Interaction
  • Diagnostics -- Crash Data, Performance Data, Other Diagnostic Data
  • Other Data -- Other Data Types

Product Personalization

  • Location -- -Coarse Location
  • Browsing History -- Browsing History
  • Identifiers -- User ID, Device ID
  • Usage Data -- Product Interaction

App Functionality

  • Financial Info -- Payment Info
  • Location -- Coarse Location
  • User Content -- Audio Data, Customer Support, Other User Content
  • Browsing History -- Browsing History
  • Identifiers -- User ID, Device ID
  • Usage Data -- Product Interaction
  • Diagnostics -- Crash Data, Performance Data, Other Diagnostic Data
  • Other Data -- Other Data Types

Google collects a user ID and device ID, the browsing history, usage data, diagnostics data and more.

How about other browsers? Mozilla collects contact info (email), user ID and device ID, but nothing else, the DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser and Brave nothing at all, Microsoft Edge the device ID, browsing history and diagnostic crash data, and Opera the Device ID, Location, and diagnostics. Google is collecting more than anyone else in its Chrome web browser.

Now You: what is your take on this?

Summary
Wonder about the data Google collects in Chrome and links to you? Now we know
Article Name
Wonder about the data Google collects in Chrome and links to you? Now we know
Description
The Chrome listing on Apple's App Store website lists the data that the Google Chrome web browser collects and links to users and their devices.
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Comments

  1. Mark King said on March 21, 2021 at 12:00 pm
    Reply

    Has anyone at ghacks tested the Yandex Browser? it is normally used with AdGuard built in, but it can add Chrome extensions as well like uBlock Origin, the worry part is that it collects all Google passwords on first run, without asking, other than that is seems pretty secure. It has much the same utilities as Google, disk for cloud, maps email etc. It is based on Chromium with some Opera features added, it uses a mixture of the best Bing/Google translation services you can change the default language translation from Russian and pin your preferred language. Personally In would rather the FSB got my info than NSA, I’m not planning on visiting Russia, so I don’t care.

    1. owl said on March 23, 2021 at 6:39 am
      Reply

      @Mark King,
      > Personally In would rather the FSB got my info than NSA, I’m not planning on visiting Russia, so I don’t care.

      It’s your discretion. Please do as you like.
      But don’t whine later.
      All information collected by nations, regardless of nationality, is profiled, difficult to delete and permanently tracked. (Past history “Stasi etc.” proves)
      Stasi | Wikipedia
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi

  2. Anonymous said on March 19, 2021 at 3:02 pm
    Reply

    The full labels including “Data not linked to you”:

    https://imgur.com/a/rC22dDv

    The tweet that prompted that article is from Duckduckgo. Of course they would be silent of the “Data not linked to you” part, that’s how they monetize user data. Their browser has of course a non empty list of that too.

  3. Anonymous said on March 19, 2021 at 2:50 pm
    Reply

    Looking more closely, they have a separate category for “browsing history” for example so the “usage data” may at least not contain that. I don’t know where Firefox sending data to Google about downloaded files should go in their list, maybe “App functionality” ? It looks like this tracking example is not just miscategorized as non personal as I thought, but simply not listed at all. And it’s only one example.

  4. Anonymous said on March 19, 2021 at 1:51 pm
    Reply

    Do not trust Apple for anything, especially for privacy. It is one of the top companies in killing privacy at a large scale, often doing worse than Google.

    Apple has a restrictive definition of “tracking” and more generally of privacy with these labels that fits its own interests. Apple does not even verify all those labels. And many are just false.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/01/29/apple-privacy-nutrition-label/

    (Use that Firefox extension to read it https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-firefox-clean)

    “How about other browsers? Mozilla collects contact info (email), user ID and device ID, but nothing else”

    Utter bullshit. You only talked about the “Data linked to you” part of the Apple privacy labels for Firefox, and omitted the “Data not linked to you” part of these labels. Probably because of a pro-surveillance mentality that any anonymized data collection without consent is not only fine but apparently now should not even be called “data collection” at all… I’m going to write a mobile app that spies on you with your phone microphone without telling you Martin and invent a smart Silicon-Valley-“privacy engineer”-like algorithm to anonymize that data and then tell you I did nothing wrong, or even better, than nothing happened.

