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Washington Post's Privacy Tip: Stop Using Chrome, Delete Meta Apps (and Yandex)
- _mlbt 1y agoSafari reports that it blocked 16 trackers on WaPos home page. So it’s probably best to avoid them for privacy too.
- politelemon 1y agoI wouldn't be using Safari if I were concerned about privacy. Privacy is more than just blocking trackers.
- dlivingston 1y agoHow is Safari anything but strong on privacy?
- jhasse 1y agoIt's closed-source.
- dlivingston 1y agoThat's irrelevant to how private something is. Closed-source is a reason to be suspicious of privacy claims, especially without third-party privacy audits, I'll grant.
- leereeves 1y agoI hope people can get a "Stop Using Chrome" movement going, like we did with Internet Explorer long ago.
- righthand 1y agoIdk, isn't that how we got Chrome? Isn't this inviting someone else to be the new Internet abuse daddy?
- ljlolel 1y agoSounds like something written by a Google employee. Mozilla is a non-profit
- 0x_rs 1y agoNo, that was Firefox. Chrome's spread was fueled by literal malware or spyware bundling it to get some of Google's sweet money and some of the most aggressive advertisement campaigns for any online product ever.
- righthand 1y agoWas it Firefox? I remember Firefox existing at the time but I don't think it's ever really had dominant market share, perhaps when it was Netscape? I do remember the IE campaign went on quite a long time to where eventually Chrome showed up to the party and people shifted over as well as shifted their family and friends over. You don't see that kind of active effort for Firefox ever.
- ndriscoll 1y agoAccording to Wikipedia, Firefox share peaked around 31%. It was very much taking over and gaining share from IE before chrome appeared. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers#Older_reports_(2000%E2%80%932019) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers#Ol...
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- xnx 1y agoSource article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/06/06/meta-privacy-facebook-instagram/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/06/06/meta-pr...
- HelloUsername 1y ago> Source article Thx. Even the source in the slashdot article links to msn...
- bitpush 1y agoWritten by the same person who wrote Washington Post article. All very confusing.
- boomboomsubban 1y agoMSN is all rehosted articles I believe. Several times I've searched major paper headlines to read the full story on MSN. No idea what kind of deal these places have with Microsoft.
- not_a_bot_4sho 1y agoI like the MSN articles. My ad blocker cleans them up nicely, and they never ask me to subscribe.
- MaxBarraclough 1y agoUnfortunately MSN has a history of publishing AI hallucinations as fact. How Microsoft is making a mess of the news after replacing staff with AI https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/02/tech/microsoft-ai-news https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/02/tech/microsoft-ai-news
- righthand 1y agoMSN used to be this special variation of Internet Explorer on Windows during the early era of the internet. My grandmother used it and the rebranded browser was packaged with other software products (if I recall correctly, I could be conflating it with preinstalled trash back in the day). It had a different color theme and allowed you to log into your hotmail account. I think at one point it became an IE addon. I remember it revolved around giving you the news and maybe even loading hotmail with a special ui button. I have a foggy memory of it, but this MSN forum thread confirms the MSN Explorer existed[0]. You could even build a personal home page of sorts with the weather. [0] https://answers.msn.com/thread.aspx?threadid=2fa8c100-ed43-4921-89c5-04f9b43a0d07 https://answers.msn.com/thread.aspx?threadid=2fa8c100-ed43-4... Any ways it had a following of people who got their news and it still exists in some form today. I know the website msn.com always catered to news stories, but I don’t know if they were always reposted if they once had writers. I think it’s always been some sort of data harvesting/media credibility facade news-focused branch of Microsoft. Here is a screenshot: https://img.informer.com/screenshots/53/53675_1.jpg https://img.informer.com/screenshots/53/53675_1.jpg From the screenshot it appears the news has always been reposted and FUD based. It probably worked well (for Microsoft) in the golden age of RSS.
- xnx 1y agoWithout the suggestion to install an adblocker, this is not credible advice.
