Google Chrome pushes ahead with targeted ads based on your browser history
Google Chrome pushes browser history-based ad targeting
Google enables advertisers a look into your browsing history...
"Enhanced Ad Privacy." That's the technology that, unless switched off, allows websites to target the user with adverts tuned to their online activities
That's some Orwellian shit right there.
This is how the internet has worked since forever. At least for Chrome it's opt-in, and they're very clear about what is shared.
Edit: apparently it's only opt-in in Europe so I offer my condolences
It's not opt-in. These settings are automatically set to be turned on unless you intentionally turn them off. So they're opt-out by definition.
I doubt this "opt-in" would replace the already existing tracking. It being opt-in is pointless since at very best it doesn't change anything.
That's how bad online services and nonfree programs was working since forever. The Internet is just sending the stuff your computer want to send.
every day I'm glad I switched to firefox
I may be cursed but I have never experienced any slowdown with Firefox. I never noticed the appeal of Chrome, but have I only used it twice in my life…
I use a macbook for work. Chrome is ridiculously buggy and sucking every bit of memory. Firefox is almost as bad. Chrome is really bad when using more than 1 tab. Firefox has rendering issues with jira and git. Chrome compelling locks up when using meet, Firefox is slightly better.
In my opinion all browsers have sucked since 2015. Slow, unresponsive, rendering issues, resource hogs. Overall the browser experience has led me to use the internet less and less. It is not the privacy, it is the basic functionality is not working consistently.
It works really well on mobile, that's just about all the appeal I can find. Some sites are a bit glitchy on Firefox, but it's really rare. I keep it around for those occasions. On PC it's just Firefox and Edge (cuz work).
I’ve never left Firefox. Through their redesigns and restructure of available add-ons, Firefox has always been the better option because they’ve always been focused on user options and user privacy.
"I don’t want my browser keeping track of my browsing history to help serve me ads, and I definitely don’t want my browser sharing any function of my browsing history with every random website I visit.”
Then why were you using Chrome in the first place?? This feels very much like “‘I never thought the leopards would eat my face,’ says the head of the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party.”
Every single product offered by Google is meant as an ad delivery method to increase their balance sheet. I’m honestly shocked by the people who are shocked when Google takes steps that are meant to increase ad delivery when that’s always been Google’s ultimate goal.
If you're frustrated with Firefox you could give Brave Browser a try. The devs forked off of Chromium and removed all of the tracking that Google wants in there. It comes pre-loaded with all of the Ad-blocking features I use in Firefox as well, so no extensions needed for that. Also you'll still be able to use the Chromecast feature if you really want to go in and re-enable it.
The only thing you'll want to do is to switch the Homepage off and probably disable the icon at the top for enrolling in their ad rewards program (which handles the problems that a lot of users here have with Brave).
Firefox + uBlock Origin is a godsend. Shout outs also go to DuckDuckGo and the Privacy Badger add-on
Fwiw, my experience with Firefox has been so good that I’ve started using Pocket and Thunderbird as well (both also developed by Mozilla). There’s a bit of a learning curve, but resources are easily found online, and the privacy and customization benefits easily outweigh the hiccups, imo
Why not just use Firefox (while you still can ...)
Why, will you soon not be able to?
I think they're just referring to FF's small market share.
Firefox's user base is apparently been dwindling for a long time now, so the possibility of this browser shutting down due to not having enough funds is getting higher and higher each year. At least, that's how I interpret it.
This was overwhelming rejected by everyone, including Microsoft, Mozilla, Safari, and others. It's universally disliked, and Google knows this, but they intentionally know they're abusing their monopoly to push anti-consumer bullshit.
It sure would be nice if the US still pretended to care about consumers and breaking up monopolies.
I was born way after that may have ever happened, so sounds more like a fairy tale to me
I opened the browser at the library to print a pre employment drug screen form today. The browser had a pop up asking to review settings, it looked like you could tell them not to use ads this way, but damn I wish I would have read it now. Not my computer and it reboots to clear the profile when you "log out" so I didnt spend the time
2056
Please drink verification can
Don't forget to scream "I fucking love Amazon!" clearly into the microphone.