    So that “Data not linked to you” includes “usage data”. I let you imagine what such a broad term may cover for a browser. And they have already collected browsing data without consent for example, it’s not just theory.

    In fact even the “linked/not linked” to you seems misleading. For example when Firefox tells to Google what files were downloaded and from where, identifying the user personally with the IP address, how is that not “linked to you” ? Because they promise not to remember who you are ? Sorry, that won’t be enough. Mozilla even admitted *storing* for some time the IP addresses for the officially “only pseudonymous” data they collect.

    Pile of surveillance snakes all deeply commercially inter-dependent judging each other on who is respecting privacy, no thanks, fuck off Big Tech and your smaller corporate excrements that pretend to oppose you too.

  5. pd said on March 18, 2021 at 1:48 am
    Reply

    People still use Chrome?

    LOL

    1. Anonymous said on March 19, 2021 at 5:46 pm
      Reply

      Almost everybody uses Chrome only because it is the default that Google sets. Those with opinions about browsers are a tiny minority of web users. The others are seen by Google as exploited cattle.

      Exploiting ignorance is Google’s business model.

      Every time a software company tells you that “bad defaults are fine because you can change them”, they are also supporting this specific Google abuse of major consequences.

      1. owl said on March 22, 2021 at 12:58 am
        Reply

        @Anonymous,
        Key points # 1 > Almost everybody uses Chrome only because it is the default that Google sets.
        Key points # 2 > Those with opinions about browsers are a tiny minority of web users.
        Key points # 3 > The others are seen by Google as exploited cattle.
        Key points # 4 > Exploiting ignorance is Google’s business model.
        Key points # 5 > Every time a software company tells you that “bad defaults are fine because you can change them”, they are also supporting this specific Google abuse of major consequences.

        👍
        Exactly right!

  6. Mike said on March 17, 2021 at 3:27 pm
    Reply

    Mostly meaningless.

    This is what is MAY collect. For example, you can store payment information if you wish, so they have the list that. It’s your choice if you do or don’t.

    What is important is what information they collect AND THEN SHARE WITH OTHER PARTIES.

    1. Anonymous said on March 18, 2021 at 1:45 am
      Reply

      EVERYTHING.

  7. Anonymous said on March 17, 2021 at 2:52 pm
    Reply

    Is there anyway to switch to the old version of ghacks (where everything was just listed by date on default page)?

    1. akg said on March 17, 2021 at 5:15 pm
      Reply
  8. Neutrino said on March 17, 2021 at 9:55 am
    Reply

    Not only the privacy aspect of things, but also technically everything chromium based is crap! The way it renders pages: the over contrast, the blurred images and fonts, the v-sync issues when you turn off the h//w acceleration, poor color calibration -> over saturated colors, how slowly it opens up youtube videos on full screen and vice versa. The only reason it’s the most used browser is because the normies don’t know any better.

    1. Sol Shine said on March 17, 2021 at 12:07 pm
      Reply

      @Neutrino,

      If you copy and paste info from a webpage into a LibreOffice document, the result looks much better when using Firefox than a Chromium based browser.
      That is one of the reasons I still use Firefox.

      A disadvantage of Firefox, is that it does not support saving or opening mhtml files, while Chromium based browsers do. But I use extensions like SingleFile for that anyway.

  9. Anonymous said on March 17, 2021 at 5:59 am
    Reply

    There is no reason at all that anyone should be using this browser. There is nothing particularly
    superior about it apart from the amount data mining and collection which they reign supreme.
    If you need something like chrome,use the open source chromium version (yes chrome is closed source) or ungoogled chromium.

