4 ms·

I’m really interested to find out how they’re approaching privacy. If they take a strong stance, this might be a good alternative to chrome for those sites that

by gshdg 7y ago

I’m really interested to find out how they’re approaching privacy. If they take a strong stance, this might be a good alternative to chrome for those sites that support nothing else.

sureaboutthis 7y ago
Windows itself is not a bastion of privacy.
- nailer 7y ago
  I see your point, but I'll add that telemetry is focused on making sure stuff works, whereas selling ads based on your data is focused on making money from you. Telemetry can be disabled on Enterprise: https://www.kapilarya.com/allow-or-prevent-telemetry-in-windows-10 https://www.kapilarya.com/allow-or-prevent-telemetry-in-wind... but I agree it would be good for Microsoft to allow this to be disabled in Pro.
  - raxxorrax 7y ago
    Motivation is irrelevant if I don't want to share any data as a user. edit: Besides that, the telemetry service has caused multiple problems on different systems already. I just don't see any results from it compared to previous versions of windows.
  - darkpuma 7y ago
    Last I checked windows now has ads in it. Those ads may currently be totally untargeted, but that's a small comfort and I wouldn't count on it staying that way forever.
kgraves 7y ago
> a good alternative to chrome for those sites that support nothing else. Edge is literally Chrome with Microsoft slapped on top of it.
- nailer 7y ago
  No. They're working on a big privacy dashboard which blocks tracking cookies as well as other stuff: https://www.microsoftedgeinsider.com/en-us/whats-next https://www.microsoftedgeinsider.com/en-us/whats-next Video: https://edgetipscdn.microsoft.com/insider-site/images/whatsnext-privacy.ec8276df.mp4 https://edgetipscdn.microsoft.com/insider-site/images/whatsn...
  - kgraves 7y ago
    Still not buying it. I don't trust Microsoft at all with privacy especially with what they did to Windows 10. Telemetry & spying is everywhere with everything that they build now even in their calculator[0][1]. I would stick to Ungoogled/Chromium, Safari or Firefox thanks. [0] https://git.io/fj4Wl https://git.io/fj4Wl [1] https://github.com/Microsoft/calculator/issues/148 https://github.com/Microsoft/calculator/issues/148
    - butteroverflow 7y ago
      Don't worry, it's all for your benefit. How else would they know what divisors to optimize first for?
toastal 7y ago
Why not just use Brave then?
- princekolt 7y ago
  lol
- pedrocx486 7y ago
  I personally ditched them due to them pushing BAT to heavily on those that don't want to participate and Sync being broken randomly.
- nsomaru 7y ago
  Broken on Debian stable due to a sandbox issue not solved for many months. Not willing to compromise security to run Brave which it seemed the workaround at the time did.
uptown 7y ago
From a practical standpoint exactly what does Google collect from one’s browsing activity when they use Chrome? Not sure I’ve ever seen the technical analysis of what kinds of exposure users have.
- minikites 7y ago
  I'm sure it's not limited to this but there are a lot of dark UI patterns in Chrome, e.g. any Google web login also logs you in to Chrome so Google "has permission" to record your browsing history and other browsing data.
  - microcolonel 7y ago
    I mean, I think Google gathers browsing history through other means (being embedded on a huge proportion of all webpages), but in the case of Chrome/Chromium, there is a separate password for the sync artifacts, I think at least in principle they are stored separately (especially since they now include passwords, social security numbers, etc.). My sync password is different from my account password, I think it generally unlocks both at once if your sync password is the same as your account password, and you log in to your Google account. I think this is also possible with the way that Microsoft has made "Edge" work with Microsoft accounts rather than Google accounts.
  - Someone1234 7y ago
    After the blowback from auto sign-in they added an option to disable that on both Chrome and ChromeOS. Settings -> Advanced -> Allow Chrome Sign-in If you want even more control use ADMX (enterprise policies) to permanently disable it. For example on Windows visit Software\Policies\Google\Chrome\ in either HKLM or HKCU and set SyncDisabled 1, EnableSyncConsent 0, BrowserSignin 0. Full list/docs: https://www.chromium.org/administrators/policy-list-3 https://www.chromium.org/administrators/policy-list-3
    - benatkin 7y ago
      I deal with it by having a separate google profile (“user”) and barely using it outside of gmail and google docs. I just let it sync.
princekolt 7y ago
Why not Safari? It's fast, power-efficient, and native.
- gshdg 7y ago
  And a lot of stupidly optimized-for-chrome sites break in it. Plus extensibility is limited.
  - princekolt 7y ago
    Maybe if everything you use is a web-app that makes sense, but I avoid that like the plague. Maybe in the wonderful world of Silicon Valley you can rely on that, but in the real world internet connectivity can be choppy, especially when inside trains and planes.
    - gshdg 7y ago
      Most startup workplaces these days use a lot of SaaS apps. Not like you have a choice to avoid web apps.
    - kenbellows 7y ago
      Nowadays many applications, and especially most big-name business application suites (G Suite, Microsoft Office online, etc), are converting all their web applications to Progressive Web Apps, adding Service Workers and such so that they work just fine when you're offline and sync to backup document changes and such whenever you reconnect later. Give it a couple years and it won't be a problem anymore.
  - pwinnski 7y ago
    Are these publicly-available sites, or private web apps? I can't remember seeing sites that break Safari, but I'm sure I'm just lucky.
- tapoxi 7y ago
  In my case our SSO requires a FIDO U2F hardware token and Safari doesn't support FIDO U2F at all. Someone wrote a third party extension but I can't get that working.