- userbinator 1y agoThe FBI recommends using an adblocker: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41483581 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41483581
- ninth_ant 1y agoA media outlet which depends on ad revenue as a primary income source is unlikely to suggest this. Ditching these deeply invasive products remains a good idea, independent on any decision to use ad blockers or not. The Meta/Yandex incident in particular is straight-up malware and everyone should remove their apps.
- timewizard 1y ago> which depends on ad revenue They're more tightly bound than that. They're dependent on Google Display Ads. Which really makes their whole diatribe that much more pathetic. Any media company that decided to traffic the ads themselves, from their own servers, and inline with their own content, would effectively be immune from ad blocking. > Ditching these deeply invasive products remains a good idea While still allowing random third party javascript to run unchecked on a parent website.
- kulahan 1y ago> While still allowing random third party javascript to run unchecked on a parent website. Lol, why are you commenting as if somehow allowing it to run negates the other good ideas in some way? Obviously some is better than none, and all is better than some, but each step takes more effort.
- timewizard 1y agolol, because ads pay for the content you're reading. it pays salaries. what I _don't_ want is to be _tracked_. show me ads all day if you want.
- arresin 1y agoWhat is the alternative to chrome that doesn’t crash or is not noticeably slower?
- mrweasel 1y agoFirefox? Weird question. I haven't even installed Chrome in the past 7 years. Firefox is fast (but I obviously don't know if Chrome is faster) and it never crashes.
- dartharva 1y agoChrome does feel faster to me; I remember someone here saying that was because of some kind of procedural loading shenanigans or something. But the main hook for me is how websites look. I do a lot of reading on the browser, and fonts on Chrome always look better than on Firefox. I would switch to Firefox in a heartbeat if only things started looking the same on it.
- 1718627440 1y agoI often hear that claim, but for me it was always the opposite. Firefox being fast while Chrome being a slow monster and memory hog. Also when I was using an RPi2b full-time, Firefox was working even though sometimes annoying, while Chrome was a no-go and would led to the OS being unusable.
- wyattblue 1y agoBrave Browser: https://brave.com/ https://brave.com/
- GolfPopper 1y agoBrave has some controversies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_(web_browser)#Controversies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_(web_browser)#Controvers...
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- p0w3n3d 1y agoI've noticed that recent Chrome version does not allow me to download the pdf I'm viewing. I had to open it in Firefox. The Chrome browser only allowed me to save it to drive (cloud)
- charcircuit 1y agoDid you try finding a print button?
- Henchman21 1y agoTo… save? I get that you can print to a file and it’ll save it that way of course, but damn that strikes me as really confusing for non-techies
- thrill 1y agoright-click save-as?
- kulahan 1y agoThis is how I get around that same issue, but it truly is a hacky workaround.
- cosmicgadget 1y agoSave or export would make more sense but printing to pdf has been the way to do it forever.
- Legend2440 1y agoSeems weird. I'm in Chrome right now and I can right-click on PDFs and click save as.
- p0w3n3d 1y agoI mean once you get into a pdf. Sometimes web page opens it instead of allowing download. The built-in pdf browser of chrome has no option to save it locally on android phone. I have not been not precise in explaining, because I find Google and Android constantly reducing my ownership of my own phone and that's another brick in the wall here
- NHQ 1y agoWeb browsers should become outmoded soon. It was fine for bootstrapping the web, but now to keep up a browser must emulate the operating system and more in a single app. This pressure is the centralizing factor in browser dominance. Ditch the features, drop the spy protocol (http), just get the files.
- thethimble 1y agoWhat will the alternative to web browsers be after they become "outmoded"?
- consumer451 1y agoI can't speak for the user who you are responding to, but an AI maxi might believe that an AI powered interface will take over all information retrieval.
- zahlman 1y ago> the spy protocol (http) I'm afraid I can't guess your reasoning.
- NHQ 1y agoHow do i turn it off?
- zahlman 1y agoTurn what off? HTTP is how you receive the web page in the first place. It is not, in itself, causing data to be sent from your computer to others. That happens either because of a script on the page or because you request a web page (i.e. the browser sends headers).
