Google Chrome pushes browser history-based ad targeting • The Register
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from 1984@lemmy.today to technology@lemmy.ml on 06 Sep 2023 10:15
https://lemmy.today/post/886968
from 1984@lemmy.today to technology@lemmy.ml on 06 Sep 2023 10:15
https://lemmy.today/post/886968
Topics essentially works like this: rather than using cookies to track people around the web and figure out their interests from the sites they visit and the apps they use, websites can ask Chrome directly, via its Topics JavaScript API, what sort of things the user is interested in, and then display ads based on that. Chrome picks these topics of interest from studying the user’s browser history.
Isn’t this completely immoral? They are literally stealing the users private browsing history and uses it to boost their own profits.
threaded - newest
Very apt username.
Anything would be an improvement over using stock Chrome at this poing… wow
Yeah it used to be a joke but now nobody is laughing…
Haven’t read the article yet but I hope chromium is safe somehow.
I somehow doubt that Chromium is safe from this. I would imagine that anything built off of Chrome will have this implemented, because otherwise they’re just “leaving money on the table.”
What you’re looking for is called the ungoogled-chromium.
what you're looking for is firefox
Already there. Been here since the Netscape Navigator days.
It’s just that some people want to try the chrome-chromium route before landing in Firefox land.
I think the best route for preventing browser fingerprinting is to use multiple browsers for different things. Firefox is of course always the long standing favorite, but chromium has a place on my OS as well.
Thats also very true in a mobile environment. I have Firefox Focus for clicking random news links on Lemmy, normal Firefox for all the serious stuff, Brave for logging into Google services and Safari for those sites that refuse to work with Firefox.
I’ll only use ungoogled pure chromium, that’s the only reason it can compete with good ole reliable FOSS Firefox for me. Brave’s track record at the moment is worse than Google’s to me.
I’m was more talking about pure ungoogled chromium, as built from scratch or by popular Linux distributions. People that use commercial chromium browsers are already lost causes. Brave alone has more privacy red flags in its short existence than Google has in its over 2 decades.
So what has to happen for the general population to move away from chrome/chromium?
The apocalypse.
Nothing. It’s only the tin-foil hatters that care about privacy because the normal people have nothing to hide.
Post your entire browser history right now then.
Probably could, there’s nothing interesting you’ll find there but I’m not bothered enough.
browser history (15mb)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL5H2O9HqFY - https://know.rules/sodoi?width=300&page=4 - https://commitment.think/dashboard?action=full - https://other.guy/get?can=no
/s
Damn. At least I didn’t fall for the video or the song.
Interesting. So they know what bank you use, which problems you have in your relationship, if your partner was ever unfaithful.
They can find out stuff about you that you don’t know yourself and use it to manipulate you (for example in pointing you away from anti trust legislation support, etc).
It’s not tinfoil hat at all. Google and co have been fined billions for doing this exact stuff.
Post your last 100 transactions?
Nah. Am good. You people can’t read sarcasm or what …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law
Lol. Whatever floats your boat buddy.
Wut
Sarcasm in person generally comes with a distinctive tone of voice, facial expressions, and body language that are lacking in text-only communication. If people know you well enough in a text chat, they can often make assumptions about your seriousness based on what they know of your beliefs, but we are on an anonymous message board here. The people here have no experience with whether or not you are naive or a jokester or seriously confused. There’s a reason it became standard to mark sarcasm on reddit with /s, it is the simplest replacement for the missing tone and body language context that would go along with a statement if we were communicating face to face.
Sarcasm can also just be common sense but apparently humor isn’t that common here.
Edge is chromium though?
Edge is a chromium browser, too. It has been for some time now.
Vivaldi had stripped out this crap, it’s good that Chromium is FOSS, anybody can gut it to their like. Apart the Vivaldi History Page is way different from al other Chromium (Calendar view customizable in several formats, stadistics with graphs, not a simple list) since its first versions…
<img alt="" src="https://file.coffee/u/r9a92Kj_aNvatvPqzI9en.jpg">
…and when browser integrity becomes a thing?
Wich browser integrity? Because of Chromium? Google already tried this years ago to try to control Chromiums with infinite APIs added to the Chromium code, even with discriminatory browsersniffings, which practically all other Chromium Browsers eliminated just as quickly, Vivaldi the first. Windows on Edge anyway (naturally putting its own Spy APIs in place of these). No trackings or logging by Google in Vivaldi (as long as you do not naturally use Google as a search engine). This is why Google is now trying to gain control through its web services and pages that use them with this WEI DRM, which forces all browsers, no matter what engine, be it Chromium, Firefox Gecko or Safari WebKit, to include a “security” Google Token in your script to access these pages or services. This is naturally a huge bummer if not avoided, since then it depends only on Google which browser deserves this Token, which could be the end of all minority browsers, leaving in the end only Chrome itself with full internet access. THAT is the problem, not the browser integrity.
Am all for this move if it makes Google drop third-party cookies tomorrow.
They have been planning to drop 3rd party cookies since 2021 with a deadline for EOY 2023 being pushed to EOY 2024.
So this is why they want that browser integrity stuff.
Without the integrity a change like this would be absolutely wonderful - my ad interests would be "FuckOff" and "Nothing".
They’re not stealing browser history. The site requests a list of topics and Chrome parses them based on the local history and returns a list of topics.
It’s more secure and private than third party cookies.
The technique they use does not really change to the issue.
It’s also not necessarily more secure than third party cookies like you claim? You can refuse those cookies and not all website use them, while all website ends up in browsing history.
But the website doesn’t end up with your browsing history…
And you can opt out of this just like you can opt out of third party cookies.
I would like to watch you opt out of all this every single time you sit down in the next class of your education institute or workplace.
Yes, they merely created the technology that watches everything you do. You can opt out! No worries! This certainly isn’t anything to worry about! They will definitely continue to let you opt out indefinitely. History tells me that that’s how this works.
That’s so silly; you can manage all of your data and opt out on your Google account from the start.
I might be wrong but as far as I understand Google’s topics API only gives websites access to information like “here is a user who likes the topics IT and gardening”, which is a LOT less than what is possible with cookies. With cookies a website can get information like “here is a user who visited your website yesterday and two times last week. Also they recently visited websites A, B and C, and frequently visits website D. On website D they are logged in as X.” They make all your visits to a website and, with third-party cookies, also to other websites connectable. Google’s topics do not.
The way I see it, that’s just browser history exfiltration with extra steps. Whether they’re sending the actual history or parsing your history and sending topics, both are equally as objectionable to me as both could reveal information about something private you’ve been visiting.
To be fair, they immediately give the option to disable it.
Who wants to bet the option to disable doesn't actually disable?
Who also wants to bet that every update has a 10% chance of re-enabling it
It should not be enabled by default.
What is it with Americans naming things the exact opposite of what the thing does
Does not foes
Here are some more candidates:
These are fun:
This is incorrect. A user who uses chrome but uses another search engine and blocks cookies and tracking scripts is not providing Google with information about what they are doing online.
With the topics api, Google reads your actual browsing history which is incredibly private information that they have no right to look at whatsoever.
I don’t know what world you are living in when you think Google wants to desperately stop third common cookies and other means of tracking - Google is an ad company!
The internet not wanting to pay for Google services sounds like a Google problem, not a problem for the users. Google doesn’t have some universal right to exist and be preditory to it’s users.
If they can’t sell their services, they should get off the internet instead of surviving by invading their users privacy and offering “free” services. Fuck Google.
the google is evil
I just figured this was always happening.
If you needed a nudge to ditch Chrome and its derivatives in favour of Firefox or Safari, this is it.