Black mirror comming true!
That's fine. I'll continue to use Firefox.
It's crazy to think that this level of intrusion is considered fair game. The way these behaviors are normalized is completely dystopian.
It's absolutely insane that this is legal. This type of spying is explicitly forbidden in the constitution of the United States of America, but since it's a private corporation it's suddenly okay? The FBI has been known to purchase information about consumers from private corporations. This is a back door around the 4th amendment. Actually since corporations are essentially governing by proxy, buying laws and legislatures, this is a constitutional violation.
Incremental changes have muffled the impact to most consumers sadly and as long as that works they'll keep doing it.
They already did this with Youtube. I turned of Youtube history because I didn't want anyone being able to track what I watch. All of a sudden, Youtube's home page for my account was blank with a message that said "Turn on history if you want to see recommendations". I sat with that for a couple days, going to Youtube to check out channels I'd subscribed to. It wasn't the same. When I got to Youtube for some distraction, I want to discover something different from my usual stuff. So I delete my history weekly as part of "routine maintainence".
So glad I moved to Firefox, fu Google
Mobile has extensions too. Ublock on Firefox mobile is a god send.
I tried Firefox in like 2016 but it was very slow for some reason.
Is it fast now? Been thinking about securing my privacy lately so I might give it another try.
Im going for as much privacy I can while still maintaining as much functionality as possible.
Anyone having any pointers?
Ive used Firefox and chrome for a long time side by side and on a daily use basis there is not any discernable difference that's caused by the browser. On Firefox, add the extensions ublock origin, privacy badger, and decrentraleyes to start with, and I'd recommend changing default search to duckduckgo or start page as well. Your entire web experience will be massively improved (Yes ddg and start page look and feel different. Search results are the same but without all the ads and misdirects)
Bro, 2016 in browser terms is ancient history.
Imagine saying in 2003: "I tried such-and-such in 1996. Is it fast now?"
If you want privacy, you will sacrifice convenience.
Firefox
I assumed this was happening for years
I think it's a new thing where the browser does the profiling locally, and supposedly without allowing sites to track you anymore. But of course the sites can still ask the browser for your personal interests in order to serve you ads, so I couldn't tell you why they think this is any better.
Who tf used Chrome for years!?
(checks notes)
Oh, the majority :|
I thought this is the way it’s been since 2008.
I think I'll just invite Google to come get my dna, set up cameras everywhere, and install a microchip in my brain. Then I can be done with this slow-walk of privacy invasion.
Yet the simps still won’t use Firefox
I feel like people in general give google too big of a pass all the time. I feel like I read apple hate every second while people somehow distinguish android from google.
Ikr? Google openly became the cartoonishly evil overlord, so much so it basically entered pop culture as such (Meta, Apple, MS, Amazon, etc also all the same).
And installing either Firefox or Chrome is exactly the same for the user, usage too. But no, let the poor megacorp have some more data so they can sell us some more direct ads and even more indirect ads that aren't even labeled as such (yet Alphabet profits from that) ... and become even more powerful influencing everyones lives, legislation, etc
I hated being the go-to guy for tech support in my family, but at least I get to jam open sauce things everywhere. They are never happy with any changes, but after a few days nobody remembers Microsoft & co, so everyone is really happy with things like Linux, Firefox (mobile too!), LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Signal, FairEmail & other open android apps, etc
Every bit helps. Nicely done friend!
Well that's what to expect from a web browser created by an advertising company.
And yet Firefox marketshare will keep dwindling. Drives me mad!
it's crazy how many people just use whatever is most popular and never question it. the number of people who don't use even a basic adblocker is mind-blowing.
It's slower and clunkier. I use Firefox for privacy and addons, but if I didn't have to I'd probably use Chrome.
