If you value privacy, ditch Chrome and switch to Firefox now

Frost Wolf@lemmy.world to Technology@lemmy.world – 3177 points –
fastcompany.com

With the number of people concerned about privacy, it is a wonder why chrome is even popular.

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With Chrome killing ad blocking, they'll quickly care

Except most people don't use adblock. I don't even know how they live

I'm conviced those people aren't real and everyone is in fact secretly using an ad blocker.

I mean, how do you not get annoyed with so much ads? People are probabaly lying in surveys to trick youtube to not blocking adblockers.

You are mostly right. Think about how many people use chrome on corporate office computers that they do not have permission to install anything on or modify. It's part of the reason Windows is so dominant. Businesses run windows and chrome a shit ton. I work for a Fortune 100 company. It's Windows and Chrome across the whole company.

I work for a large company and its the same. They even force-install Chrome despite Edge already being there! Yes, some people will make the privacy argument that Microsoft takes your data, but so will Google, and it's not as if the business cared either way, because if they did they'd install an adblocker or Firefox, which they don't.

Permissions, you say? Lemme introduce you to Portable Apps.

Yeah the second anything gets stuck into a USB port, IT is on WebEx like "Get what's that asshole in pod H-12 doing???"

Hate to say it, but I think you're giving the average person way too much credit. Most people are just not that smart.

"Think of how stupid the average person is, and then realize that half of them are stupider than that." - George Carlin

Average and below internet users are not the kind of people you meet on Lemmy. They are people like the aging Gen-Xer who doesn't know the difference between "the internet" and a web browser, or the kid whose parents shoved a tablet in their face to get them to be quiet for an hour.

Most people want computers to be an appliance like a washing machine - the thought that they can shape their own experience on their phone or computer never even occurs to them.

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I forget that these people exist sometimes. I can’t ever go back to the internet with no ad blockers.

You realize the Internet costs money. Those sites don't charge due to advertising. If everyone used ad blocker. There wouldn't be internet.

But blind there

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I suspect they spend most of their time in apps and not surfing the internet. Just a guess really since I saw the mobile traffic exceeded desktop. A lot of people don't spend hours on the "internet" surfing. Tic Tok sure. Hell I'm getting more and more like that. Even when I use chrome I still only go the the same sites for the most part. lol

It could be a good thing. Maybe they won't bother about people blocking ads because they become even less than before.

So maybe you need to pause the ad block a lot less.

Ah, you met my parents.

I had to install ublock origin on my mother's Chrome because she never would otherwise. Doesn't even know how.

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Google’s doing a pretty shitty job on that front since uBlock is already prepared with a new version that will work largely the same after the changeover.

Do you have a post clarifying how uBlock got prepared? I can't seem to find anything

I don’t think it’s just one post, but before last month Gorhill would regularly post to Reddit about it. The MV3 extension is already live in the extension store as well.

Honestly, it seems like people have basically created internal adblockers where they seem to not notice ads.

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They won't. The vast majority aren't using any kind of ad-blockers in the first place or Google would go out of business.

I’m going to use Chrome as long as I can. If they update and break my Adblock extensions (and there isn’t a fix in a day or two from devs), I switch browsers or find some other workaround.

I’m glad people with more ability to avoid the problem are trying to do so proactively (via ad-on updates, alternative browsers, etc)… so I don’t need to worry about an ‘escape route’… because I know there will be one.

The plan to deprecate Chrome V2 extensions has been constantly postponed again and again for years now. There is NO SCHEDULED DATE for this to happen currently, and when it is announced it will be more than 6 months out.

Source: https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/g/chromium-extensions/c/zQ77HkGmK9E/m/HjaaCIG-BQAJ?pli=1

If Google really wanted to kill ad blockers, they would have done this years ago.

They don't. They want to force ad blockers and other similar extensions to use more efficient APIs that don't slow down the web. Extension developers overall (not just ad blockers) aren't happy with the changes, so they're still working on the APIs.

IIRC the original cutoff date was supposed to be this summer (or possibly winter).

Not surprised you’re being downvoted but definitely disappointed seeing it.

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