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Ask HN: Is Using DuckDuckGo and Google Chrome Useless?

14 points by elamje 7y ago

I'm curious if there are people that use both and why. Does anyone have expert knowledge on how much data the Chrome Browser collects during usage?

jppope 7y ago
You probably want to check out brave. Brave.com I would struggle to find the references, but supposedly google keeps their teams separate, which is why using google analytics and google chrome don't talk to each other. Either way DDG is a pretty solid search engine, useful as a second source if google aint working for you.
- lancesells 7y ago
  I would suggest either Firefox or Safari instead of Brave. Brave is an ad platform.
  - twmb 7y ago
    As a recent Brave convert, I was skeptical of Brave for the same reason. I switched to it from Firefox (after switching months ago from Chrome) due to Firefox being slow, tabs repeatedly crashing, UX disharmony, and the recent cert addon debacle. Brave's ad proposition makes sense: the internet is inundated with ads, which is unpleasant, but free websites do need to survive. So, make the ad landscape nicer on an opt in basis. They take privacy seriously. I'd recommend it.
  - jppope 7y ago
    Brave can be an ad platform, but thats the choice of the user.
- jazoom 7y ago
  Is there a reason to choose Brave over Vivaldi (other than Vivaldi not having a mobile version)? I've just started using Vivaldi and I am very impressed. It's what Chrome should have evolved into.
cbluth 7y ago
I don't use duckduckgo, but there is a project that might have more info, it removes tracking data from chromium. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SRWare_Iron https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SRWare_Iron
- blibble 7y ago
  > Although SRWare has been claiming "Iron is free and OpenSource", this wasn't true from at least version 6 on until mid 2015, as the links given by them for the source code were hosted in RapidShare and blocked by the uploader. SRWare Iron "is entirely closed source and has been since at least version 6". According to Lifehacker, as of October 2014 SRWare Iron was "supposedly open source but haven't released their source for years". In 2015, SRWare resumed releasing what they claim is the source code for the browser, although not stating on their page what version the source code is from. yeah I think I'd rather run Chrome...
  - cbluth 7y ago
    You don't need to run it to read the wikipedia page...
commoner 7y ago
If you prefer to use a Chromium-based browser, ungoogled-chromium is a frequently recommended option: https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium DuckDuckGo is the default search engine, and most of the Google-related tracking is disabled or removed. You can see the details in the repository's README.md. This works well for privacy-conscious users who, for some reason, don't want to use Firefox. If you have no objection to Firefox, it would be in your best interest to use Firefox since it's backed by a non-profit dedicated to open web standards.
bigato 7y ago
Take a look at Iridium, which is chrome stripped from everything that hurts privacy

14 points by elamje 7y ago

I'm curious if there are people that use both and why. Does anyone have expert knowledge on how much data the Chrome Browser collects during usage?

jppope 7y ago

You probably want to check out brave. Brave.com I would struggle to find the references, but supposedly google keeps their teams separate, which is why using google analytics and google chrome don't talk to each other. Either way DDG is a pretty solid search engine, useful as a second source if google aint working for you.

lancesells 7y ago
I would suggest either Firefox or Safari instead of Brave. Brave is an ad platform.
- twmb 7y ago
  As a recent Brave convert, I was skeptical of Brave for the same reason. I switched to it from Firefox (after switching months ago from Chrome) due to Firefox being slow, tabs repeatedly crashing, UX disharmony, and the recent cert addon debacle. Brave's ad proposition makes sense: the internet is inundated with ads, which is unpleasant, but free websites do need to survive. So, make the ad landscape nicer on an opt in basis. They take privacy seriously. I'd recommend it.
- jppope 7y ago
  Brave can be an ad platform, but thats the choice of the user.
jazoom 7y ago
Is there a reason to choose Brave over Vivaldi (other than Vivaldi not having a mobile version)? I've just started using Vivaldi and I am very impressed. It's what Chrome should have evolved into.

cbluth 7y ago

I don't use duckduckgo, but there is a project that might have more info, it removes tracking data from chromium. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SRWare_Iron https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SRWare_Iron

blibble 7y ago
> Although SRWare has been claiming "Iron is free and OpenSource", this wasn't true from at least version 6 on until mid 2015, as the links given by them for the source code were hosted in RapidShare and blocked by the uploader. SRWare Iron "is entirely closed source and has been since at least version 6". According to Lifehacker, as of October 2014 SRWare Iron was "supposedly open source but haven't released their source for years". In 2015, SRWare resumed releasing what they claim is the source code for the browser, although not stating on their page what version the source code is from. yeah I think I'd rather run Chrome...
- cbluth 7y ago
  You don't need to run it to read the wikipedia page...

commoner 7y ago

If you prefer to use a Chromium-based browser, ungoogled-chromium is a frequently recommended option: https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium DuckDuckGo is the default search engine, and most of the Google-related tracking is disabled or removed. You can see the details in the repository's README.md. This works well for privacy-conscious users who, for some reason, don't want to use Firefox. If you have no objection to Firefox, it would be in your best interest to use Firefox since it's backed by a non-profit dedicated to open web standards.

bigato 7y ago

Take a look at Iridium, which is chrome stripped from everything that hurts privacy