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Title is clickbait. While comic nicely explain what is terrible with Chrome, those virtue signalling headlines wont help anything. Chrome is made by private co

Title is clickbait. While comic nicely explain what is terrible with Chrome, those virtue signalling headlines wont help anything. Chrome is made by private company with terms of use that you agree with by using it. If you don't agree, don't use it. That's pretty much all you can do. Use competition and shape development by abandoning software with pathologic attitudes. I find weird titling private companies as threat for democracy and privacy even though you are not obligated to use it. While government intervention threats are used against citizens under laws without possibility to opt-out.

paulryanrogers 2y ago
First step to change is realize there is a problem. Speech like this can help motivate action. Note that most people don't even know what a browser is, and certainly can't distinguish from a Chrome reskin and a truly independent browser. Also keep in mind that students don't choose the browser on their ChromeOS laptops.
- t0bia_s 2y ago
  Yes, I agree. But those words about threat for democracy are misleading. Often misused as fear from different opinions.
user3939382 2y ago
> If you don't agree, don't use it I find myself over the years drifting from this philosophy, having originally been an ardent advocate of it. The practical reality, i.e. the one we live in and therefore what actually matters, is that corporate power has massive influence on society and de facto control of government. Individuals do not have the resources to become experts in every domain and industry which creates a huge disadvantage in their ability to regulate via wallet/feet. Social consensus on this is proven by the existence of agencies like the FDA, SEC, many more. If individual/consumer choice and knowledge was enough to regulate all corporate behavior they wouldn’t exist. Unfortunately in many cases these regulators have been corrupted and captured by corporate power and the result is corporations doing whatever serves their interests at society’s expense.
- t0bia_s 2y ago
  Isn't your mindset exactly what makes those companies profitable? If you resign for your personal responsibility and adopt conformity behaviour, you will be easily manipulated. Certainly, you don't have expertise and time to process certain narratives, but do you want so called experts to dictate to you what to do? Always for your safety, right?
  - user3939382 2y ago
    I think it’s possible to create value and therefore profits without externalizing costs upon the public. Personal responsibility is not all or nothing, and some of it belongs with wise voting. As experts are concerned, that can mean experts in regulation which is fine. Currently that’s often conflated with industry insider experts which is a mistake and the root of a lot of this corruption. Police prove that approach is unnecessary, there are many fine drug detectives for example that were never involved in the illicit drug trade.
    - t0bia_s 2y ago
      Personal responsibility is not all or nothing, and some of it belongs with wise voting. Isn't voting giving up personal responsibility to unknown electorate? Also your wise voting is easily conter by anyone who don't care. How experts of all kind fields could possible compete in predatory environment where only experts in politics win? Whole system doesn't make any sense.
xrd 2y ago
I didn't realize what was happening and used to be a booster for Google. I still own Google stock. But, now I'm don't like what they do as a company. I've definitely changed my mind. I think what worries me is not what is happening now. I think about how Twitter almost died in 2016 and was very close to selling a bunch of exact location data on their users. To a cell company who wanted to know when users were going into their competitors stores. That's so nuts that two parties were actually in conversation about that. Corporate desperation is worse than a fentanyl addict, sometimes. https://x.com/stevekrenzel/status/1589700722983305216 https://x.com/stevekrenzel/status/1589700722983305216 I bring it up because if Google is broken up as the Trump administration intends to do, the world inside Google will be chaos. Anything can happen. If one of the businesses spun out of Google decides it will be best for them long term to sell my data collected ten years ago to the Belarusian secret service, what's to stop them? Nothing really is stopping them now, but in moments of chaos, really crazy unexpected things can happen. Maybe it won't be the Belarusian secret service, maybe it will be my health care company who buys some innocuous like I made on Google+ and I'll be permanently relegated to some un-insurable class of people living in Trump's America.

paulryanrogers 2y ago

First step to change is realize there is a problem. Speech like this can help motivate action. Note that most people don't even know what a browser is, and certainly can't distinguish from a Chrome reskin and a truly independent browser. Also keep in mind that students don't choose the browser on their ChromeOS laptops.

t0bia_s 2y ago
Yes, I agree. But those words about threat for democracy are misleading. Often misused as fear from different opinions.

user3939382 2y ago

> If you don't agree, don't use it I find myself over the years drifting from this philosophy, having originally been an ardent advocate of it. The practical reality, i.e. the one we live in and therefore what actually matters, is that corporate power has massive influence on society and de facto control of government. Individuals do not have the resources to become experts in every domain and industry which creates a huge disadvantage in their ability to regulate via wallet/feet. Social consensus on this is proven by the existence of agencies like the FDA, SEC, many more. If individual/consumer choice and knowledge was enough to regulate all corporate behavior they wouldn’t exist. Unfortunately in many cases these regulators have been corrupted and captured by corporate power and the result is corporations doing whatever serves their interests at society’s expense.

t0bia_s 2y ago
Isn't your mindset exactly what makes those companies profitable? If you resign for your personal responsibility and adopt conformity behaviour, you will be easily manipulated. Certainly, you don't have expertise and time to process certain narratives, but do you want so called experts to dictate to you what to do? Always for your safety, right?
- user3939382 2y ago
  I think it’s possible to create value and therefore profits without externalizing costs upon the public. Personal responsibility is not all or nothing, and some of it belongs with wise voting. As experts are concerned, that can mean experts in regulation which is fine. Currently that’s often conflated with industry insider experts which is a mistake and the root of a lot of this corruption. Police prove that approach is unnecessary, there are many fine drug detectives for example that were never involved in the illicit drug trade.
  - t0bia_s 2y ago
    Personal responsibility is not all or nothing, and some of it belongs with wise voting. Isn't voting giving up personal responsibility to unknown electorate? Also your wise voting is easily conter by anyone who don't care. How experts of all kind fields could possible compete in predatory environment where only experts in politics win? Whole system doesn't make any sense.

xrd 2y ago

I didn't realize what was happening and used to be a booster for Google. I still own Google stock. But, now I'm don't like what they do as a company. I've definitely changed my mind. I think what worries me is not what is happening now. I think about how Twitter almost died in 2016 and was very close to selling a bunch of exact location data on their users. To a cell company who wanted to know when users were going into their competitors stores. That's so nuts that two parties were actually in conversation about that. Corporate desperation is worse than a fentanyl addict, sometimes. https://x.com/stevekrenzel/status/1589700722983305216 https://x.com/stevekrenzel/status/1589700722983305216 I bring it up because if Google is broken up as the Trump administration intends to do, the world inside Google will be chaos. Anything can happen. If one of the businesses spun out of Google decides it will be best for them long term to sell my data collected ten years ago to the Belarusian secret service, what's to stop them? Nothing really is stopping them now, but in moments of chaos, really crazy unexpected things can happen. Maybe it won't be the Belarusian secret service, maybe it will be my health care company who buys some innocuous like I made on Google+ and I'll be permanently relegated to some un-insurable class of people living in Trump's America.