- gosub100 1y agoblock port 80
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- ck2 1y agosupermium --ungoogled-supermium https://win32subsystem.live/supermium/ https://win32subsystem.live/supermium/ https://github.com/win32ss/supermium https://github.com/win32ss/supermium
- pmdr 1y agoFirst time reading about this, thank you!
- TiredOfLife 1y agoWashington Post also called Ukraines attack on russian bombers "dirty"
- cosmicgadget 1y agoCan you elaborate?
- extra88 1y agoThat's one opinion from one columnist. Also, the full phase was "dirty war," by which they seem to mean one dominated by covert operations by intelligence services rather than conventional forces, on both sides.
- jeffbee 1y agoIt's sort of interesting that Brave was not affected by this because they already blocked the technique used by the Yandex app. I wonder if Brave devs were aware of that specific abuse, or if they just thought that localhost traffic was distasteful categorically.
- testfrequency 1y agoI really wish I was ok, morally, with using Brave. One of the few that seem to have their shit together
- throwaway290 1y agoFirefox in strict mode should be unaffected?
- meroes 1y agoHmm how can I use being forced to use Chrome for work, for me tax wise… If I’m a contractor forced to use Chrome and mobile devices, can I deduct a separate work phone? I really hate having it my iPhone, at least maybe I can claw something back this way?
- 0_____0 1y agoI believe it is good form to keep work and personal machines completely separate, including phones. If you ever have to hand over your devices for discovery in a law suit I think you will come to the same conclusion.
- Xorakios 1y agoI very much agree. Retired now but I used to have a separate phone for each major client for HIPAA compliance but it's good advice everywhere (and $50 year-old android phones and $15/month Tracfone accounts aren't just for criminals!)
- jhbadger 1y agoAnd stop using Alexa (of course Bezos' paper wouldn't say that!)
- m-localhost 1y agoZen Browser (FF) on Win and Firefox on iOS (for sync) works well for me. Edge for all M365 related stuff. Still use Chrome for web dev. Not sure what to move on in that regard...
- t-writescode 1y agoI'm a relatively new web dev and I've been quite happy with Firefox's Web Dev tools. What does Chrome's dev tools give someone that Firefox's doesn't? I can edit css on the fly, see where a css rule is being overwritten, debug javascript, etc.
- arealaccount 1y agoFF dev tools just don’t work sometimes, notably with iframes, sometimes with source maps, and other edge case types things. I use FF for 99% of dev, open Chrome maybe once a quarter. It’s a better browser.
- paulryanrogers 1y agoFunny, I find Chrome Dev tools doesn't save some response bodies, while Firefox consistently does.
- nine_k 1y agoOne an develop in FF, but has to test in Chrome. (Same with developing in Chrome and also testing in FF.)
- elendee 1y agofirefox doesnt have Workspaces. I do 100% of my CSS in Chrome Workspaces
- t-writescode 1y agoI use vite, so I think I get that functionality without needing Chrome? ... if I understand what Workspaces are?
- ajsnigrutin 1y agoFor most people in the west, using yandex and chinese alternatives would be better than local ones, because neither china nor russia has any auhority over you, while your local agencies do.
- Wobbles42 1y agoThis. Separation of concerns is a good thing. In this case "people who spy on you" and "people who kick your door in and shoot your dog".
- thadk 1y agoAnyone have tips on how to avoid having the WhatsApp app on your phone?
- tdiff 1y agoUse telegram
- sneak 1y agoTelegram is a privacy downgrade from WhatsApp. WA is at least end to end encrypted; Telegram is not.
- Kinrany 1y agoTelegram is not a downgrade in this instance.
- cguess 1y agoIt's not encrypted by default, WhatsApp is.
- geraldhh 1y agoyes it is. it does not do the e2e hat-trick thou
- TsiCClawOfLight 1y agoEncryption without E2EE is completely worthless for the threat model discussed here.
- kstrauser 1y agoThat’s right. It’s either E2EE, or it’s not encrypted IMHO.
