The op link hit a paywall for me, this one is working:
the company will now pay “zero” dollars as part of the settlement after earlier facing a $5 billion penalty.
I guess they would call that a win
Google should have to clearly communicate to users what they did. Only few will even read and know about this. Rarely anybody will care.
Misbehavior on such a scale should at least be communicated so users can make an informed decision on their continued trust.
The incognito mode start page literally tells you this. I do not know, how this is news.
I’m sure it always done so. I’ve been aware of this the moment incognito mode was introduced.
Edit: here’s an old screenshot of Google chrome describing what incognito is: https://tfpcservices.net/software-tips-3/
Do the chromium based browsers like Vivaldi report this information back to Google too?
Pretty sure it’s always been upfront with that it still tracks you? I always thought of it as a “don’t store history and cookies locally” thing and nothing more. Maybe I read that disclaimer with more cynicism than most?
Yeah I feel the same way.
I admit that I know quite a bit about computers and such but I thought everyone knew private mode isn’t intended to stop any tracking.
Pretty sure some browsers by default enable extra tracking protections when in private mode but that’s just an extra feature.
Yeah, it has always been the “don’t log my porn activity” mode. I don’t understand how so many people misinterpret it as some kind of privacy protection mode.
Yeah, it has always been the “don’t log my porn activity” mode. I don’t understand how so many people misinterpret it as some kind of privacy protection mode.
Well, also the “log into your accounts on someone else’s machine without storing the account in the browser” mode. Or the “shop for your partner’s gifts without leaving a trail” mode. But yeah, primarily for porn.
But yeah, primarily for porn.
Yeah, most websites do fingerprinting. I doubt Firefox is immune to it either. In fact, it probably makes it worse since there’s so few people using it.
https://amiunique.org/fingerprint shows me as being unique in both browsers, and that’s without even taking into account IP address which narrows you down to people on your connection anyway. Only a VPN will hide that.
They don’t need cookies to track your visits. Yet apparently they still need to ask if you want to share data with 2184 trusted data partners every time you visit without them, so maybe they can pack that the fuck in.
it’s always been upfront
The language it uses/used to use was rather ambiguous, especially for less tech savvy people.
Perhaps it wasn’t false, but it definitely wasn’t upfront.
“Always”? Nope.
“If you’re concerned, for whatever reason, you do not wish to be tracked by federal and state authorities, my strong recommendation is to use [Google Chrome’s] incognito mode.”
- Eric Schmidt, 2014
Use Firefox. Sure, a clean session of cookies isn’t going to keep you anonymous, but at least you can do it while not being on Google’s own browser and also have it collect information on you.
It doesn’t matter. Companies have tracked cookielessly for a decade now thanks to Safari.
This is why everyone is OK with giving up cookies. They don’t need it. It’s a facade.
It still matters. Is it as effective as advertised? Not really. But it’s still doing something. Privacy and security are never a one off solution, but a group of methods/tools.
I also feel you missed my point in my original post. My point is, using “incognito” from a browser from a company like Mozilla is better than using it from a browser made by an advertising company. One of them has an incentive to screw you. One does not. And to reiterate, I never said it was a perfect solution. It’s mitigation.
Is there any way to re-enable password saving in private mode? All the discussions say “you don’t want to do that because it’s a type of history” but it’s sure less convenient leaving Firefox in private mode all the time.
