Google Chrome pushes ahead with targeted ads based on your browser history

Comments

• Franzia@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  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.

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  • milkjug@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    finally gonna realize how fucking lonely I am

    I don’t know, have you tried checking out the hot singles in your area? /s

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    • aceshigh@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      pay $49.99 a month and you’re guaranteed to speak to at least 1 bot as soon as your subscription expires.

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• art@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Who knew that using a browser made by an ad agency would result in ads?!
  shockedpikachuface.webp

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  • Hackerman_uwu@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    “.webp” fucking classic, I snorted.

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  • Mr_Dr_Oink@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    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.

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    • not_woody_shaw@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Ads in search results was always their business model.

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• Wahots@pawb.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  It should always be opt in, not opt out.

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  • jungekatz@lib.lgbt ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Try librewolf , its just hardened FF

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  • frostwhitewolf@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Even better a non chromium browser aka Firefox

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  • miridius@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    It’s opt in, just not in America

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• tjtherealbest@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  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?

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  • Aagje_D_Vogel@feddit.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Vivaldi is based on Chromium. So it basically gets placed in the same field as Chrome and Edge.

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    • c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      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.

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  • kameecoding@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    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.

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  • amazing2@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    If you use Firefox but are frustrated with how slow it can get, try Waterfox. It’s Firefox but without the annoying stuff.

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  • MonkCanatella@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    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.

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  • c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    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.

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    • ImTiagoSousa@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      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.

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    • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      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.

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  • netchami@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    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.

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• Lampshadiest@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Pihole goes brrrrrrrrrr.

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  • Serinus@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    It’s not hard to get around PiHole. If enough adopt it, they’ll just use technical workarounds to make PuHole pretty useless.

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    • nova_ad_vitum@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Pihole already can’t block YouTube ads last I checked.

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• bobman@unilem.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Glad I switched to firefox when it became apparent google wants to take away control to shove more ads in our faces.

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• Honza368@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  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. Ironically, Google’s advertising system is the safest compared to systems like Meta’s.

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  • vermyndax@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    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.

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    • Honza368@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      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.

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  • TheTimeKnife@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Until Google decides to sell that information directly to advertisers.

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  • wolf@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Thanks for clarification.

    Interesting tradeoff - I have more trust in Googles security teams than 99,9% of the real time bidders around.

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  • MonkderZweite@feddit.ch ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    it does not allow advertisers to see your browsing history like you said.

    Google is no advertiser? And they monopolize it now.

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• icepuncher69@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I thought they already did that.

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• FrostbyteIX@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Uhhh…

  “Since your history shows frequent use of pornhub.com, we highly recommend websites like xvideos and redtube”

  Because that’s totally what every 15 year old fellow really needs hey Google?

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• Thursday@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  My ad " you like thick women, Stoicism and band tees? well get you a goth girl for you, limited item sold, not responsible for broken car windows or torched house, all purchases are final.

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  • Noodle07@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Fuck me I’m in

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• Saneless@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  (uses a different browser)

  Have fun with that

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• baked_tea@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I now understand late stage capitalism

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• woshang@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  [deleted]

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  • Darth_Vader__@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    damn they even gives ability to block topics! SOO PRIVATE!!

    /S

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• Mesaji@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Fun fact, 86% of the revenue for these big tech (Twitter/Meta/Google) are from ads. 😀

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  • pret2xyz@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Funner fact, social media apps collect more data than anybody else.

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    • pyrflie@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      [deleted]

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  • Stern@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    As always: If it’s free, you’re the product.

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    • elbarto777@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      You’re also the product is you pay for it. Source: Smart TV ads.

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• CptOblivius@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  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.

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  • Natanael@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    This already exists btw

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  • Hadriscus@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    That would be an ecological disaster (figuratively, but still), singe all those requests and processor cycles have a cost

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    • UFO64@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      What’s the watts-per-search of google?

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    • Natanael@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Any more than regular multiplayer games? No?

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  • CrayonRosary@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Or, you know, just don’t use Chrome or Google!

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  • bobman@unilem.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I recommend using ‘Adnauseam’ for Firefox.

    It hides ads in addition to clicking them. This generates revenue for the site and also obscures your digital footprint.

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• igorlogius@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  contrachrome.com

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  • kescusay@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    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.

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  • ICastFist@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    That link deserves to be its own post

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• DivineJustice@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Fucking hell I am sick of having to switch browsers every few years.

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  • Decentralizr@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Why would you need to? Did you ever trust chrome? And google?

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  • wolf@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    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 :-/)

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• MrBusinessMan@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Sounds like a great and exciting innovation. I can’t wait to see more relevant ads based on my own personal interests!

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  • Takina_sOldPairTM@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Seems that 5 people can’t read sarcasm and is prolly part of the /s gang

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  • petrol_sniff_king@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    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.

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• SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I thought they did already.

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• zainitopia@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  How would I go about transferring my stored passwords from Chrome to Firefox?

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• Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  These sneaky foxes should be fired.

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• CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Time to move most of my browsing to FF. It’s already somewhere around 80% FF.

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• stopthatgirl7@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  And that’s why I will continue to use Chrome only for work. Yuck.

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• gsa32@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Literally 1984

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• datsunset@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Jokes on you Google! I delete my browser history every 30 seconds!

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• eminence@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I’ve mostly been using the chromium-based Brave Browser which is Chrome without the advertising engine plus a built-in adblocker. Requires going through the settings once to enable that. There’s a very decent android-only browser that does much the same, called Bromite. (Brave has a mobile version but Bromite is developed from scratch for Android, and is stable & supported).

  I hope this helps someone.

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• DigitalFrank@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Great, can’t wait to see ads for take out food, and small appliance repair.

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• Mikina@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  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 www.privacyguides.org/en/desktop-browsers/#mullva…

  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.

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• Lobo6780@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  But it was always Chrome ‘feature’ its google my activity feature.

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• EmperorHenry@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Brave browser.

  chrome is just a wire tap and the latest update for it should make you finally realize it

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