4 ms·

Holy crap I hope that's not true. I've also had unguessable pages indexed, though, and don't have an explanation.

nicce 2mo ago
Something worth inspecting further. We know that Chrome stores and sends the browsing history but this is an interesting vector.
- DANmode 2mo ago
  I’d be more surprised if they weren’t capturing this information. Especially if you have autocomplete-while-searching type of features on.
  - EGreg 2mo ago
    Why don’t they also capture information you enter into forms on Chrome? They control the entire browser surface, technically they can know everything, even TLS and E2E encrypted data, that they silently phone home… If you think this is silly, consider that Microsoft Recall had been observing everything on people’s entire SCREENS and phoning home much of it. That is how a guy was caught recently: https://x.com/t3chfalcon/status/2074134314145489195 https://x.com/t3chfalcon/status/2074134314145489195 And it is actually much worse than even that: https://community.qbix.com/t/increasing-state-of-surveillance-from-all-sides-around-the-world/804 https://community.qbix.com/t/increasing-state-of-surveillanc...
    - pixl97 2mo ago
      >Why don’t they also capture information you enter into forms on Chrome? For some reason people are downvoting you, but yea, one day we'll likely see a lawsuit where they do exactly that.
      - deleted 2mo ago
        [deleted]
    - DANmode 2mo ago
      Chromium (vs Google Chrome) usage should get more “duh, obvious” developer support, and it boggles the mind why it doesn’t. Especially in managed environments where it’s someone’s job to keep systems autonomously updated…
inigyou 2mo ago
There's no reason to think it isn't true. It matches every pattern of behavior observed from every tech company.
- EGreg 2mo ago
  Why don’t they also read your gmail and get your bank passwords? And maybe have access to EVERY site actually, with “forgot password” type stuff in addition to providing oauth tokens…
  - applfanboysbgon 2mo ago
    > Why don’t they also read your gmail Boy do I have news for you.
    - saghm 2mo ago
      Yeah, I thought it was pretty obvious that is literally the whole reason that Gmail even exists
  - deleted 2mo ago
    [deleted]
  - dbdr 2mo ago
    " Microsoft is scanning the inside of password-protected zip files for malware" https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/05/microsoft-is-scanning-the-inside-of-password-protected-zip-files-for-malware/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/05/micro...
  - pjc50 2mo ago
    The tools in gmail in some sense "read" all your mail in order to classify spam and do things like calendar integration. The extent to which they do other things with the information is .. unclear.
  - inigyou 2mo ago
    Because your bank doesn't send your password to your Gmail because if they did they know Google would read it.
FabCH 2mo ago
It’s absolutely true. It is a documented fact. It was discovered and entered into public record during the DOJ antitrust investigation into Google Chrome. They call the signal „popularity“ and it is a successor of the Google Toolbar signal. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/department-justice-wins-significant-remedies-against-google https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/department-justice-wins-signi...
- NuclearPM 2mo ago
  > „popularity“ Why are you using weird quotes?
  - evilduck 2mo ago
    I'll take a wild guess and assume they are of a German or Polish language background. Wait 'til you encounter a French person who accidentally uses guillemets if you want one even «weirder».
    - robin_reala 2mo ago
      Or the Nordics ”like this” or the UK ‘like this’ or Japan 「like this」. Basically every country has their own standard: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quotation_mark#Summary_table https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quotation_mark#Summary_table
      - keane 2mo ago
        This is why the <q> element exists which enables locale-aware quotation marks: https://w3c.github.io/i18n-drafts/questions/qa-the-q-element.en https://w3c.github.io/i18n-drafts/questions/qa-the-q-element... :root:lang(en) { quotes: '“' '”' '‘' '’' } :root:lang(fr) { quotes: '«' '»' '«' '»' } :root:lang(fr-CA) { quotes: '«' '»' '‹' '›' } q:before { content: open-quote; } q:after { content: close-quote; } There's currently 26 quotation mark varieties by default (in Firefox): https://searchfox.org/firefox-main/source/intl/locale/cldr-quotes.inc https://searchfox.org/firefox-main/source/intl/locale/cldr-q... which are sourced from the Unicode Common Locale Data Repository: https://github.com/unicode-org/cldr/tree/main/common/main https://github.com/unicode-org/cldr/tree/main/common/main
chasd00 2mo ago
This is why Chrome begs you to login constantly and will do it automatically when you login to Gmail through Chrome. Everything you do in the browser (bookmarks, settings, address bar) is data about you sent to Adsense. No need for cookies when you control the browser and know who is using it. Edit: also private browsing isn’t exactly private when you’re logged in to the browser.
jacekm 2mo ago
Chrome sends home the urls you visit together with the page performance data (and probably more). That's how they build Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX) for the most popular sites: https://developer.chrome.com/docs/crux https://developer.chrome.com/docs/crux

nicce 2mo ago

Something worth inspecting further. We know that Chrome stores and sends the browsing history but this is an interesting vector.

