Comment by dceddia
3 years ago
Seeing this all go down, it feels like this is exactly Google’s master plan.
1. Roll out stuff they brand as “privacy respecting” that actually collects data for their own use.
2. Brand anything that would give competitors access to that data (third party cookies, user agent strings, etc) as a threat to user privacy.
3. Lock all of that stuff down so that nobody can access it (“we’re protecting you!”)
4. I don’t think we need the ???, it’s just straight to profit, via monopoly over the data.
The brilliant/terrible thing about this is that third party cookie tracking is not great so it’s hard to set up a defensible argument where leaving things as they are is the better alternative. Apple and others have been waging a war on third party tracking for years now, and pushing public opinion in that direction, and it seems to me that Google is playing 4D chess here and using it against them (and frankly, the entire internet).
The solution is very easy for consumers looking for a real privacy solution:
Use a browser that is not made by an advertising company.
In other words, just drop chrome. It has never been easier to do, with Edge and Safari readily available on all major platforms and Firefox for those who prefer it, and of course the many other chromium forks that are around.
There is no reason to be dependent on chrome today. There was a few years where it was overly dominant and very hard to avoid for compatibility and performance reasons, but that is just not true today.
Personally I use Firefox on android and desktop and I don't miss chrome at all. I uninstalled (technically, disabled) it on mobile as Google widgets like to open links in it otherwise.
I have chrome on the desktop as I work in software so I need to test compatibility with it, but that's it.
I agree in principle, but wouldn't wish the coupon catalog emulator that Edge has become onto anyone. It's beyond bizarre.
My personal picks are Firefox on Windows and Linux, and Firefox or Safari on macOS.
Firefox with Ublock Origin here.
I use Safari on Mac OS with Brave on Windows, with iCloud keychain passwords sync between the two.
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believe it or not, these features are liked by edge users.
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> Use a browser that is not made by an advertising company.
Personal opinion we need to tweak business incorporation rules to firewall ad business from all other types of businesses. Meaning General Motors can't sell ads. And ad companies can't sell cars.
And as someone on this site suggested extend antitrust dumping laws to services.
and/or make it illegal to gather consumer information without explicit, periodic consent. Make it doubly-illegal to sell data or rent it. (If "rent" doesn't cover it, also outlaw whatever thing google claims it does when it monetizes user profiles for ads.)
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I’m so hurt by how Edge has turned out. I was ready for a tier-1 browser experience on Windows comparable to Safari on Mac. Microsoft has utterly wasted its leadership opportunity here, cramming in scammy garbage.
Firefox, god love it, is a rough and clunky browser by comparison. Sure you can make it what you want, but it’s an investment. As the only viable noncommercial cross-platform option though, what else are we gonna do
What’s so ‘rough and clunky’ about Firefox? To me it just works everywhere I have installed it!
Genuinely curious!
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Microsoft is also a web display ads company, what exactly do you think the business model for Bing is?
There’s zero point in switching from Chrome to Edge.
Firefox to my knowledge has no ads revenue, apples limited ads revenue doesn’t come from the web.
Brave I think is a low-key crypto grift run by a homophobe, but still better than Chrome.
On Apple OS also two alternative browsers rising: Arc https://arc.net and Orion https://browser.kagi.com Both making nice progress with their own strong points.
I really really love Arc. But I don't understand how they will make enough money to support the amount of work they've done. Their website seems to say nothing about this, and everything I've found about it so far is hand waving and speculation.
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https://mullvad.net/en/browser as well
> Use a browser that is not made by an advertising company.
> In other words, just drop chrome. It has never been easier to do, with Edge and Safari readily available
Considering Windows 11 has ads in the operating system, how is Edge not made by an advertising company these days?
[dead]
This is why the worlds largest advertising company should not be fielding a search engine, a massive email platform and a browser as well.
At least it anti-trust laws are hard at work! Glad it's not like the dark ages, when your operating shipped with a default browser that could be used to install any other browser you wanted.
They sure have done a job at positioning themselves at the intersection of maximum control over the web.
> stuff they brand as “privacy respecting” that actually collects data for their own use
The kool-aid is in their definition of the word "privacy." You and I might think "privacy" means "other entities aren't observing you" but Google in their benevolence knows that it really means "Google will keep your data safe from third parties." Their newspeak doesn't even allow the concept of "data that Google does not collect."
(A friend of mine was involved in the launch of Google Allo. I asked them if it would be possible to use the virtual assistant features offline without sending everything to Google. They never spoke to me again.)
I don't think there's any 4D chess going on here. Nobody is buying Google's "privacy" argument. This is a simple case of other browser vendors improving actual web privacy and Google undermining that effort.
I hope the regulators are not and wish Google would be hit with huge antitrust fees in the EU due to this. We shall see.
That is Apple's plan, too, except for the collecting data or profiting part. They still have a monopoly on your data, it's just locked on your devices.
> except for the collecting data or profiting part
Isn’t that pretty much the issue here?
Anyway, what’s really locked? Text messages?
Because I can export pretty much everything else. Images, videos, documents, passwords, bookmarks.
Maybe Apple Music’s playlists?
In what sense is this Apple having a monopoly on your data? If it's "locked on your device" then they don't have it. This is literally what we're asking for, or at least half of it. I agree it'd be nice if we could retrieve everything from the device ourselves, but I'll settle for this (and ensure I never give my iPhone the last copy of anything I care about) over carrying a hostile observer everywhere I go.
Data collection isn’t really central to Apple business model though. I’m not too worried about them.
It’s the AI thing. Everybody is building walls around their data.
Same playbook with apple vs Facebook