Explain how , like with examples. I use both every day plus like 4 other browsers and there is no difference a normal user could possible see between the two. All browser have slightly different layouts and features but all at this point have surface functionality that's essentially the same What the hell are you seeing in Firefox that is "slow and clunky"
People usually don't respond well with threats they don't perceive as harmful, or can't perceive physically at all. Targeted ads and privacy in general is abstract to many people, and the only time they'll start responding is if their emails or social medias get hacked due to their infos being sold on the dark web or something like that.
Let me get this straight:
Until now, Google and other advertisers stored cookies on your device and tracked your browsing history on their servers.
Know, everything happens locally and this is somewhat worse then the old way to do it?
How?
No. Now Google straight up monopolizes your browser history instead of trying to guess your interests.
At least here in Germany it is opt in. As the algorithm runs locally, I don't see a big issue with this.
I didn't opt in to this feature to be clear, and ghostery should help for tracking.
But if I wouldn't have this option, I would be more willing to have my history evaluated locally, instead of having my history evaluated for 90% of the sides on some third party advertisers owned system.
Hm. I was going to write "because I could have been visiting sites that don't sell my data to Google or other advertisers. And now those fuckers will have this information." But then, if I use Google Chrome to visit those sites, then it serves me right.
Firefox for the win.
Good point.
I guess that most advertisers cannot track you everywhere, while your history has the full information. Anyway, happy Firefox user here, I am just shocked how the Google monopoly on browsers is playing out, especially since I am forced to use Chrome for some websites.
A few years ago, I switched from Firefox to Chrome. A few months ago, I switched back to Firefox. Chrome is rolling out changes which are completely unacceptable, such as making adblockers impossible, and using my private browsing history for their own ads.
Don't forget that chrome is also censoring saved bookmarks and purging bookmarks to URLs that are on their naughty list - right now that's mostly piracy related things, but the precedence is set.
Don't forget that chrome is also censoring saved bookmarks and purging bookmarks to URLs that are on their naughty list - right now that's mostly piracy related things, but the precedence is set.
Your comment is a prime example of FUD.
For context, see https://lemmy.one/comment/2495139
TL;DR: Google is moderating public facing lists of links. Compare it to Lemmy moderators deleting illegal content in their communities.
You can still hate Google all you want, but please, don't just read the headlines.
Call the evil by its proper name :)
In Chrome, start at the three dots in the upper-right corner and go to Settings > Privacy and Security > Ad privacy. (Or just type chrome://settings/adPrivacy into your address field.) The ad privacy page lets you turn off Chrome's targeted ads.
As per The Verge
Oh. So if you go through some particular combinations of settings then maybe you can find a way to request that Google reduce the ways they use your personal information. I guess that makes it totally cool and fine? I don't think so.
Much better to use Firefox and avoid Google ever getting that info in the first place. That way you don't have to constantly play whack-a-mole with deliberately confusing 'privacy settings' which don't even fix the problem anyway.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/wqn3gR1WTcA?si=GBKBNrQ-x0QKvwBh&
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.
If someone is swayed by a political advertisement, they are, by definition, consuming content they desire.
Goal should be to change what those people desire rather than fight against them consuming ads/media.
If someone is swayed by instructions to kill themselves, they are, be definition, consuming content they desire.
That’s a bad argument. Marketing is one thing, manipulation is totally different.
There’s nothing specifically wrong with marketing in general, but marketers with access to enormous amounts of private information blur the line between advertising and manipulation. Using people’s private information to each individual exactly what they want to hear about a candidate without regard to the truth is absolutely something that we should be concerned about.
Perhaps to a perfectly rational being, but I don't happen to know any of those myself.
I figured they did this already just without saying it out loud
They been doing it for years now, they just formally announced it lol
Sure, you're forced to decline manually on every single browser you sign into, and the setting doesn't sync across browsers so you're inclined to just hit ok to the pop-up by the 4th or 5th time you see it. I finally moved to Firefox recently and I have zero regrets, it's faster with a nicer UI.
Who knew that using a browser made by an ad agency would result in ads?!
shockedpikachuface.webp
“.webp” fucking classic, I snorted.
I dont believe google was an ad agency when they initially made chrome and for a long time following that. You cant conflate the two and say "what did you expect"
Google pulled the rug from under us on this. Albeit very slowly and super obviously.