DANmode 2mo ago
I’d be more surprised if they weren’t capturing this information. Especially if you have autocomplete-while-searching type of features on.
- EGreg 2mo ago
  Why don’t they also capture information you enter into forms on Chrome? They control the entire browser surface, technically they can know everything, even TLS and E2E encrypted data, that they silently phone home… If you think this is silly, consider that Microsoft Recall had been observing everything on people’s entire SCREENS and phoning home much of it. That is how a guy was caught recently: https://x.com/t3chfalcon/status/2074134314145489195 https://x.com/t3chfalcon/status/2074134314145489195 And it is actually much worse than even that: https://community.qbix.com/t/increasing-state-of-surveillance-from-all-sides-around-the-world/804 https://community.qbix.com/t/increasing-state-of-surveillanc...
  - pixl97 2mo ago
    >Why don’t they also capture information you enter into forms on Chrome? For some reason people are downvoting you, but yea, one day we'll likely see a lawsuit where they do exactly that.
    - deleted 2mo ago
      [deleted]
  - DANmode 2mo ago
    Chromium (vs Google Chrome) usage should get more “duh, obvious” developer support, and it boggles the mind why it doesn’t. Especially in managed environments where it’s someone’s job to keep systems autonomously updated…

inigyou 2mo ago

There's no reason to think it isn't true. It matches every pattern of behavior observed from every tech company.

EGreg 2mo ago
Why don’t they also read your gmail and get your bank passwords? And maybe have access to EVERY site actually, with “forgot password” type stuff in addition to providing oauth tokens…
- applfanboysbgon 2mo ago
  > Why don’t they also read your gmail Boy do I have news for you.
  - saghm 2mo ago
    Yeah, I thought it was pretty obvious that is literally the whole reason that Gmail even exists
- deleted 2mo ago
  [deleted]
- dbdr 2mo ago
  " Microsoft is scanning the inside of password-protected zip files for malware" https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/05/microsoft-is-scanning-the-inside-of-password-protected-zip-files-for-malware/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/05/micro...
- pjc50 2mo ago
  The tools in gmail in some sense "read" all your mail in order to classify spam and do things like calendar integration. The extent to which they do other things with the information is .. unclear.
- inigyou 2mo ago
  Because your bank doesn't send your password to your Gmail because if they did they know Google would read it.

FabCH 2mo ago

It’s absolutely true. It is a documented fact. It was discovered and entered into public record during the DOJ antitrust investigation into Google Chrome. They call the signal „popularity“ and it is a successor of the Google Toolbar signal. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/department-justice-wins-significant-remedies-against-google https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/department-justice-wins-signi...

NuclearPM 2mo ago
> „popularity“ Why are you using weird quotes?
- evilduck 2mo ago
  I'll take a wild guess and assume they are of a German or Polish language background. Wait 'til you encounter a French person who accidentally uses guillemets if you want one even «weirder».
  - robin_reala 2mo ago
    Or the Nordics ”like this” or the UK ‘like this’ or Japan 「like this」. Basically every country has their own standard: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quotation_mark#Summary_table https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quotation_mark#Summary_table
    - keane 2mo ago
      This is why the <q> element exists which enables locale-aware quotation marks: https://w3c.github.io/i18n-drafts/questions/qa-the-q-element.en https://w3c.github.io/i18n-drafts/questions/qa-the-q-element... :root:lang(en) { quotes: '“' '”' '‘' '’' } :root:lang(fr) { quotes: '«' '»' '«' '»' } :root:lang(fr-CA) { quotes: '«' '»' '‹' '›' } q:before { content: open-quote; } q:after { content: close-quote; } There's currently 26 quotation mark varieties by default (in Firefox): https://searchfox.org/firefox-main/source/intl/locale/cldr-quotes.inc https://searchfox.org/firefox-main/source/intl/locale/cldr-q... which are sourced from the Unicode Common Locale Data Repository: https://github.com/unicode-org/cldr/tree/main/common/main https://github.com/unicode-org/cldr/tree/main/common/main

chasd00 2mo ago

This is why Chrome begs you to login constantly and will do it automatically when you login to Gmail through Chrome. Everything you do in the browser (bookmarks, settings, address bar) is data about you sent to Adsense. No need for cookies when you control the browser and know who is using it. Edit: also private browsing isn’t exactly private when you’re logged in to the browser.

jacekm 2mo ago

Chrome sends home the urls you visit together with the page performance data (and probably more). That's how they build Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX) for the most popular sites: https://developer.chrome.com/docs/crux https://developer.chrome.com/docs/crux