    Then of course Google the maker of Chrome who also owns Youtube engaged in mass censorship
    by banning and deplatforming thousands of users and content creators over several months.
    Chrome users really ought to wake up and deplatform this browser from computers.

    1. Janosh said on March 17, 2021 at 9:49 am
      Reply
  10. NA said on March 17, 2021 at 4:38 am
    Reply

    Is this with the default settings? Because with Chrome, you can turn off the telemetry slider switch. Of course, I’m not sure if that turns off everything, and probably not.

  11. Anonymous said on March 17, 2021 at 3:30 am
    Reply

    tl;dr What data does Google collect? Anything they can get their hands on.

    Google is a criminal organization that hides behind a EULA. What they do is literally data theft, industrial espionage, and political gatekeeping. If you are a business or anyone else that requires privacy (your private keys and passwords and not safe with Google!) you have to be insane to use Google services.

  12. Firefox FTW! said on March 16, 2021 at 9:15 pm
    Reply

    no comments from Iron Heart? :)

    1. Iron Heart said on March 17, 2021 at 9:39 am
      Reply

      Here, for your algorithm.

  13. VioletMoon said on March 16, 2021 at 7:45 pm
    Reply

    Seems a bit more complex than simply deleting one’s user data and then abstaining from the use of any Google Services.

    In the Privacy Policy and My Activity sites that Google LLC provides, anyone who uses Google Services is being traced and activity to even a non-user of Google Services is logged and presumably sold.

    What it means, in essence, is an email sent by someone who uses Gmail to another person who uses a different carrier/service can and will be traced–the email to the other non-Chrome/Google user is used regardless. How to delete your email address from Google–humho@sillyboys is now in Google’s possession and used accordingly.

    After reading through the Privacy Policy, it doesn’t sound like there is a feasible way to completely eliminate Google from one’s private life.

    We live in a Totalitarian world–inadvertently?

    Sharing a YouTube video, clicking on a Google Ad–whatever it may be, the Privacy Policy is open and transparent letting users and non-users of Google Services LLC full disclosure as to what is collected and how.

    I suppose you can try to run, but it’s futile; one will never be able to hide.

  14. ShintoPlasm said on March 16, 2021 at 7:35 pm
    Reply

    @Pedro:

    Edge on iOS also asks you to allow or disallow personalisation and history-sharing.

  15. clake said on March 16, 2021 at 7:31 pm
    Reply

    “Other Data — Other Data Types” and “User ID, Device ID” and location info. If you combine that with the pooled data that websites collect, it equates to “everything”

  16. ShintoPlasm said on March 16, 2021 at 7:31 pm
    Reply

    …and that’s on iOS, which is tightly regulated by Apple. Just imagine how much they collect on the platform which they themselves control.

    1. Kirin said on March 18, 2021 at 1:40 am
      Reply

      Not so tightly regulated, is it, when Google is allowed to slurp up all that data by Apple?

  17. Coriy said on March 16, 2021 at 6:52 pm
    Reply

    I am glad that I am using Ungoogled Chromium (and Bromite) on Android. I just need to figure out how to install uBlock Origin and a few other extensions on the Windows / Linux version, and I’m set. Though I do use Vivaldi some, despite its tendency to use more processing power.

    1. Ray said on March 17, 2021 at 9:19 pm
      Reply

      FYI, the extension version of Ungoogled Chromium on Android is no longer in development.

      If you need to use Chrome extensions on Android, you’ll have to either use Kiwi or Yandex.

