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> Unfortunately, all major browsers now use a combined address and search bar. So, if you’re typing in the address of a sensitive website to go directly there,
by a5aAqU 5y ago
> Unfortunately, all major browsers now use a combined address and search bar. So, if you’re typing in the address of a sensitive website to go directly there, your keystrokes as you type will be sent to your default search engine and your search engine may be able to determine the website address you’re typing in manually.
That's why it's a good idea to split the search box in the Firefox settings. Ctrl-l takes you to the address bar which doesn't load any remote data, and ctrl-k takes you to the search box on the right, which does send keystrokes to the search engine.
Settings → Search → Add search bar in toolbar (check that box)
Also uncheck "Show search suggestions in address bar results"
Problem solved, for now.
- charcircuit 5y agoMost if not all of the bundled search engines send the data over HTTPS and do not save what you type or assign it to your account. There is nothing to worry about.
- throwaway81523 5y ago> and do not save what you type I think you are dreaming if you believe that.
- charcircuit 5y agoSend a request to Google for all of your data. It won't be in there.
- ectopod 5y agoHow do you know they don't feed it into an ML system before they delete it? That lets them "not save it" while reaping the benefits of saving it.
- charcircuit 5y agoIf it's deleted, then why would you care? It no longer has anything to do with you.
- throwaway81523 5y agoIf they have trained an ML system on it, they have acquired and exploited info about your private behaviour even if it is anonymized. So it is an invasion. The trope "not personally identifiable => not invasive" is self-serving and a non-sequitur and needs to die.
- charcircuit 5y agoWhy do you care that Google's improved one of their ML systems. Are you a competitor to them. It doesn't seem very nice to be against others improving their services.
- ectopod 5y agoA few years ago the NHS gave a load of confidential patient data to an insurance company to train their models. They claimed that it wasn't a problem because the data was deleted after training. However, nobody knows (publicly) what kind of model it was. If they overfitted the data then when you ask for an insurance quote based on say, date of birth and postcode, the quote will be based on your actual medical details rather than on broader statistics. The result is no different from them having explicit access to your medical records before giving a quote, which is not permitted. It is easy to build an ML system which for most queries provides the same answer as having access to the original data.
- jjj123 5y agoI have no interest in helping a trillion dollar company beyond the bare minimum to access the services I need. I’d rather they figure out how to improve their services with more ethical (and controllable!) privacy practices.
- 5y ago
- snypher 5y agoI can't trust them to say that's all there is.
- charcircuit 5y agoMaybe you should learn how to trust people / companies than always being paranoid.
- Cipater 5y agoAre you serious?
- throwaway81523 5y agoAs the saying goes, it's not paranoia if they really are out to get you.
- charcircuit 5y agoHint: For 99.9999% people "they" are not out to get you
- throwaway81523 5y agoIf they are out to get everyone and you are part of everyone, then they are out to get you. It's just logic.
- rixed 5y agoYou cannot trust what a company says but you can trust what former or current employees of this company say. Companies are not some unfathomable alien life form, after all.
- userbinator 5y agoHTTPS says nothing about how trustworthy the end recipient is, just that only they will receive your data.
- charcircuit 5y agoThen just use a service like Google who are public about using encryption between machines.
- userbinator 5y agoWhat a complete non-sequitur. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28805950 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28805950 Looks like I'm not the only one who smelled something off about those comments. This is the first time I've seen such blatant shilling of Google here.
- PixelOfDeath 5y agoI use waterfox because I already hat enough of the firefox bullshit. But even there you now have to enable the search bar. And pressing tabulator when inside the address bar does no longer jump to the search bar but directly into the browser windows. Dark patterns shit all over this. "Oh sure you can reenable the search bar, but go suck a dick if you used tabulator for switching to it"
- jrootabega 5y agoYou may also need/want to set keyword.enabled to false in about:config.