6 ms·

This looks great. However for a document that is so hyper vigilant about preventing little phone-home-to-Apple behaviors, isn't there some cognitive dissonance

by natch 11y ago

This looks great. However for a document that is so hyper vigilant about preventing little phone-home-to-Apple behaviors, isn't there some cognitive dissonance in the fact that it recommends installing Google Chrome? What am I missing?

Karunamon 11y ago
The fact that, much like Mac OS, all of the phone-home-ness of Chrome can be turned off (regardless of how much doing so might be more of a threat to you)
- Udo_Schmitz 11y ago
  Really? I got rid of Chrome when I saw Google-stuff constantly connecting to different servers even when Chrome wasn't running. And I was kinda surprised what a bitch it was to uninstall. Google put stuff everywhere :-/
  - pki 11y ago
    Have you try Chromium?
    - dunkelheit 11y ago
      not safe either: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=786909 https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=786909
      - ossreality 11y ago
        holy shit are people still latching onto this? IT WAS A MISTAKE.
      - shit_parade 11y ago
        that issue was solved within hours.
      - simoncion 11y ago
        As shitty as that move was, it has been reversed and has been reversed for many months.
        JupiterMoon 11y ago
        It happened once it could happen again.
        simoncion 11y ago
        You can say that about any software project, man.
        JupiterMoon 11y ago
        Maybe. But most of them don't involve transmitting my microphone directly to Google servers.
        ossreality 11y ago
        IT WASNT EVEN ENABLED. You can't even get your god damn FUD right.
        simoncion 11y ago
        1) ...that you know of. 2) Frankly, Google is far more trustworthy than almost any randomly selected software company. (Don't forget that there are far more software companies out there than either of us are aware of.) 3) Unless you've taken the time to configure a MAC system, software that runs as you can access any data and transport mechanism that you can access. That's a fact of life. Anything you run on your computers can also act as a little snitch.
        JupiterMoon 11y ago
        1) Agreed. As soon as I hear about any software doing similar even by mistake I consider whether to stop using it. 2) I sort of agree with this. Google certainly don't want to sell my keystrokes on the black market. However, they do want to store them and learn more about me and my personal autonomy and privacy mean that I don't want them to have all my data. 3) Which is exactly why one should be careful what software one installs!
  - PhantomGremlin 11y ago
    I keep Chrome around just for the occasion that I ned to use Flash. Chrome happily installs from an OS X standard account, it does not need to be installed by an administrator. As such, it probably isn't able to put stuff "everywhere". BTW, maybe it's just me, but I have installed Chrome as its own user. That makes it more difficult for it to spy on my day-to-day activity.
    - D4AHNGM 11y ago
      ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/ ~/Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/ ~/Library/Google/Google Chrome Brand.plist ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.google.keystone.agent.plist ~/Library/Caches/Google ~/Library/Preferences/com.google.Chrome.plist ~/Library/Preferences/com.google.Keystone.Agent.plist Nowhere outrageously surprising, really.
- sam_goody 11y ago
  Chrome sends every URL or key stroke in the URL bar home in the guise of checking if they are search terms, and nothing short of not using Chrome helps that. In addition, installing Chrome created a situation where every few minutes something is connecting to Google's servers. I disabled updates, uninstalled Chrome, and removed everything Google, followed instructions for removing the updater - and something is still pinging Google every few minutes. If there is a way to shut these off, then the author should detail this, as much as he has detailed how to fix Apple's phone-home behaviour.
  - noondip 11y ago
    > Chrome sends every URL or key stroke in the URL bar home in the guise of checking if they are search terms, and nothing short of not using Chrome helps that. I believe you're referring to DNS prefetching [1], which is mentioned in the guide. I'm curious to know how you're determining that something is "pinging Google every few minutes". Maybe you could open a Github issue and I'll investigate it for the guide. It's definitely good to enumerate Chrome's behavior w.r.t. privacy. 1. https://www.chromium.org/developers/design-documents/dns-prefetching https://www.chromium.org/developers/design-documents/dns-pre...
  - Karunamon 11y ago
    Nothing short of unticking the box you mean: http://imgur.com/If9Oazj http://imgur.com/If9Oazj The amount of bad faith people ascribe to basic usability functions utterly astounds me.
    - habith 11y ago
      > The amount of bad faith people ascribe to basic usability functions utterly astounds me. I think most of it comes from how Google (and the industry in general) has evolved. There was a day[0] when things were labeled clearly and the default behavior wasn't to vacuum up as much data about users in the name of basic usability functions. The amount of trust people have in companies to keep their private information safe from prying eyes is what's truly astounding. [0] http://images.devshed.com/sc/stories/Google_Desktop_Search2b/Desktopadvanced.jpg http://images.devshed.com/sc/stories/Google_Desktop_Search2b...