      1. Lemegeton said on March 18, 2021 at 8:17 am
        Reply

        Yandex browser is terrible in terms of privacy: it collects a huge amount of telemetry; collects the addresses of all sites added to their speed dial counterpart; all clicks on links from search results; all your bookmarks; all history; collects data on yandex zen usage even FROM OTHER browsers installed on the system; as well as each installation of the browser is assigned a unique identifier, which is transmitted to its servers every time you use the default search or any other interaction with their servers..
        It also counteracts the installation / operation of external (not built-in) ad blockers (extensions) on their own sites. We are talking about extensions – ad blockers, such as uBO, ABP, etc.
        AND when entering the number of a payment card, the address of the page with the payment form and the first five digits of the card are sent to Yandex server (can be switched off, but enabled by default).

      2. Mark King said on March 21, 2021 at 6:33 pm
        Reply

        Thanks you answered some of my questions about Yandex, although you can add uBlock Origin and other extensions from the Chrome Store and the Opera store. I had heard about the telemetry, the article I read said Edge collected the same. Yes there is Zen and a Yandex Passport similar to Google account, except Google probably allows you to see the data they have on you, Yandex doesn’t.

      3. owl said on March 22, 2021 at 1:53 am
        Reply

        @Mark King,
        > about Yandex,

        That’s a Russian-based Web client service.

        Russia has been promoting a totalitarianism by reign of terror political system that recalls the Stalin era since Putin, who was the KGB secretary during the Soviet Union era, became president.

        The Russian Republic is longer a “non-democratic state” system comparable to China, North Korea, Turkey.
        In other words, in those countries, there is no dignity of privacy and all information (such as the Web) is “collected and monitored by the state”.
        Russia-based services, like China and others, cannot prove “innocence (i.e. not guilty).”
        Undoubtedly, they are close to black and dirty.

      4. owl said on March 23, 2021 at 6:18 am
        Reply

        As related information:
        Federal Security Service | Wikipedia
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Security_Service
        Vladimir Putin | Wikipedia
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Putin

        Spy Files Russia | WikiLeaks
        https://wikileaks.org/spyfiles/russia/
        Russia’s laws – especially the new Yarovaya Law – make literally no distinction between Lawful Interception and mass surveillance by state intelligence authorities (SIAs) without court orders. Russian communication providers are required by Russian law to install the so-called SORM ( Система Оперативно-Розыскных Мероприятий) components for surveillance provided by the FSB at their own expense. The SORM infrastructure is developed and deployed in Russia with close cooperation between the FSB, the Interior Ministry of Russia and Russian surveillance contractors.

        About SORM
        SORM is the technical infrastructure for surveillance in Russia. It dates back to 1995 and has evolved from SORM-1 (capturing telephone and mobile phone communications) and SORM-2 (interception of Internet traffic, 1999) to the current SORM-3. SORM now collects information from all forms of communication, providing long-term storage of all information and data on subscribers, including actual recordings and locations. In 2014, the system was expanded to include social media platforms, and the Ministry of Communications ordered companies to install new equipment with Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) capability. In 2016, SORM-3 added additional classified regulations that apply to all Internet Service providers in Russia.

        The European Court for Human Rights deemed Russia’s SORM legislation in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights in 2015 (Zakharov v. Russia).

      5. Emil said on March 26, 2021 at 9:12 am
        Reply

        And this is nothing but a mirror image of what happens with everyone’s data at Google and their cooperation with the “five eyes” spying agencies.

      6. Mark King said on March 22, 2021 at 7:42 pm
        Reply

        Possibly true but since I am not planning to visit I think I would rather the FSB had my data than GCHQ/NSA, they did have an unsuccessful attempt in 2018

        https://gizmodo.com/alleged-cyber-attack-on-russias-yandex-used-malware-tie-1835990481

    2. Sol Shine said on March 17, 2021 at 11:39 am
      Reply

      @Coriy
      To install extensions in Ungoogled Chromium on Linux you need to do some work:

