4 ms·

I encourage Chrome users to go check the search history attached to their Google account. It exposes a lot of data that you didn't realize you were sending to G

I encourage Chrome users to go check the search history attached to their Google account. It exposes a lot of data that you didn't realize you were sending to Google (including letter-by-letter entry of search terms/urls) and may give a newfound respect for Firefox's separation, whether you personally care enough to make the switch or not.

nnnnni 13y ago
I only use Chromium because it's supposed to not have the phone-home "features" that are in Chrome. ...or at least it's that they claim. EDIT: "they" being Google. http://blog.chromium.org/2008/10/google-chrome-chromium-and-google.html http://blog.chromium.org/2008/10/google-chrome-chromium-and-...
- cjhopman 13y ago
  Who's "they"? http://blog.chromium.org/2008/10/google-chrome-chromium-and-google.html http://blog.chromium.org/2008/10/google-chrome-chromium-and-...
- amenod 13y ago
  Note that even Firefor has at least one kind of phone home "feature" enabled by default - malware protection. It keeps asking Google if the sites you are visiting are OK, thus sending the list of visited sites to Google. I know that they are supposed not to misuse this information, but I would feel much better if they didn't receive it at all.
  - mccr8 13y ago
    The SafeBrowsing implementation does not send every URL you visit to Google. There's a local database of bad URLs, but stored in a way that can have false positives, to improve efficiency. Only if you get a match with the local database does it contact Google to see if it is a false positive or not.
- cjhopman 13y ago
  And, according to your edit, you missed my point. That blog post explicitly states that Chromium has many of the same "phone-home features" of Chrome. That includes the specific one discussed in this thread, "search suggest".
- cookiecaper 13y ago
  The difference between Chromium and Chrome is mainly that Chromium doesn't include the proprietary featuresets included in Chrome, like the Pepper Flash implementation. Chromium is not a more private build, it's just a more open build. They still send all your data to Google by default, just like Chrome.
deleted 13y ago
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bushido 13y ago
To my knowledge search history is opt-in (as opposed to opt-out). Reconfirmed this for my Google accounts and in fact it is not storing search history. Ofcourse Google may be tracking it on their end, but I assume very few services don't track, so that's a non-issue (at least for me). For anyone who wants to check, the url is: https://history.google.com/history/ https://history.google.com/history/
- scott_karana 13y ago
  Search history as presented to you may be opt-in, but what Google actually does with your data is unknowable.
  - dudus 13y ago
    Google provides a unified privacy policy for all products that describe how the collected data is used. http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/#infouse http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/#infouse
    - Silhouette 13y ago
      If you don't send them the data in the first place, it doesn't matter what their privacy policy says -- either today or in the future -- about how they will use it.
lern_too_spel 13y ago
This was a big deal on /. when Chrome launched. As several /.ers pointed out, there is a setting for that in Chrome, so it isn't a good reason to prefer one browser over another. http://www.thechromesource.com/how-to-turn-off-search-suggestions-in-chrome/ http://www.thechromesource.com/how-to-turn-off-search-sugges...
- WatchDog 13y ago
  If you find letter by letter search useful but only want to use it would you are searching, not while using the address bar. Then it can be a good reason.

nnnnni 13y ago

I only use Chromium because it's supposed to not have the phone-home "features" that are in Chrome. ...or at least it's that they claim. EDIT: "they" being Google. http://blog.chromium.org/2008/10/google-chrome-chromium-and-google.html http://blog.chromium.org/2008/10/google-chrome-chromium-and-...

cjhopman 13y ago
Who's "they"? http://blog.chromium.org/2008/10/google-chrome-chromium-and-google.html http://blog.chromium.org/2008/10/google-chrome-chromium-and-...
amenod 13y ago
Note that even Firefor has at least one kind of phone home "feature" enabled by default - malware protection. It keeps asking Google if the sites you are visiting are OK, thus sending the list of visited sites to Google. I know that they are supposed not to misuse this information, but I would feel much better if they didn't receive it at all.
- mccr8 13y ago
  The SafeBrowsing implementation does not send every URL you visit to Google. There's a local database of bad URLs, but stored in a way that can have false positives, to improve efficiency. Only if you get a match with the local database does it contact Google to see if it is a false positive or not.
cjhopman 13y ago
And, according to your edit, you missed my point. That blog post explicitly states that Chromium has many of the same "phone-home features" of Chrome. That includes the specific one discussed in this thread, "search suggest".
cookiecaper 13y ago
The difference between Chromium and Chrome is mainly that Chromium doesn't include the proprietary featuresets included in Chrome, like the Pepper Flash implementation. Chromium is not a more private build, it's just a more open build. They still send all your data to Google by default, just like Chrome.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

bushido 13y ago

To my knowledge search history is opt-in (as opposed to opt-out). Reconfirmed this for my Google accounts and in fact it is not storing search history. Ofcourse Google may be tracking it on their end, but I assume very few services don't track, so that's a non-issue (at least for me). For anyone who wants to check, the url is: https://history.google.com/history/ https://history.google.com/history/

scott_karana 13y ago
Search history as presented to you may be opt-in, but what Google actually does with your data is unknowable.
- dudus 13y ago
  Google provides a unified privacy policy for all products that describe how the collected data is used. http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/#infouse http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/#infouse
  - Silhouette 13y ago
    If you don't send them the data in the first place, it doesn't matter what their privacy policy says -- either today or in the future -- about how they will use it.

lern_too_spel 13y ago

This was a big deal on /. when Chrome launched. As several /.ers pointed out, there is a setting for that in Chrome, so it isn't a good reason to prefer one browser over another. http://www.thechromesource.com/how-to-turn-off-search-suggestions-in-chrome/ http://www.thechromesource.com/how-to-turn-off-search-sugges...

WatchDog 13y ago
If you find letter by letter search useful but only want to use it would you are searching, not while using the address bar. Then it can be a good reason.