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Comment by 2Gkashmiri | Hacker News Reader

why is sign in to chrome a thing? i have been using firefox for the past 12-15 years exclusively now and i am starting to see coworkers all "signed into their browser". why?

before anyone says syncing, no one uses that. i guarantee that. people either now use "office work" and mobile phone. they do not mix together and no one wants to stay in touch with office notifications from browser. i do understand this is a thing for some people but why expose EVERYONE to a feature whose only purpose is to collect data on specific people and their browsing habits, bookmarks, passwords, favorites,

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> why is sign in to chrome a thing?

Because your personal data and browsing habits can be monetised.

"They" sell it under the guise of conveniently taking your browsing history from one device to another (your PC to your phone and vice versa), but actually the big companies have realised that _knowing your browsing habits_ as intimately as possible means they can profit by targeted advertising and so on.

I think the question was asked from the user's standpoint rather than Google's. In other words: Why, as a user, would I bother signing into my browser?

Some people like the lie that is 'convenience' of moving history and bookmarks between devices.

This would explain why, recently when I opened MS Edge, it sucked up all my bookmarks from Firefox and then signed me in to itself using my Microsoft account - all automatically and without my permission.

it's been a while since I've used chrome, but iirc it signs in on the browser automatically when you sign in on google

You're thoroughly incorrect in your assumptions about how people use browsers.

arent you assuming everyone will have more than 1 computing device, laptop or desktop or tablet that they want to work on at all times? how many people are those compared to who only have any one of these devices only? who will they sync to ? their phones? why?

You only need to upgrade your PC once to value that sync functionality.

And besides I'm pretty sure most office workers have two devices: work and personal.

Chrome having profiles makes it super easy to just login on the work laptop on a secondary profile, which is preconfigured with login data etc so they're able to do online shopping etc in breaks

slow down and think. i live in a third world country. people use their office devices. they do not have money to own a personal laptop or desktop. that is the sad truth in countries like india, cheap labour remember.

you are thinking tech engineers. i am talking about junior staff, accountants, clerks, secretaries, data entry operators, the backbone of the service industry, all the low paying jobs. the ones who do not get to do wfh because the work they do can't afford home devices.

thousands and thousands of government employees who work at their desks pushing files around and tying stuff.

thousands of call center operators,service tech. all these do not pay enough to afford personal devices.

That's fair, I guess I should've said most office workers in developed nations. Though I do think that caveat is kinda redundant here considering the demographic.

Yes I sync bookmarks between my desktop, laptop and phone by signing into Firefox. I also am able to see open tabs on other devices in a pinch. It's damn useful.

you are a minority out of around 4 billion humans who are online. majority of the 4 billion only have at best a single device, many times shared between users.

At one time having a single device was a minority. Now 6.6 billion people worldwide have a smartphone.

…which is a single device for a lot of people.

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