      1) Download the extension as a crx file from the Google store.
      – First find the extension on the Chrome web store and copy it’s url.
      For example, this is the url for iuBLock Origin: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ublock-origin/cjpalhdlnbpafiamejdnhcphjbkeiagm
      The last part (cjpalhdlnbpafiamejdnhcphjbkeiagm) is de identifier string for the extension.
      – Put the identifier string in the url to download the extension:
      https://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx?response=redirect&acceptformat=crx2,crx3&prodversion=89.0&x=id%3D%26installsource%3Dondemand%26uc
      So the url to download ublock origin is,
      https://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx?response=redirect&acceptformat=crx2,crx3&prodversion=89.0&x=id%3Dcjpalhdlnbpafiamejdnhcphjbkeiagm%26installsource%3Dondemand%26uc

      2) Extract the downloaded crx file to a folder. Renamning the crx extension to zip and then using to a decompression tool on LInux does not work, up to now. So I download nd do extract the crx files in Windows.

      3) Open UnGoogled Chromium and go to 3dots menu->More tools->Extensions.
      Enable Developer mode.

      4) Use the ‘Load unpacked’ button to browse to and select the dir of the extracted extension.
      The extension will then be installed.

      5) Store the download urls of the extensions as bookmarks and regurly open them to see if the extension verssion nr has changed. If there is a new version, you can download it, extract it and install it.

      Bromite on Android has no support for extensions. For now only the Kiwi browser on Android has support for extensions, as far as I know. But the Kiwi browser may not be as ‘Ungoogled’ as Bromite.

    3. Iron Heart said on March 17, 2021 at 9:45 am
      Reply

      @Coriy

      > I just need to figure out how to install uBlock Origin and a few other extensions on the Windows / Linux version, and I’m set.

      https://github.com/NeverDecaf/chromium-web-store

      You’re welcome.

  18. Anonymous said on March 16, 2021 at 6:37 pm
    Reply

    That DuckDuckGO tweet is tiny and unreadable. Where is the original info from?

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on March 16, 2021 at 7:17 pm
      Reply

      You can click on the image to display a larger version. I asked, and they have the data from Apple’s App Store. It is displayed there.

  19. Juraj M. said on March 16, 2021 at 6:09 pm
    Reply

    Well, that’s actually what I would expect :D.
    I mean, if your main business is Ads and personalized Ads and you have a product that can collect all the info you need and more, then why not do it? From their point of view there is no reason not to.

    Too bad not many people care enough, they just want to use their favorite, fast, stable and easy to use web browser (let’s face it, Chrome is pretty well made).
    I use Firefox but sometimes I just wish I could make my own browser…

    1. Anon7 said on March 18, 2021 at 5:20 am
      Reply

      @Jurag M

      > Too bad not many people care enough, they just want to use their favorite, fast, stable and easy to use web browser (let’s face it, Chrome is pretty well made).

      At the expense of their privacy and that gathered up data being used for military AI projects.

      Most people are so stupid and ignorant it actually makes them a danger to themselves and others. They won’t stop until goolag have robo dogs biting at their ass as they walk down a street lulz.

  20. Pedro said on March 16, 2021 at 6:05 pm
    Reply

    This validates my decision to not use Chrome and stick to Firefox.
    Good to know that other Chromium based browsers respect user privacy as well. :)
    Can’t wait for the usual troupe of users to come scream at me about Firefox using analytics data. Oh the horror!!

    The desktop version of Edge lets you turn off the sending of the browsing history to Microsoft. Not sure if that’s possible with the iOS version.

    1. Anon7 said on March 18, 2021 at 5:03 am
      Reply

      @Pedro

      > The desktop version of Edge lets you turn off the sending of the browsing history to Microsoft.

      Its a proprietary browser, you would have to be constantly watching it.

      The source code is not open, therefore can never be trusted.

      Never underestimate the lengths that M$ will go to spy on you. Cortana is the perfect example, the minute you start winslow 10 you are greeted by her presence.

      I cant even begin to imagine what they will have in winslow 11. Probably 10 cortanas lulz.