by gshdg 7y ago

I’m really interested to find out how they’re approaching privacy. If they take a strong stance, this might be a good alternative to chrome for those sites that support nothing else.

sureaboutthis 7y ago

Windows itself is not a bastion of privacy.

nailer 7y ago
I see your point, but I'll add that telemetry is focused on making sure stuff works, whereas selling ads based on your data is focused on making money from you. Telemetry can be disabled on Enterprise: https://www.kapilarya.com/allow-or-prevent-telemetry-in-windows-10 https://www.kapilarya.com/allow-or-prevent-telemetry-in-wind... but I agree it would be good for Microsoft to allow this to be disabled in Pro.
- raxxorrax 7y ago
  Motivation is irrelevant if I don't want to share any data as a user. edit: Besides that, the telemetry service has caused multiple problems on different systems already. I just don't see any results from it compared to previous versions of windows.
- darkpuma 7y ago
  Last I checked windows now has ads in it. Those ads may currently be totally untargeted, but that's a small comfort and I wouldn't count on it staying that way forever.

kgraves 7y ago

> a good alternative to chrome for those sites that support nothing else. Edge is literally Chrome with Microsoft slapped on top of it.

nailer 7y ago
No. They're working on a big privacy dashboard which blocks tracking cookies as well as other stuff: https://www.microsoftedgeinsider.com/en-us/whats-next https://www.microsoftedgeinsider.com/en-us/whats-next Video: https://edgetipscdn.microsoft.com/insider-site/images/whatsnext-privacy.ec8276df.mp4 https://edgetipscdn.microsoft.com/insider-site/images/whatsn...
- kgraves 7y ago
  Still not buying it. I don't trust Microsoft at all with privacy especially with what they did to Windows 10. Telemetry & spying is everywhere with everything that they build now even in their calculator[0][1]. I would stick to Ungoogled/Chromium, Safari or Firefox thanks. [0] https://git.io/fj4Wl https://git.io/fj4Wl [1] https://github.com/Microsoft/calculator/issues/148 https://github.com/Microsoft/calculator/issues/148
  - butteroverflow 7y ago
    Don't worry, it's all for your benefit. How else would they know what divisors to optimize first for?

toastal 7y ago

Why not just use Brave then?

princekolt 7y ago
lol
pedrocx486 7y ago
I personally ditched them due to them pushing BAT to heavily on those that don't want to participate and Sync being broken randomly.
nsomaru 7y ago
Broken on Debian stable due to a sandbox issue not solved for many months. Not willing to compromise security to run Brave which it seemed the workaround at the time did.

uptown 7y ago

From a practical standpoint exactly what does Google collect from one’s browsing activity when they use Chrome? Not sure I’ve ever seen the technical analysis of what kinds of exposure users have.

minikites 7y ago
I'm sure it's not limited to this but there are a lot of dark UI patterns in Chrome, e.g. any Google web login also logs you in to Chrome so Google "has permission" to record your browsing history and other browsing data.
- microcolonel 7y ago
  I mean, I think Google gathers browsing history through other means (being embedded on a huge proportion of all webpages), but in the case of Chrome/Chromium, there is a separate password for the sync artifacts, I think at least in principle they are stored separately (especially since they now include passwords, social security numbers, etc.). My sync password is different from my account password, I think it generally unlocks both at once if your sync password is the same as your account password, and you log in to your Google account. I think this is also possible with the way that Microsoft has made "Edge" work with Microsoft accounts rather than Google accounts.
- Someone1234 7y ago
  After the blowback from auto sign-in they added an option to disable that on both Chrome and ChromeOS. Settings -> Advanced -> Allow Chrome Sign-in If you want even more control use ADMX (enterprise policies) to permanently disable it. For example on Windows visit Software\Policies\Google\Chrome\ in either HKLM or HKCU and set SyncDisabled 1, EnableSyncConsent 0, BrowserSignin 0. Full list/docs: https://www.chromium.org/administrators/policy-list-3 https://www.chromium.org/administrators/policy-list-3
  - benatkin 7y ago
    I deal with it by having a separate google profile (“user”) and barely using it outside of gmail and google docs. I just let it sync.

princekolt 7y ago

Why not Safari? It's fast, power-efficient, and native.

gshdg 7y ago
And a lot of stupidly optimized-for-chrome sites break in it. Plus extensibility is limited.
- princekolt 7y ago
  Maybe if everything you use is a web-app that makes sense, but I avoid that like the plague. Maybe in the wonderful world of Silicon Valley you can rely on that, but in the real world internet connectivity can be choppy, especially when inside trains and planes.
  - gshdg 7y ago
    Most startup workplaces these days use a lot of SaaS apps. Not like you have a choice to avoid web apps.
  - kenbellows 7y ago
    Nowadays many applications, and especially most big-name business application suites (G Suite, Microsoft Office online, etc), are converting all their web applications to Progressive Web Apps, adding Service Workers and such so that they work just fine when you're offline and sync to backup document changes and such whenever you reconnect later. Give it a couple years and it won't be a problem anymore.
- pwinnski 7y ago
  Are these publicly-available sites, or private web apps? I can't remember seeing sites that break Safari, but I'm sure I'm just lucky.
tapoxi 7y ago
In my case our SSO requires a FIDO U2F hardware token and Safari doesn't support FIDO U2F at all. Someone wrote a third party extension but I can't get that working.