4 ms·

Chrome won't clear your Google and YouTube data – even if you tell it to

94 points by yvoschaap 6y ago

matsemann 6y ago
A rehashed and worse article than their linked source, which was discussed here a few days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24817304 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24817304
- merricksb 6y ago
  Also, another post of a related article a couple of days later: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24837404 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24837404
- Razengan 6y ago
  That didn't stop the blitzkrieg of anti-Apple posts reporting the same thing barely a month ago, yet Google-critical posts get flagged in less than an hour if they start getting traction.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
pydry 6y ago
This doesn't really surprise me, but the number of people trying to justify it really surprises me.
Razengan 6y ago
I’ve hated Google ever since they started automatically signing me into Search when I signed into YouTube. I fix this by deleting all cookies matching “google” after signing into YouTube, but sometimes I forget to and it infuriates me to see my name in the corner when I search for anything. Even on iOS they use a browser window to make you sign-in so it cookies up your entire device. Thankfully the quality of Google Search results has been going downhill for years so it's honestly not that much of a difference to switch to DuckDuckGo as the default engine now.
- danielrpa 6y ago
  You can also use this (for MS Edge or Firefox): https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cookie-autodelete/fhcgjolkccmbidfldomjliifgaodjagh/ https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cookie-autodelete/...
pyrale 6y ago
It feels like there's not a day in recent hn history without a story that makes a compelling case for harsh antitrust on Google. Even the services that you could think are peripheral to their model partake in this.
- blueterminal 6y ago
  Millions of developers, millions of apps used by billions of people. It's quite a challenge to have it perfectly run. Mistakes are unavoidable.
  - mysterydip 6y ago
    Mistakes that just so happen to give their company an advantage over the rest aren't mistakes.
  - onion2k 6y ago
    I don't think anyone is going to believe Google did this by mistake.
OCISLY 6y ago
chrome is a perfect example of abusive software that everyone seems to love
- vbezhenar 6y ago
  For me Chrome just works. So far I did not see anything I would hate about Chrome. It's extremely polished and fast. I don't love it, but it's just good enough for my needs.
mrjin 6y ago
Google has gone rouge for a very long time... Avoid Google if you can.
- BuildTheRobots 6y ago
  I know everyone joked a few years ago when they removed "don't be evil" as their tagline and from their employees CoC, but it really does make me wonder.
skinkestek 6y ago
Remember a few years ago, Microsoft was running its failing Scroogle campaign and I (under a different nick) and others were defending Google. Fast forward to today and Google has managed to do to itself all that the Scroogle campaign could realistically have hoped to achieve and then some: - techies like me go out of our way to avoid them. I just spoke to a friend of mine during lunch and told him to think twice before using Gmail as a single misplaced comment on the Internet can get you locked out with no recourse except hoping for friends on social media if you are so lucky. - People are still making Chrome-applications just like they made IE6 applications but we are turning the tide now it seems and I see a growing trend that loathes the Chrome-only trend. - Regulators are circling in the air above. - etc.
- popup21 6y ago
  I hear you and I follow the same pattern of avoidance. Google and everything they stand for is old news. Break 'em up!
varbhat 6y ago
People loved Chrome when it was released. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=292980 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=292980 Slowly after they gained monopoly and became sure that they are going to exist in browser-space , they now don't care about these tracking bits present in the browser.
Santosh83 6y ago
MS Edge doesn't have this feature. Just tested it on my machine. It clears all forms of storage even from MS's own domains tied to the browser like msedge.microsoft.com, msn etc.
adrian_mrd 6y ago
The best way to think of Chrome these days is that it is a Google web browser, as in, it preferences products and services made by Google. Edge is similar in some ways, but modern Chrome is not a web browser per se but a web browser clearly built by Google with Google’s corporate interests at heart. The disconnect for many - including myself - is that we remember the first few years of Chrome. How revolutionary it was and how it provided a beautiful path off ‘the terror’ that was Internet Explorer. Modern Chrome is not the same browser, philosophically. Modern Chrome is a Google web browser and integrates the best - and increasingly by default - with Google’s many products and services.
- feanaro 6y ago
  > The disconnect for many - including myself - is that we remember the first few years of Chrome. How revolutionary it was and how it provided a beautiful path off ‘the terror’ that was Internet Explorer. Funny how history can be subjective. I remember Firefox in this exact role, several years earlier prior to Chrome, which is why I've never received Chrome as some kind of saviour, only as additional competition.
  - adrian_mrd 6y ago
    Totally agree re: Firefox also playing that role a decade or so ahead of Chrome, then losing it somewhat during Chrome's ascendancy: perceptions of bloat, slower dev releases, RAM hog on some PCs, no per-tab process isolation, etc
- swiley 6y ago
  Software like chrome and iOS aren't built for people to use. They're built to insert commercial software into people's lives. Access to information or the ability to communicate with friends is given because it would be difficult to get people to accept it otherwise.
  - Razengan 6y ago
    > Software like chrome and iOS aren't built for people to use. They're built to insert commercial software into people's lives. iOS is designed to sell hardware, unlike Google's products.
imtringued 6y ago
For some reason Google's Captchas work much better on Chrome than on Firefox. I thought there was some sort of dedicated tracking built into Chrome. It turned out to be far simpler. They just give google sites special treatment.
Razengan 6y ago
Why was this flagged as a dupe instead of the dupe that didn't get any attention, and why haven't they just been merged? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24849558 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24849558 Is criticism of Google being silenced with flagging?