    2. Iron Heart said on March 17, 2021 at 9:44 am
      Reply

      @Pedro

      Hey Pedro, glad to see that you are oversimplifying things. The telemetry (despite being partially hidden and partially out of browser) is not the main problem with FF. It’s more or less stuff like this:

      https://www.zdnet.com/article/firefox-tests-cliqz-engine-which-slurps-user-browsing-data/
      The backdoor they used for this is still active in current versions of FF.

      https://old.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/blt6ft/mobile_firefox_app_shares_your_data_with/
      This is how “privacy-respecting” the mobile version of FF is. No way to turn it off.

      Firefox is not much better than Chrome by default and is worse than many other browsers out there.

  21. Herman Cost said on March 16, 2021 at 5:11 pm
    Reply

    No real surprise here, but it does make it clear that I made a good decision about two years ago to delete all my data and then delete Chrome about two years ago. It now should become clear to anyone that cares at all about privacy that Chrome is in fact the worst offender among browsers by far. And the Chrome fans who have argued that Chrome really is not worse than anyone else are going to be hard pressed to maintain that position.

    1. Anon7 said on March 16, 2021 at 8:55 pm
      Reply

      @Herman

      I think Edge running on a windoze machine is right up there among the worst. A M$ browser running on a M$ OS, both closed source proprietary and when combined like that likely to be just as worse if not more worse than chrome running on windoze.

      goolag chrome running on a chromebook or android is probably on par with windoze 10 + Edge as being the worst overall.

      Opera also deserves a mention as being amongst the worst, lots of telemetry, advertisers and trackers whilst also having an integrated DumbBook button and closed source. Some commenters on here have even recommended Opera to use over FF. Some people just don’t care about closed source browsers lack of privacy and are reeled in by flashy GUI’s

      1. owl said on March 18, 2021 at 1:33 am
        Reply

        @Anon7,
        > M$ browser
        > M$ OS
        > windoze 10
        > goolag chrome

        I say to everyone in the community!
        Don’t use ridiculous names or expressions!

        I dare to alert you because your “behavior” or “wording” creates imitation (as acceptable).
        Ghacks are attracting attention from web users and vendors around the world.
        That’s because the timely current affairs about the “Web” are properly published and “Comments” are published as a community.
        The important thing is the health of the community.
        We must strive to “maintain dignity, be fair, free, diversity, be tolerant, and pay respect to each person”.
        Above all, the quality of posts (In line with the topic, Beneficial to the community) is important.

        The words and actions of regular commentators are used as a reference (imitation) as a “standard of dignity.
        Regular commentators, including myself, must be aware of this in order to improve the dignity of the community.

      2. Anon7 said on March 18, 2021 at 6:34 am
        Reply

        @owl

        >I say to everyone in the community!
        >Don’t use ridiculous names or expressions!

        So we can not criticise big tech now?

        Lighten the hell up man.

        Do you want an echo chamber where goolag and m$ and their questionable activities can not be criticised?

        You want a boring echo chamber and to stifle debate. Instead of complaining, explain what the goolag are doing in china with dragonfly censored search? why are they implementing censorship in communist regimes while at the same time deplatforming and censoring countless users?

      3. owl said on March 18, 2021 at 9:43 am
        Reply

        @Anon7,

        Are you related to an area under the jurisdiction of the Chinese government (nationality, residence, relatives, etc.)?
        If the “name” is registered as a trademark and specified, it is, of course, the “official name”. Other phrases are synonymous with “ridiculous names”.
        No matter what your reasons are, you should not use “ridiculous names, but use official names”.

        Ghacks is a German-based “Tech News Blog” whose subscribers are spread to in the world.
        Ghacks is a community (a group of users who can share a purpose, even if they have different means, and a place to exchange information on their knowledge and experience), and there is a need for morals to maintain the dignity of the community.
        We must strive to “maintain dignity, be fair, free, diversity, be tolerant, and pay respect to each person”.