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- ChrisArchitect 1y agoSource: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/06/06/meta-privacy-facebook-instagram/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/06/06/meta-pr... Related discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44169115 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44169115
- ThinkBeat 1y agoI dont yet understand this attack. The WP article says: "" Millions of websites contain a string of computer code from Meta that compiles your web activity. It might capture the income you report to the government, your application for a student loan and your online shopping. "" If I read that correctly then they are capturing all https web content you access in clear text and uploads it all to Meta? Then Meta I thought the exploit was used to track where you visited, not the full data of each webpage.
- bink 1y agoIt does sound fantastical. A piece of code that can violate the same origin policy would be a huge vulnerability. Meta could be working with other sites to share data on users via code running on both sites, but snooping on tax data without the IRS helping? Unlikely. I can only assume they're suggesting that companies like Intuit and H&R Block are sharing this data with Meta, but that seems like a huge violation of privacy and with tax data it might even be illegal.
- macNchz 1y agoIt's effectively malware—this article has some more detail: https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/06/meta-and-yandex-are-de-anonymizing-android-users-web-browsing-identifiers/ https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/06/meta-and-yandex-are... Basically, they created a channel between the browser and a localhost webserver running in their native apps, by abusing the ability to set arbitrary metadata on WebRTC connections. That way, they were able to exfiltrate tracking cookies out of the browser's sandbox to the native app, where they could be associated with your logged-in user identity.
- helph67 1y agoThirty months old but I'm guessing they haven't improved! https://www.techradar.com/news/nearly-half-of-all-online-trackers-are-from-google https://www.techradar.com/news/nearly-half-of-all-online-tra...
- keernan 1y agoIf we truly lived in a democracy which 'obeyed' the overwhelming will of the people, there would be laws with 'horrific' penalties for any effort to track devices or people online.
- aucisson_masque 1y agoWhat about the other app ? Now that this trick is known, either it’s completely fixed, including in system webview, or all the other usual spyware ,that the play store is full of, are going to use it to track their user. Google still hasn’t fixed the issue of app being able to list all other installed app on your phone without requiring permission despite having been reported months ago. They didn’t even provide an answer. I believe Google isn’t interested in Android user privacy in any way, even when it’s to their own benefit. At this point either use iPhone, grapheneos or no phone at all.
- MrDresden 1y ago> Google still hasn’t fixed the issue of app being able to list all other installed app on your phone without requiring permission despite having been reported months ago. They didn’t even provide an answer. Since the first release of Android it has been possible to query for installed applications on the device, and since Android 11 those results have started to be filtered[0] (with some exceptions[1]). So which issue exactly are you talking about? [0]: https://medium.com/androiddevelopers/package-visibility-in-android-11-cc857f221cd9 https://medium.com/androiddevelopers/package-visibility-in-a... [1]: https://developer.android.com/training/package-visibility/automatic https://developer.android.com/training/package-visibility/au...
- aucisson_masque 1y agohttps://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/thread/332857106/privacy-concern-about-android-intent-action-main-intent-in-queries-element https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/thre... Basically no answer but an a.i generated one and someone promising to get back in touch since 24 of march. Who are they kidding ?
- capyba 1y agoI don’t know anyone that works at Meta, so I’m hoping that someone here could answer this for me- What makes employees there feel good (or at least okay) about doing stuff like this? You're spying on people, no? Surveilling ordinary people, not enemy combatants or foreign militaries? Perhaps a friend of a friend or even a family member? This kind of thing is so creepy and disturbing to me, not that it’s anything new…
- kb_dev 1y agoIn principle, I think most people believe their morals would prevent them from working at a company like Meta. On the flip side, how much are morals worth if you have the opportunity to be financially free? There's also the opportunity to work on interesting problems. Anecdotally, of course, I know a Meta engineer at the L7 level (generally staff engineer in these large tech companies). He makes over seven figures a year, 75% of that being from stocks. The money is there.
