So, just how intrusive IS Google Chrome?

[hoppipolla]

I mean, don't get me wrong, I don't think it's too bad and it does seem like you can disable the stuff it does do... is that correct?

I just wanted to find out as I'm finally switching to it from Chromium (due to Chrome just feeling more solid now) and it's never nice to feel like you're being watched! lol

(I have no idea if Chromium does this too anyway o.O)

So, is it just usage statistics that I can turn off anyway? or?

Cheers guys,

Hoppi ^_^

[Pogeymanz]

If that stuff bothers you, you can use srware Iron, which is just Chromium with all that stuff taken out. (And yes, chromium has the same tracking stuff)

[kavon89]

I mean, don't get me wrong, I don't think it's too bad and it does seem like you can disable the stuff it does do... is that correct?

What "stuff" does it do that's so bad?

[Vadi]

No idea. I'm not paranoid.

[RiceMonster]

no idea. I'm not paranoid.

+1

[the fix it man]

No idea. I'm not paranoid.


My friend there's a big difference between being paranoid and enjoying privacy.

[praveesh]

Chrome is built with gtk.

[Nerd King]

Chromium is open-source, so if you want, take a look at the source code, you can see whether it's doing anything you disapprove of.

[RiceMonster]

Chromium is open-source, so if you want, take a look at the source code, you can see whether it's doing anything you disapprove of.

Not everyone is a programmer or wants to spend the time browsing through tens of thousands of lines of code.

[hoppipolla]

Not everyone is a programmer or wants to spend the time browsing through tens of thousands of lines of code.

haha yeah true :)


If that stuff bothers you, you can use srware Iron, which is just Chromium with all that stuff taken out. (And yes, chromium has the same tracking stuff)

I've checked this out it's not bad!


And yeah I agree the fix it man, I dunno it just gives me greater piece of mind if I don't feel like I'm being watched all the time lol xD

[joey-elijah]

A lot of the "OMGZ IT'S SKYNET" fear-mongering about Chrome's "privacy invasion" isn't actually based in truth.

Who cares if it records every URL you visit.
So what if it records every half URl you type in the omnibar.
Google knowing every word and phrase you enter in the omnibar? Pfft!
Is it really an issue that all of this is then associated with your Google Account thanks to cookie power?

This isn't all bad - if you already use GDocs or GCalendar etc Google already stores lots of info on you.

</sarcasm>

But...

People need to get this data into perspective - it's not used to find out if you're a terrorist or if you're gay, it's merely used to a) better target Google Ads at you and b) to help you USE chrome. Those auto-suggestions don't materialise out of thin air y'know..

Also, this data is anonymized after 24 hours meaning it can never be traced back to you after this time. And overall only 2% of data from EVERYONE USING CHROME is actually kept.

You can easily disable it, too, by going to Options > under the hood > uncheck 'show suggestions...'

it's also worth noting that this data would be sent to ANY search provider you used as default in Chrome. So if you use Yahoo! as default in chrome then Yahoo! get the data, etc.

[praveesh]

Google is an advertisement company , isn't it ? Who knows whether there's any back door in the chrome !!

[hoppipolla]

A lot of the "OMGZ IT'S SKYNET" fear-mongering about Chrome's "privacy invasion" isn't actually based in truth.

Who cares if it records every URL you visit.
So what if it records every half URl you type in the omnibar.
Google knowing every word and phrase you enter in the omnibar? Pfft!
Is it really an issue that all of this is then associated with your Google Account thanks to cookie power?

This isn't all bad - if you already use GDocs or GCalendar etc Google already stores lots of info on you.

</sarcasm>

But...

People need to get this data into perspective - it's not used to find out if you're a terrorist or if you're gay, it's merely used to a) better target Google Ads at you and b) to help you USE chrome. Those auto-suggestions don't materialise out of thin air y'know..

Also, this data is anonymized after 24 hours meaning it can never be traced back to you after this time. And overall only 2% of data from EVERYONE USING CHROME is actually kept.

You can easily disable it, too, by going to Options > under the hood > uncheck 'show suggestions...'

it's also worth noting that this data would be sent to ANY search provider you used as default in Chrome. So if you use Yahoo! as default in chrome then Yahoo! get the data, etc.

Oo cool nicely put :)

How did you find all this out? lol

A very good argument though :)

[RiceMonster]

Google is an advertisement company , isn't it ? Who knows whether there's any back door in the chrome !!

I wouldn't say they're an advertisement company, but they do make the vast majority of their revenue from ads.

[NCLI]

I really think people are too paranoid about Google... I mean, if Google EVER did anything bad with our data, or the data was leaked to unauthorized third parties, they'd be sued for such huge amounts of money that it would shut them down, if the various governmental regulatory organizations don't ban them first.

[SomeGuyDude]

People need to realize logistics.

To put it in perspective, one reason 9/11 happened was because of all the recordings they had of terrorist suspects, they didn't have time to mine through it all before the attack itself happened. Now that was the GOVERNMENT, looking through a fairly small sampling of data.

Imagine, now, a private enterprise, attempting to somehow "exploit" users through the lord-knows-how-many-bytes that they've recorded over years of EVERYONE's usage. It's the difference between finding a needle in a haystack and finding a skittle in a lake full of M&M's. Even if google WERE literally recording everything everyone ever did, the logistics of doing anything nefarious with it all are astronomical.

[t.rei]

Don't worry, with google it's not about the single raindrop - it's all about the flood. Who cares what YOU are browsing for, it's way more important to know what "people like you" are browsing for. After all, they don't make "single user ads"... not yet. ;)

Using iron myself. Like it so far, only... if it's so ok, why on earth isn't this on a ppa or even in medibuntu repos or something?

[Chronon]

I really think people are too paranoid about Google... I mean, if Google EVER did anything bad with our data, or the data was leaked to unauthorized third parties, they'd be sued for such huge amounts of money that it would shut them down, if the various governmental regulatory organizations don't ban them first.

They own the data. They can do anything they like with it. I don't see why they would be sued for selling this information or releasing it to third parties. There's no legally binding contract that says they won't do this. What would you sue them for, exactly? At least in the USA, privacy is not guaranteed by law.

[forrestcupp]

Not everyone is a programmer or wants to spend the time browsing through tens of thousands of lines of code.

+1

I wonder how many of the people that tell us to "just look through the code" can actually understand all that code themselves.

[Vadi]

Using iron myself. Like it so far, only... if it's so ok, why on earth isn't this on a ppa or even in medibuntu repos or something?

Because Google has a repository of their own?