        If you detest or hate something, you should state specific facts rather than derogatory terms.
        In a sensible community, commentators with “ridiculous names and expressions” will no longer be dealt with.
        If you want to insist, and if you want others to “empathize” with you, you should try to be sensible words and deeds.

        If you want to shout “ridiculous names and expressions”, shout on Twitter or Facebook. Such people are not suitable for Ghacks (community).

      4. Anon7 said on March 18, 2021 at 5:10 pm
        Reply

        @owl

        You still have not answered the question. What were they doing in china?

        >We must strive to “maintain dignity, be fair,

        Tell that to all the deplatformed content creators that goolag has removed free speech from. Tell it to all the poor souls in china who wanted to search for info on a spiritual tibetan leader in peace and were blocked by the goolag dragonfly search.

        Your white knighting for tech companies cooperating with communist regimes is cute though. You defend the indefensible.

      5. Iron Heart said on March 17, 2021 at 9:40 am
        Reply

        @Anon7

        Yeah, pretty much. Google Chrome / MS Edge / Opera are the most blatant anti-privacy browsers out there.

      6. owl said on March 18, 2021 at 1:54 am
        Reply

        > Google Chrome / MS Edge / Opera are the most blatant anti-privacy browsers out there.

        I agree.
        I’m paying attention to the “vertical tabs” of MS Edge, but I don’t feel like trying it at all because I know the various facts of Microsoft’s cunning past.
        Google, Microsoft, and Opera (which are owned by China’s 奇虎 (Qihoo) 360, which is being monitored by the Chinese government) are totally unreliable.
        https://www.engadget.com/2016-07-18-opera-browser-sold-to-a-chinese-consortium-for-600-million.html

      7. Allwynd said on March 17, 2021 at 9:36 am
        Reply

        @Anon7

        The way you refer to Windows as “windoze” and Google as “goolag” really tells you’re rather childish in your fandoms.

      8. Tree said on March 22, 2021 at 4:46 pm
        Reply

        I call it GURGLE! The reason is I hate them. They are so evil. They want to know all your private thoughts in order to give it to people more evil than they are.

      9. Anon7 said on March 18, 2021 at 4:50 am
        Reply

        @Allwynd

        Nope,

        The goolag term is an apt term considering that goolag has projects in communist china one of which is “dragonfly censored search” china is a real oppressive regime that spies on his citizens, a suitable partner for the goolag considering it spies on its users. Goolag is also involved in mass censorship across their platforms, no freedom of speech with them, they are very comparable to communist regimes such as the chinese communist party.

        That censorship alone is more than enough reasons to boycott them.

        Windoze is an apt term for M$ considering that their OS is a slow POS and updates take sometimes days to complete for many gullible souls stuck with such crap and being unaware of far better options. Just like the goolag they also spy, cortana is their embedded little snitch reporting back to HQ and invading some poor souls privacy who does not know any better.

        It is you who is being childish. You are probably on windoze. LULZ Bless you.

      10. ddk said on March 19, 2021 at 2:34 pm
        Reply

        “Windoze” is a term used a lot by Linux fanatics as those people always politicize technology. Us versus the rest of the world type of mentality.

        In my case Win 10 has gotten a lot better over time. Linux distros on the other hand are just plain weird. Frustration and time wasted trying to fix one issue after another.

        Really guys and gals if you want an alternative OS, try macos. For the most part it’s the only other decent alternative for better or worse.

        Disclaimer….not an Apple shrill

      11. Anonymous said on March 18, 2021 at 1:33 am
        Reply

        Sounds like a 7 year old crying.