Ads in search results was always their business model.
Adsense was made in 2003. That's when Google entered the ad industry. Chrome was released in beta in 2008. That's 5 years of being an ad agency before creating Chrome.
Everyone talks about Firefox. And that's cause Firefox is good and hands down the best. But I've been using Vivaldi which is chromium based for years. Anyone have any opinion on Vivaldi?
Vivaldi is based on Chromium. So it basically gets placed in the same field as Chrome and Edge.
Basically except they dumped the parts they didn't like and built it out to be better than anything else based on chromium.
So it's leagues above both of those browsers.
chromium is fine though? doesn't send any data over. Just has a problem with addons pretty sure
I use it for work stuff, so it's not my daily driver and I wish Firefox just copied some of the stuff.
Tiling and Grouping is just neat.
or if Vivaldi switched to the firefox engine it would be perfect.
Vivaldi has some amazing features that I wish other browsers would catch up on. Unfortunately it's really buggy. Crashes with no recourse to recover your tabs. That's a deal breaker and I dealt with that a fair number of times. Then I decided I'd use their workspaces feature to try and avoid losing all my tabs. Great plan, worked until all my fucking workspaces got deleted too. For every good feature Vivaldi has, it has several game breaking bugs.
I love Vivaldi, if Firefox could do side bar and tab grouping id use it but V just does it better and with built in ad blocking.
I use Edge and can’t switch to Firefox for the same reasons. There’s stuff I use on Edge that is not available on Firefox. Unfortunately, those are dealbreakers for me.
There is an extension for tab grouping (simple tab groups). It and ublock origin are the two main ones I install first when I install FF fresh.
Side tabs I'm not sure of, but I'd be more surprised if there isn't an extension for that, too.
It's not bad, but using a Chromium-based browser still supports Google's attempts to build a monopoly on browser rendering engines. Also, there are Browsers (like LibreWolf, a fork of Firefox) with better privacy features and adblock.
Pihole goes brrrrrrrrrr.
It's not hard to get around PiHole. If enough adopt it, they'll just use technical workarounds to make Pihole pretty useless.
Pihole already can't block YouTube ads last I checked.
Pi-hole works by giving clients non-routable addresses in response to DNS queries of known ad-serving domains. If the client (web browser, phone, smart device, etc) doesn't let you set its DNS server (as many no longer do) and doesn't obey DHCP, then you can't feed them those addresses. You could block outbound DNS traffic from all clients except your Pi-hole, but in response some clients will just refuse to work entirely. And if they require DNSSEC (or DoT/DoH with a pinned certificate), there's nothing you can do.
Damn advertisers are finally gonna realize how fucking lonely I am is keeping me from being a better consumer and has me resenting capitalism and they'll work to change my sad life, right? Privatize the profits, socialize the losses, isolate the losers. Got it.
finally gonna realize how fucking lonely I am
I don't know, have you tried checking out the hot singles in your area? /s
pay $49.99 a month and you're guaranteed to speak to at least 1 bot as soon as your subscription expires.
It should always be opt in, not opt out. Leave chrome in favor of a non-chrome browser, such as firefox.
Try librewolf , its just hardened FF
Even better a non chromium browser aka Firefox
It's opt in, just not in America
Uhhh.....
"Since your history shows frequent use of pornhub, we highly recommend websites like xvideos and redtube"
Because that's totally what every 15 year old fellow really needs hey Google?
FYI, while this is a terrible move, it does not allow advertisers to see your browsing history like you said. Google looks into your history, the advertiser gives them ads and Google serves the ads to the users they think will like it. The advertiser never sees any of your data. Ironically, Google's advertising system is the safest compared to systems like Meta's.
But the advertisers do see the demographics and effectiveness of their ads being served. That's a pretty good peek into browser histories, even though it's not as minute as the statement leads you to believe.
Still, it's too much.
Glad I'm not using Chrome.