94 points by yvoschaap 6y ago

A rehashed and worse article than their linked source, which was discussed here a few days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24817304 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24817304

merricksb 6y ago
Also, another post of a related article a couple of days later: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24837404 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24837404
Razengan 6y ago
That didn't stop the blitzkrieg of anti-Apple posts reporting the same thing barely a month ago, yet Google-critical posts get flagged in less than an hour if they start getting traction.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

pydry 6y ago

This doesn't really surprise me, but the number of people trying to justify it really surprises me.

Razengan 6y ago

I’ve hated Google ever since they started automatically signing me into Search when I signed into YouTube. I fix this by deleting all cookies matching “google” after signing into YouTube, but sometimes I forget to and it infuriates me to see my name in the corner when I search for anything. Even on iOS they use a browser window to make you sign-in so it cookies up your entire device. Thankfully the quality of Google Search results has been going downhill for years so it's honestly not that much of a difference to switch to DuckDuckGo as the default engine now.

danielrpa 6y ago
You can also use this (for MS Edge or Firefox): https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cookie-autodelete/fhcgjolkccmbidfldomjliifgaodjagh/ https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cookie-autodelete/...

pyrale 6y ago

It feels like there's not a day in recent hn history without a story that makes a compelling case for harsh antitrust on Google. Even the services that you could think are peripheral to their model partake in this.

blueterminal 6y ago
Millions of developers, millions of apps used by billions of people. It's quite a challenge to have it perfectly run. Mistakes are unavoidable.
- mysterydip 6y ago
  Mistakes that just so happen to give their company an advantage over the rest aren't mistakes.
- onion2k 6y ago
  I don't think anyone is going to believe Google did this by mistake.

OCISLY 6y ago

chrome is a perfect example of abusive software that everyone seems to love

vbezhenar 6y ago
For me Chrome just works. So far I did not see anything I would hate about Chrome. It's extremely polished and fast. I don't love it, but it's just good enough for my needs.

mrjin 6y ago

Google has gone rouge for a very long time... Avoid Google if you can.

BuildTheRobots 6y ago
I know everyone joked a few years ago when they removed "don't be evil" as their tagline and from their employees CoC, but it really does make me wonder.

skinkestek 6y ago

Remember a few years ago, Microsoft was running its failing Scroogle campaign and I (under a different nick) and others were defending Google. Fast forward to today and Google has managed to do to itself all that the Scroogle campaign could realistically have hoped to achieve and then some: - techies like me go out of our way to avoid them. I just spoke to a friend of mine during lunch and told him to think twice before using Gmail as a single misplaced comment on the Internet can get you locked out with no recourse except hoping for friends on social media if you are so lucky. - People are still making Chrome-applications just like they made IE6 applications but we are turning the tide now it seems and I see a growing trend that loathes the Chrome-only trend. - Regulators are circling in the air above. - etc.

popup21 6y ago
I hear you and I follow the same pattern of avoidance. Google and everything they stand for is old news. Break 'em up!

varbhat 6y ago

People loved Chrome when it was released. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=292980 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=292980 Slowly after they gained monopoly and became sure that they are going to exist in browser-space , they now don't care about these tracking bits present in the browser.

Santosh83 6y ago

MS Edge doesn't have this feature. Just tested it on my machine. It clears all forms of storage even from MS's own domains tied to the browser like msedge.microsoft.com, msn etc.

adrian_mrd 6y ago

The best way to think of Chrome these days is that it is a Google web browser, as in, it preferences products and services made by Google. Edge is similar in some ways, but modern Chrome is not a web browser per se but a web browser clearly built by Google with Google’s corporate interests at heart. The disconnect for many - including myself - is that we remember the first few years of Chrome. How revolutionary it was and how it provided a beautiful path off ‘the terror’ that was Internet Explorer. Modern Chrome is not the same browser, philosophically. Modern Chrome is a Google web browser and integrates the best - and increasingly by default - with Google’s many products and services.

feanaro 6y ago
> The disconnect for many - including myself - is that we remember the first few years of Chrome. How revolutionary it was and how it provided a beautiful path off ‘the terror’ that was Internet Explorer. Funny how history can be subjective. I remember Firefox in this exact role, several years earlier prior to Chrome, which is why I've never received Chrome as some kind of saviour, only as additional competition.
- adrian_mrd 6y ago
  Totally agree re: Firefox also playing that role a decade or so ahead of Chrome, then losing it somewhat during Chrome's ascendancy: perceptions of bloat, slower dev releases, RAM hog on some PCs, no per-tab process isolation, etc
swiley 6y ago
Software like chrome and iOS aren't built for people to use. They're built to insert commercial software into people's lives. Access to information or the ability to communicate with friends is given because it would be difficult to get people to accept it otherwise.
- Razengan 6y ago
  > Software like chrome and iOS aren't built for people to use. They're built to insert commercial software into people's lives. iOS is designed to sell hardware, unlike Google's products.

imtringued 6y ago

For some reason Google's Captchas work much better on Chrome than on Firefox. I thought there was some sort of dedicated tracking built into Chrome. It turned out to be far simpler. They just give google sites special treatment.

Razengan 6y ago

Why was this flagged as a dupe instead of the dupe that didn't get any attention, and why haven't they just been merged? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24849558 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24849558 Is criticism of Google being silenced with flagging?