Chromium browsers have been quietly sending user information to Google : privacy

[–] [email protected] 110 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Google to users: "I'M GOING TO STEAL ALL YOUR INFORMATION!"

Google: steals users information

Users: shocked pikachu face

[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Indeed. I’m trying to figure out how “quietly” makes any sense in that headline. Google has been very public about what they’re doing, and has usually published their proposed actions months in advance of actually taking them.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It probably is intended to indicate that Google's software doesn't have a notice anywhere it's sending this data that a normal human could reasonably find.

There's a lot of 'Data we collect' stuff on sites and software now, and I'm entirely sure I've never seen this on any browser using Google's code for this.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This also says "chromium browsers", so maybe people who are using some other one than actual Google Chrome have not known and/or not been told of the collection happening.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah, I'm entirely sure it's upstream of Chrome proper, and kinda consolidates my opinion that anything Google is near should be treated as suspect.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

I would hope Google free Chromium doesn’t but who knows.

[–] [email protected] 56 points 1 month ago

Dear everyone. Chromium Browser does not just mean chrome.

It means Edge, Brave, Opera, and virtually every other browser you've ever heard of but Firefox and Safari.

[–] lurch 47 points 1 month ago

surprised pikachu meme

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 month ago

No shit

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago

The face eating leopards are getting fat

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

How does this affect Ungoogled Chromium?

[–] sugar_in_your_tea 4 points 1 month ago

My understanding is that it affects it all the same.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

Yeah, that was clear from the start...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

Wut!!!! A browser engine made by Google have been sending user data to Google? What a surprise

[+] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

[deleted]

[–] sugar_in_your_tea 4 points 1 month ago

I'd take it the opposite way, does Google have evidence that it wasn't used outside the hangouts domain?

[+] [email protected] -6 points 1 month ago (2 children)

It isn't quiet. You can prevent it with enterprise policies. Firefox sends information to Mozilla too. With AI now though, more people than ever are willing to have their data mined to be able to participate in AI.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Firefox sends information to Mozilla too.

Oh fucking christ this again.

No, they send general telemetry by default. Which is one toggle to disable. They don't continue to send information back after that point, and certainly not to the same degree that chrome does AFTER you disable it in chrome. So saying "Mozilla too" in the same context of Chrome is stupidly disingenuous.

[+] [email protected] -11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Simply not true. The only way to stop Firefox from phoning home completely is via about:config or a policy template file:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-stop-firefox-making-automatic-connections https://mozilla.github.io/policy-templates/

You can do the same with Chrome:

https://chromeenterprise.google/policies/

Firefox certainly phones home less by default, especially when opting out through various settings, but not completely. Chrome/Chromium isn't evil either. Chromium sandboxing has long been praised as a more secure browser, hence why GrapheneOS (praised as the most secure phone distro) uses Chromium as their browser and not Firefox. Not saying Firefox is bad either. I actually prefer Firefox in certain scenarios and there is a reason that Tor and Mullvad use Firefox for their browsers too (easier to prevent JS from leaking system info), but Chromium is open source as well and used in things like Electron for Signal.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Simply not true.

No, it is true.

Making connections to mozilla != collecting boatload of telemetry. Every function in that page is to download FULL lists of information. Not specific tracking items. You don't gain a whole lot of telemetry/metadata on someone who downloads a new blocklist. Rather that say someone who checks a specific domain on a blocklist. further, the vast majority of things (virtually all of it) is configurable in toggles. And many options in here don't even send mozilla anything at all (prefetching for example.)

Automatic connections != sending mozilla all your tracking information.

Chrome/Chromium isn’t evil either.

Hiding plugins that give google your hardware information when you visit any google domain without consent is pretty fucking evil.

[+] [email protected] -16 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Again Chromium is open source. Chrome is Google's bundled browser that includes API keys and plugins to share information for signing in to Google and syncing data with your Google account. You do not have to enable these, and they can be disabled using policies & flags.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

The hidden plugins I'm talking about are BUILT INTO CHROMIUM.

https://community.brave.com/t/hidden-extensions-in-chromium-source/557645

Chromium based browsers (brave as an example linked above) ALSO had them present. It was only due to the new of this being a thing recently that brave (and probably others) made it disable-able (https://github.com/brave/brave-core/pull/24583 5 days ago).

Screaming "it's open source" means nothing if nobody ever reviewed the code, and disabled the google spyware shit that they put into chromium to begin with. Remember the Chromium is still a google product.

I'd rather just Mozilla... You know... since they didn't try to fuck me out the gate. I can accept "On by default, but we ask you during setup and you can access the setting at anytime" vs "Fuck you, you turned off all the telemetry but can't reach the hidden add-ons we install without recompiling your own browser". The mentality matters. I can trust the former to not screw me a bit more vs the latter rapist mentality.