Chrome 69 Is a Full-Fledged Assault on User Privacy | Hacker News Reader

Chrome 69 Is a Full-Fledged Assault on User Privacy

extremetech.com

42 pointsDnyaneshwar24 comments

I switched to Firefox recently due to some of the changes in Chrome (esp ad-blocking) and so far, really like it. The UI is a little clunkier than I like and I miss some of Chrome's autocomplete or CC auto-fill features, but FF is fast and way more secure. Plus it has DNS over TLS which is a huge win in my book.

This is from September 2018, should it have (2018) in the title?

Probably. Current version is Chrome 76. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Chrome_version_history

Why do so few people use Chromium? (I use Firefox for most stuff, but I prefer the debugger in Chrome / Chromium).

Because the large majority of users have no idea that there are alternatives, or are scared to switch because they are so locked into the whole google ecosystem.

Is Chromium's behavior any different from Chrome's sync. behavior?

Years ago, I started using Chrome instead of Chromium or Firefox because they made Flash work out of the box on Linux. Although Flash is not important for me anymore, I just never looked back.

With all this new strange Sync and Log-in behavior, I'll might change to a different browser.

I'd use it, but where are there installers that 1) I can trust and 2) are updated as soon as Google releases a new version and 3) that allow me to get automatic updates (without having to check for an update .exe myself)?

I don't know about Windows, but it's available on pretty much any Linux distribution. I don't know if that's an option for you, but if you're worried about Google, you should probably be worried about Microsoft too.

I halfway agree with you but one company sells you and the other sells you products. Microsoft and to some extent Apple are not the best companies at times but they are not in the same category as Ad companies (Google/FB).

"but one company sells you and the other sells you products"

Those activities aren't mutually exclusive, especially when first one can help the second (example: Win10 telemetry).

This is one reason why I like Brave. It has the Chromium engine, but less Google glut. Mind you they have some funky stuff going on with Brave rewards. But thus far, I have very few complaints.

Chrome 69 is old news. I suppose the most significant recent changes happened around then, but this is almost nearly a year ago.

A quick search turns up two earlier popular HN discussions about the problems surrounding these changes:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17942252

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18064537

That said, since then, I do refuse to use Chrome

9770148742

Does anyone here have experience with Opera? How is it for daily use?

Just FYI, opera was sold in 2016 to a consortium called Qihoo 360. Do your own research but there have been concerns raised in as to some of their operations, and i think many of the concerns about chrome now apply to opera as well.

Thx, didn't know that, Qihoo seems pretty shady indeed.

In theory (and as always YMMV) the heir of Opera is Vivaldi:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivaldi_(web_browser)

Qihoo has also employed dark patterns to push deceptive security practices around its own browser [1]:

> When you attempt to install other browsers, the 360 Safe Guards will allow the browser to be installed but will then popup saying not to let it become the default browser.

> When users of 360 Safe Guards run a check of their system, if they don't have the 360 browser installed it will give them a failing grade. If the user chooses another security software to protect their failing grade browser, the Safe Guards say no.

Also interesting is a statement by Opera on the 2016 acquisition [2]:

> The transaction would give Opera access to the extensive internet user base of Kunlun and Qihoo in China as well as the financing and other support of the Consortium that would allow for the full potential of the Company to be realized. At the same time, Kunlun and Qihoo would be able to cross-sell their products and services to the Opera user base, and benefit from Opera’s leading mobile advertising platform.

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20150723081728/http://www.digita...

[2] https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/02/chine... (can't find a direct link)

I love it for the following reasons:

-Supports Chrome extensions

-Excellent native features including Ad blocking, VPN, and messaging support

-Fast and low memory usage

-Draws battery power at about the same or lower rate than Safari on my 12" MacBook

Every few months I experiment with switching over to Safari or Chrome again, but haven't found any good reason to do so.

How about Vivaldi?

oops, just replied to your previous post mentioning it, never mind.

Take current JS heavy Gmail, now imagine that Gmail team rewriting Chrome UI in JS, that is Vivaldi today, some operations take _seconds_, you can see windows slowly draw in front of your eyes.

umeshjagnde

Or Brave browser?

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