But the point being that there is no way for an advertiser to see an individual's browsing history, nor estimate it with the demographics. You can see what the wide majority is searching for but not an individual.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending Google. I use Google services but I opted out of everything I could. I don't even have an advertising ID on their servers.
Thanks for clarification.
Interesting tradeoff - I have more trust in Googles security teams than 99,9% of the real time bidders around.
Until Google decides to sell that information directly to advertisers.
it does not allow advertisers to see your browsing history like you said.
Google is no advertiser? And they monopolize it now. I mean, they did anyway, but...
My ad " you like thick women, Stoicism and band tees? well do we have a goth girl for you, limited item sold, not responsible for broken car windows or torched house, all purchases are final.
Fuck me I'm in
I now understand late stage capitalism
It's well done, but there's a big flaw. It doesn't make clear that Google isn't selling your data. In fact, Google's entire business model would be obliterated if it actually sold your data.
What they're selling is use of their ad network, which they can tout as having these huge profiles on everyone to advertise to. So if you're an advertiser and want to sell bee-keeping equipment, Google can say, "We'll show your ads to people who've expressed interest in keeping bees or related topics."
If they sold the data itself, no one would need the ad network, and their ads revenue would dry up after the initial data sales.
So it's in their best interests to keep your data secure. The problem is that it's also in their best interests to give you minimal control over that data, and - as the comic eloquently makes clear - harvest as much of it as they possibly can.
That link deserves to be its own post
Sounds like a great and exciting innovation. I can’t wait to see more relevant ads based on my own personal interests!
Seems that 5 people can't read sarcasm and is prolly part of the /s gang
Oh wow, it's the shoes I just bought! How does it know? That's incredible! Okay, google, I'm ready for the next relevant ad. Oh wow, it's the shoes I already have again. Ha ha, but I'm not interested in those anymore.
(uses a different browser)
Have fun with that
Someone needs to make an extension that googles random stuff all the time and floods ones history with so much background noise that the history becomes useless.
Fucking hell I am sick of having to switch browsers every few years.
Why would you need to? Did you ever trust chrome? And google?
The joke being, that all browsers by now depend on ad money directly (or indirectly aka Firefox) - this means browsers can by definition never favor protection of your privacy over their money stream.
(I am using Firefox, but even they try to upsell their VPN solution with in-browser advertisement :-/)
damn they even gives ability to block topics! SOO PRIVATE!!
/S
How would I go about transferring my stored passwords from Chrome to Firefox?
When you first install Firefox, it offers it during the initial setup
Switch to a dedicated password manager - Bitwarden for example.
Then you can try any browser. Firefox definitely wouldn't be my choice but it is better than Chrome.
You can export from Chrome as a CSV file then import to Firefox.
These sneaky foxes should be fired.
EDIT: it seems nobody wants to fire a fox. That almost drives me to the edge but I guess I'll just try to be brave and think of it as a safari.
Only after the narwhal bacons at midnight memmy mlem's on a lunar photon voyage.
How is it sneaky? They're very public about it, and the popup I got was opt-in, and clear about what would be shared if I agreed.
Oh ffs, take my upvote, but know that I'm not happy my brainhole had to endure such punnery
Time to move most of my browsing to FF. It's already somewhere around 80% FF.
And that’s why I will continue to use Chrome only for work. Yuck.
At least at my workplace they let us choose to use Firefox or Edge. It's an official ICT policy that Chrome is explicitly banned from the network as it poses a data breach security risk. They pay Microsoft so there's a legal venue to pounce them if anything goes wrong, but with Alphabet is like dealing with an alien monolith, they take your money, your data, your sanity and don't even bother to return your mails when you need support.
Alas, we do everything on Google because we’re using Classroom, Drive, and their office suite. Since I’m already having to the use Google for everything, I just use Chrome for everything work-related.
Literally 1984
?
I looked up "audiophool" on Chrome and I looked in my ad preferences and it started recommending stuff about speakers
edit: grammar
That isn't new, that's how ad networks work. Google owns one of the largest ad networks.
Great, can't wait to see ads for take out food, and small appliance repair.