    2. Allwynd said on March 16, 2021 at 6:15 pm
      Reply

      I use Chromium browsers, but have not been a fan of Chrome for a very long time. Around 2014 or so Chrome started to become really bloated and slow, after a year or two they debloated it by cleaning up the obsolete lines of code that boosted performance by 30%, but around that time they started changing the UI, made it flat and ugly, changed the icon as well and since they it’s only been dislikable changes left and right. Lately they did that thing about downloads where if the browsers considers something “unsafe”, it doesn’t download it, even worse, it doesn’t even tell you that it refuses to download it, it just does nothing and you wonder what’s wrong. For a non tech-savvy person this can be really confusing and user-unfriendly.

      That’s why I use other Chromium browsers, because they don’t abide with all the changes that Chrome implements and Blink overall is a superior engine to Gecko or WebKit. It’s fast, responsive and works best with all websites, Gecko on the other hand is slow, unresponsive at times and many websites appear broken on it and don’t work properly.

      I think the ideal solution is to not use Chrome and not use Firefox, use either a derivative of Firefox like Waterfox, Basilisk or whatever or any of the Chromium derivatives – Cent, Kinza, Brave, Vivaldi, whatever suits you.

  22. ShintoPlasm said on March 16, 2021 at 12:43 pm
    Reply

    @Martin: there is no Vivaldi app for iOS, that app you linked to is not really a browser… :)

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on March 16, 2021 at 1:03 pm
      Reply

      Haha, ups, you are right. Edited,. Thanks!

    1. owl said on March 18, 2021 at 2:45 am
      Reply

      Google’s main service businesses:
      ● Google Web Search
      ● Google Translate
      ● Gmail
      ● Google Docs
      ● Google Drive
      ● Google Chrome
      ● Google Maps
      ● Google Earth
      ● Google Chrome
      ● Android
      ● Chromebook OS
      ● Google Fiber (Optical fiber network project in the United States)
      ● YouTube, YouTube Music
      ● Google Podcasts
      ● Blogger
      ● FeedBurner
      ● Google Voice
      ● Google Glass
      ● reCAPTCHA
      ● Virus Total
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google

      1. owl said on March 18, 2021 at 3:16 am
        Reply

        Google reveals how much personal data’ collected in Chrome, Google app. ‘No wonder they wanted to hide it’ | The Register
        https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/16/keep_scrolling_googles_privacy_labels/
        Privacy – Labels – Apple
        https://www.apple.com/privacy/labels/
        App Privacy Details – App Store – Apple Developer
        https://developer.apple.com/app-store/app-privacy-details/

        Google’s FLoC Is a Terrible Idea | Electronic Frontier Foundation
        https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/03/googles-floc-terrible-idea
        Browser Fingerprinting via OS and Hardware Level Features
        http://yinzhicao.org/TrackingFree/crossbrowsertracking_NDSS17.pdf
        Websites Can Now Track You Online Across Multiple Web Browsers
        http://thehackernews.com/2017/02/cross-browser-tracking.html
        Reverse engineering | Wikipedia
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_engineering

        AG Paxton Leads Multistate Coalition in Lawsuit Against Google for Anticompetitive Practices and Deceptive Misrepresentations | Office of the Attorney General
        https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/ag-paxton-leads-multistate-coalition-lawsuit-against-google-anticompetitive-practices-and-deceptive
        10 States Accuse Google of Abusing Monopoly in Online Ads – The New York Times
        https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/16/technology/google-monopoly-antitrust.html
        Texas hits Google with antitrust suit over ad tech practices – Axios
        https://www.axios.com/texas-hits-google-with-antitrust-suit-8bf73ca7-873f-4fa4-b70d-d6894c1c72c5.html

      2. owl said on March 19, 2021 at 7:54 am
        Reply

        Exclusive: Google’s privacy push draws U.S. antitrust scrutiny | Reuters
        https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tech-antitrust-google-exclusive-idUKKBN2BA10I
        Google’s Next-Gen FLoC Ad Tracking Tech Draws U.S. Antitrust Probe | HotHardware
        https://hothardware.com/news/google-floc-ad-tracking-antitrust-concerns

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