- godelski 1y agoAre the people working on the interesting problems doing most of the spying? I'm sure there's overlap like people working on AR scraping images of people's homes to build better models but they also do a ton of research where they use open datasets. I'm curious what this distribution is. I'm also curious what the answer is for just average programmers. Meta has like 70k employees. Surely a lot of them aren't doing interesting stuff
- gsky 1y agoNazis too worked on lot of interesting problems.
- godelski 1y agoSure. There were also a lot of very normal people. There were people trying to take down Nazi from the inside. And there were people that were genocidal maniacs. It's not like one day all of Germany turned evil then a few years later turned good again. Framing things like that is unhelpful. It makes evil seem cut and dry. Trivial to identify. That's what authoritarians thrive on: oversimplification. Everything is easy, it's not your fault, "it's so simple, you just..." All that accomplishes is letting evil flourish. Gives it time to grow and set root. You're just being dehumanizing yourself. Don't help your enemies. Don't emulate your enemies.
- 1vuio0pswjnm7 1y agoText-only, no Javascript: https://assets.msn.com/content/view/v2/Detail/en-in/AA1GecPs https://assets.msn.com/content/view/v2/Detail/en-in/AA1GecPs
- geraldhh 1y agounformatted html with sugar is not really helpful to humans, is it?
- 1vuio0pswjnm7 1y agoIf the response is JSON where the JSON values contain HTML, then is the response "JSON" or "HTML". I would call this response "JSON" not "HTML". The JSON is unformatted, i.e., no "prettyPrint". The text-only browser I use to read HTML works with this JSON, it is easy to read, because the JSON values contain HTML tags.
- EMM_386 1y agoIf any software engineers out there are working on things like this I can only pray they STOP and think about why what they are doing. Implementing features by having to jump through hoops, just so that their employer can better spy on people and make more money. That is so wrong, on so many levels ... I personally couldn't do it. I hate this even more than NSO Group's Pegasys, which could easily get people killed. I'm ok with my reasoning, and I really hate that one as well. Here, with Meta and Yandex, you see what you always see. As soon as people catch on, they immediately remove it. But they will keep using it until that day comes. For money, while trying to hide it from the users they are spying on. It's greedy and evil and whoever in these companies think up these ideas should be let go. Immediately, in a perfect world. Instead they'll just try another approach. While everyone else has to clean up this latest one. "Following public disclosure, Meta ceased using this method on June 3, 2025. Browser vendors like Chrome, Brave, Firefox, and DuckDuckGo have implemented or are developing mitigations, but a full resolution may require OS-level changes and stricter enforcement of platform policies to prevent further abuse."
- klipklop 1y agoAlways funny how nearly universally Meta employees are quiet and never defend their companies practices.. The silence says a lot.
- pmdr 1y agoSilence keeps food on the table.
- flanked-evergl 1y agoThey make something people want. Most people I know thah use it, including me, just don't really see that big a downside to using it. I'm not even slightly considering removing any Meta app, and let's face it, Firefox is over as a project because their priorities are all out of wack. So Chrome and meta apps all the way for me, but I'm sure to listen to the Amazon Washington Post as to how I should treat Amazon competitors in the future.
- const_cast 1y agoThis is such a foreign perspective to me that I legitimately cannot even conceptualize it. I've used Facebook products. Even just barring the privacy concerns, there's been one constant - the products are bad. They're not good. They actively make my life worse. They're not fun, they're not enjoyable, they're not performant, they're not... anything. Even if I was a complete 100% sellout and I didn't give a single fuck about privacy, I wouldn't use Facebook products. Because they're just that bad. Also Firefox is "over" as a project? Legitimately, what the fuck are you talking about? Firefox works fine and has been working fine for as long as I've used it. The browser works, and for all intents and purposes, I can't tell the difference from Chrome. Really, I can't. Are there differences? Probably. I've never encountered any, so for my money Firefox is fine.
- baxtr 1y agoEven instagram? I tend to agree with your point but I like insta.
- righthand 1y agoWaPo’s reputation so tarnished they have other outlets reporting for them? I don’t understand why a slashdot article has WaPo in the headline. Are they some authority on privacy?