by natch 11y ago

Karunamon 11y ago

The fact that, much like Mac OS, all of the phone-home-ness of Chrome can be turned off (regardless of how much doing so might be more of a threat to you)

Udo_Schmitz 11y ago
Really? I got rid of Chrome when I saw Google-stuff constantly connecting to different servers even when Chrome wasn't running. And I was kinda surprised what a bitch it was to uninstall. Google put stuff everywhere :-/
- pki 11y ago
  Have you try Chromium?
  - dunkelheit 11y ago
    not safe either: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=786909 https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=786909
    - ossreality 11y ago
      holy shit are people still latching onto this? IT WAS A MISTAKE.
    - shit_parade 11y ago
      that issue was solved within hours.
    - simoncion 11y ago
      As shitty as that move was, it has been reversed and has been reversed for many months.
      - JupiterMoon 11y ago
        It happened once it could happen again.
        simoncion 11y ago
        You can say that about any software project, man.
        JupiterMoon 11y ago
        Maybe. But most of them don't involve transmitting my microphone directly to Google servers.
        ossreality 11y ago
        IT WASNT EVEN ENABLED. You can't even get your god damn FUD right.
        simoncion 11y ago
        1) ...that you know of. 2) Frankly, Google is far more trustworthy than almost any randomly selected software company. (Don't forget that there are far more software companies out there than either of us are aware of.) 3) Unless you've taken the time to configure a MAC system, software that runs as you can access any data and transport mechanism that you can access. That's a fact of life. Anything you run on your computers can also act as a little snitch.
        JupiterMoon 11y ago
        1) Agreed. As soon as I hear about any software doing similar even by mistake I consider whether to stop using it. 2) I sort of agree with this. Google certainly don't want to sell my keystrokes on the black market. However, they do want to store them and learn more about me and my personal autonomy and privacy mean that I don't want them to have all my data. 3) Which is exactly why one should be careful what software one installs!
- PhantomGremlin 11y ago
  I keep Chrome around just for the occasion that I ned to use Flash. Chrome happily installs from an OS X standard account, it does not need to be installed by an administrator. As such, it probably isn't able to put stuff "everywhere". BTW, maybe it's just me, but I have installed Chrome as its own user. That makes it more difficult for it to spy on my day-to-day activity.
  - D4AHNGM 11y ago
    ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/ ~/Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/ ~/Library/Google/Google Chrome Brand.plist ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.google.keystone.agent.plist ~/Library/Caches/Google ~/Library/Preferences/com.google.Chrome.plist ~/Library/Preferences/com.google.Keystone.Agent.plist Nowhere outrageously surprising, really.
sam_goody 11y ago
Chrome sends every URL or key stroke in the URL bar home in the guise of checking if they are search terms, and nothing short of not using Chrome helps that. In addition, installing Chrome created a situation where every few minutes something is connecting to Google's servers. I disabled updates, uninstalled Chrome, and removed everything Google, followed instructions for removing the updater - and something is still pinging Google every few minutes. If there is a way to shut these off, then the author should detail this, as much as he has detailed how to fix Apple's phone-home behaviour.
- noondip 11y ago
  > Chrome sends every URL or key stroke in the URL bar home in the guise of checking if they are search terms, and nothing short of not using Chrome helps that. I believe you're referring to DNS prefetching [1], which is mentioned in the guide. I'm curious to know how you're determining that something is "pinging Google every few minutes". Maybe you could open a Github issue and I'll investigate it for the guide. It's definitely good to enumerate Chrome's behavior w.r.t. privacy. 1. https://www.chromium.org/developers/design-documents/dns-prefetching https://www.chromium.org/developers/design-documents/dns-pre...
- Karunamon 11y ago
  Nothing short of unticking the box you mean: http://imgur.com/If9Oazj http://imgur.com/If9Oazj The amount of bad faith people ascribe to basic usability functions utterly astounds me.
  - habith 11y ago
    > The amount of bad faith people ascribe to basic usability functions utterly astounds me. I think most of it comes from how Google (and the industry in general) has evolved. There was a day[0] when things were labeled clearly and the default behavior wasn't to vacuum up as much data about users in the name of basic usability functions. The amount of trust people have in companies to keep their private information safe from prying eyes is what's truly astounding. [0] http://images.devshed.com/sc/stories/Google_Desktop_Search2b/Desktopadvanced.jpg http://images.devshed.com/sc/stories/Google_Desktop_Search2b...