New! From Google! "Enhanced" ad privacy!

jimrob4@midwest.social to Technology@lemmy.ml – 949 points –

Got this notification when I opened Chrome when coming back to my desk after lunch.

"We changed our privacy settings to allow us to snoop on what you're looking at and shove you ads accordingly. Feel free to opt out, but we'll probably opt you back in when you aren't paying attention."

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This is why I use Firefox

Please disable firefox telemetry if u care abt ur privacy

I never understood what is so problematic about anonymized telemetry, especially for a open-source product.

It provides a really valuable feedback for developers regarding feature usage, performance and error logs – you get the product for free so give something back.

Exactly! It’s more “Help me help you” than anything nefarious.

While it is mostly helpful, I still do it. To be honest, I would have been alright with it if it was a little more relaxed. What I mean by that is I'm okay with opt out, as long as it's a product I trust, and I would say I do trust Firefox as a project (Not too sure about the Corporation, the Foundation is fine). What I'm not fine with is the "Data will be deleted within 30 days". What if someone does not want to give that data in the first place, huh? I'm okay with it, because it's Firefox, but many people arent, so it's a matter principle for the people that aren't. So if someone didn't want any telemetry collected on them, that telemetry has not only been collected, but is now stored on Mozilla servers for 30 days, which means they can use it for analytics, whether you like it or not. Again, I don't care, because it's Firefox, but for the people that do, at the very least, don't give me or them or anyone else fhat "We will delete within 30 days" thing. Automate it and do it now.

I mean, at least FF allows that. Hardened FF is a blessing.

Plain Jane Firefox ain't any better than Chrome. Just putting your info in a different database.

Would you rather your data be sent to a browser company or the largest advertising agency in the world?

... Tell me again how these are the same?

That's a false dichotomy. I'd rather it not be sent to anyone...

Your data isn't just sent to a browser company. The browser company shares all of it with an ad agency.

You said "isn't any better" than chrome. Given the choice between the two, there is clearly a better option

In regards to privacy, I disagree.

That ad company is probably just selling your data back to Google anyway.

... the ad company IS Google

Firefox collects diagnostics and some usage data, not browsing history, Google collects absolutely anything and everything.

Their primary, nor secondary, source of revenue is not selling your data. You can also disable it entirely pretty easily. You cannot do that in Chrome.

Given the two options, one is clearly better.

the ad company IS Google

No it's not. It's called admarketplace

Firefox collects diagnostics and some usage data, not browsing history,

They collect everything. It's all spelled out in no uncertain terms in their privacy policy. I'd suggest you have a look.

No it's not. It's called admarketplace

Uh. Google is an advertising agency. Their entire business model is collecting data. Chrome is made by Google, ergo the ad company that Chrome uses is Google because Chrome is Google.

They collect everything

Nowhere does it say they collect browsing history. There are multiple places across their site where they explicitly say they do not.

Chrome is Google.

I obviously wasn't talking about Google.

Nowhere does it say they collect browsing history

Yes it does.

Do you even remember what conversation we were having?

Yeah I'm not engaging in these sort of rhetorical questions. Goodbye.

That's the sound of someone who realizes they forgot what conversation they were having and refused to admit it. That's okay, it happens to the best of us

The browser company in question is primarily funded by the advertising company in question.

Doesn't really make a difference. Google pays to keep their search engine the default, same as they do for Apple.