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I feel less paranoid now for my browsing process. Almost everything I search is in an incognito window, from shopping and research to programming and how-tos. A
by chime 10y ago
I feel less paranoid now for my browsing process. Almost everything I search is in an incognito window, from shopping and research to programming and how-tos. And when I'm done with looking for a new dog leash or Python module, I close that window. Only things in my main browser are the regular sites I visit and am logged into (email, HN, reddit etc.)
I started this after learning about the filter bubble but I've noticed how helpful it is when searching on Amazon, Wayfair, or Sears. I get non-machine-learned results every time while my wife using her primary browser with cookies often cannot see the same results I do. If I find something on Amazon, I copy-paste the URL without the ?query-string and replace 'www' with 'smile'. It seems like a hassle but it's no different from cleaning your feet before stepping inside the house after playing in the park.
This post just highlights that my practice to avoid unpermitted-profile-building-and-linking is for a good reason. I also have my own @example.com domain that I use and have certainly caught companies selling my info. However, even without being emailed, I don't want algorithms the determine what is best for me based on criteria I choose not to share.
- softawre 10y ago> It seems like a hassle but it's no different from cleaning your feet before stepping inside the house after playing in the park. I mean, you can make that exact argument about every annoying thing you have to do that wastes 1-5 minutes of your time. But over time, especially as a software programmer, if you don't automate those away, it really hurts your productivity.
- chime 10y agoThe more annoying buying on Amazon is, the more I reduce spending. Win-win in this specific case.
- franciscop 10y agoThere are Firefox/Chrome plugins to auto redirect to 'smile.' seamlessly
- roywiggins 10y agoI use Self Destructing Cookies on Firefox. It burns cookies when you close tabs which seems a workable compromise.
- chime 10y agoWouldn't work with Google since I also use Gmail and few Google Apps.
- vxNsr 10y agoWouldn't it be easier to just use no script and ublock with whitelisting?
- chime 10y agoAlready use ublock (even in incognito mode) and block 3rd party cookies. But personally dealing with no-script is too much hassle. I would much prefer my activity remain anonymous and disconnected between sites, not JS gives me trouble everywhere.
- vxNsr 10y agoI wonder if there's a way to turn this into an extension, sandbox all browsing into unique sessions until you press a button to pass it to a mixed session, with whitelisting for websites you trust... Wait a sec, wasn't that chrome's initial premise? Sandboxed tabs, what happened to that?