Nothing made me happier than seeing ads for a new washing machine for months after I bought a new washing machine. Those ads were definitely still relevant and it wasn't annoying at all.
Firefox is made by Mozilla Corp., which is for profit. Brave is fully FOSS as well. And Mozilla as a whole is a useless, unless we're talking about their ability to take Google's money (money which comes from Google ad businnes, in the end), raising the CEO paycheck and firing devs and making FF shittier with each forced update.
You should switch to FF rather.
Relevant post: https://lemmy.world/post/2846523
Very... Brave of you saying that here. For me it's the best browser out there as well, right now. Be prepared for a cascade of downvotes from Mozilla's shills.
Jokes on you Google! I delete my browser history every 30 seconds!
Do you delete their copy?
No worries, Google has your backup... :-P
I see a lot of people mentioning that you should just switch to Firefox, but if you're doing that because of privacy, you will not be off that much better by doing just that - unless you fiddle with the settings and get a custom user.js, such as this one, that properly hardens it and a few extenstions, such as Decentraleyes, Cookie Auto Delete or ClearURLs.
But it can get annoying, so instead I'd recommend giving LibreWolf a try. From my experience it works pretty much out of the box, and for the few settings that may be annoying to you they have a quick guide about how to disable them.
But even better than that, I'd recommend giving Mullvad Browser a try. It's basically a clear-net version of Tor Browser, and so far I haven't heard anything negative about them. I also really like their idea about pairing a VPN service (that's optional) with a browser, so now you have exactly the same browser fingerprint as any other user using the same VPN (as long as you don't add any extensions), which will make you more resistant even to the more advanced fingerprinting techniques, since there's basically no way how to tell all of the users of the VPN apart. Some more info and reasoning, along with more recommendations, can be found at https://www.privacyguides.org/en/desktop-browsers/#mullvad-browser
I've recently started using Mullvad, and was using LibreWolf as my daily browser, so now I'm switching between them randomly. I do run into issued from time to time, mostly because of 3rd party requests or auto-deleted cookies when leaving a domain, which can break some kind of cross-site flows. But whenever there's an issue, I just quickly fire up Brave to do that one task. But all things considered it's an amazing experience, so I do recommend giving some of them a try.
There are better alternatives to chrome than brave, but definetly agreed. I would use vivaldi or librewolf :-) but honestly even plain firefox is better
On my next phone, Google Chrome will be permanently disabled. Will install Firefox first thing.
FF is one of a few browsers on Monroe l mobile that support plugins (the list is too small, but you can I install plugins outside of there curated list). So, that's even better.
You can use this to permanently delete chrome. I have done the same since I don't trust the disabled option.
I don't need anymore hot singles/mamas in my area ads thank you
No, your area, you live here right? The hot singles are in "Yourcity, TheState, Unites Steaks of Examples, 12345". We know because we saw your activity. /s
It just pop up in front of me few days ago, and then I immediately turned all the options off in the setting without any doubt..
Luckily that it is not my most used web browser now.
I'm assuming the same happens with google (search engine) as well (?)
Going to suspect that Arc browser has similar settings. Based on viewing Preferences General Manage: [Privacy and Security]
I thought they already did this? Well, more reasons not to use chrome.
Not for free, for a browser. This doesn't make it any less evil.
Funny you should mention cars. https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/articles/its-official-cars-are-the-worst-product-category-we-have-ever-reviewed-for-privacy/
A few posts up, there’s an article about how basically all cars manufacturers are a privacy nightmare
https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/articles/its-official-cars-are-the-worst-product-category-we-have-ever-reviewed-for-privacy/
It seems to me that we need some software that intercepts the data being sent to Google, replaces all proper nouns with "Sundar Pichai," all numbers with a 10 followed by 100 zeroes, and randomizes everything else before sending. The data they receive would look like it was smuggled out of a Being John Malkovich parallel universe.
Or we could just use Firefox. Or Lynx.
It's opt-in and they're very clear about that.
This is completely incorrect. It is opt-out.
It was turned on for me by default when I opened Chrome (it had updated in the background). I had to go to settings to turn it back off.
For now