- DidYaWipe 1y agoNever used Chrome, and don't use Meta apps... and when I did, I did not give them any real information. I'm disgusted by the number of people giving real personal information to these assholes. "Open"AI insisted that you give them a real, functioning phone number to use ChatGPT. No goddamned way.
- Ylpertnodi 1y agoI didn't give open ai my number...because i wouldn't have. Works fine for me (though i do use deepseek more, nowadays.
- DidYaWipe 1y agoThat is a recent change. Originally I tried various workarounds, including Google Voice and burner apps... but "Open"AI rejected them.
- gsky 1y agoGmail should be at the top of the list
- HocusLocus 1y agoIt's CREEPY to imagine the Internet is under a mandate to protect your privacy. Don't be CREEPY. The EU cookie fiasco is just that. All of a sudden, your every day experience was derailed extremely in a way that 'broke' HTML standards and sites at first in hundreds of ways. All of a sudden sites that never did track users were forced to start tracking them -- in order to set the flag to suppress the harassing cookie warning. Ironically, they will remember your cookie settings if you 'sign up'. Meanwhile nothing became more secure or private. It was just a way for the EU to virtue signal out loud and be annoying. It throws the user into sitespace to navigate the site's own cookie settings. It's theater. Meanwhile, advanced fingerprinting is, well uhm, advanced. If the EU cared about cookie privacy a better course of action would have been to see whether browsers were locked down with best anti-fingerprinting possible and local cookie dialogues... and certify the ones that were. Educate users, harass them one time.
- huijzer 1y agoYes if the EU’s aim was to just throw sand in the machine that is called society, then it seems they did a splendid job.
- gherkinnn 1y ago> All of a sudden sites that never did track users were forced to start tracking them -- in order to set the flag to suppress the harassing cookie warning. How is this true? You don't need a cookie warning if you're not tracking or doing other nastiness. A cookie banner is not required for functions like user sessions or keeping track of a shopping art.
- jhasse 1y ago> All of a sudden sites that never did track users were forced to start tracking them -- in order to set the flag to suppress the harassing cookie warning. If the site never tracked the user, they wouldn't need to show the cookie banner in the first place.
- Ylpertnodi 1y agoThe 'fiasco' is for your benefit. If you don't like the banners, get a blocker or don't visit sites that track you. It's a pissy thing to add, but do you also get upset with places that have "This area is under video surveillance for your [cough] security"?
- miohtama 1y agohttps://getfirefox.com https://getfirefox.com
- downsplat 1y agoYes. Especially on Android, FF with uBlock Origin is the superpower. For this particular issue: Three dots > Extensions > uBlock Origin > Open dashboard > Filter list > Privacy, enable "Block Outsider Intrusion into LAN".
- curtisszmania 1y ago[dead]
- JKCalhoun 1y agoI like the succinctness of it. Reminded me of "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants" as Michael Pollan says about dieting.
- unstablediffusi 1y ago[flagged]
- skylurk 1y agoWhat do you suggest as an alternative to food?
- jgalt212 1y ago> Know, too, that even if you don't have Meta apps on your phone, and even if you don't use Facebook or Instagram at all, Meta might still harvest information on your activity across the web. A bit wishy washy. They are still tracking you, just not as effectively as before.
- cuncurrenzio 1y agoThere is a data pipe directly into the PNNL from Meta. Do your research!
- kstrauser 1y agoI don’t want to. You do it for me: post a link to what you’re talking about.
- cuncurren6zio 1y agoThere is a data pipe directly into the PNNL from Meta. Do your research!
- sershe 1y agoWhat I wonder is (from someone who has been in a room like that, not speculation), how do these decisions go down? My other favorite example is un-disabling telemetry, resetting default browser, etc. Some PM or VP is in a meeting saying we are going to do this shady user hostile thing and everyone just nods? What is the amount and type of euphemisation? I'd love to be a fly on the wall in one of these..
- egberts1 1y agoAll boils down to Chrome leveraging localhost for its location.