Google Just Gave You the Best Reason Yet to Finally Quit Using Chrome:
A while back, Google said that it was on board with the idea that cookies--the little pieces of software code that websites use to do all sorts of things like keeping you logged in, to letting an advertiser know when you've clicked on their ad and then made a purchase--were bad. At least, the third-party kind--the ones that track your activity across the internet. Those types of cookies would be blocked in Chrome by 2023.
[...] Google's real problem is that it can't just shut off third-party cookies entirely since that would be very bad for its competition and might look like it was leveraging the fact that not only does it control the world's largest advertising platform, but also its most popular web browser, Chrome. Considering the attention that regulators and lawmakers are paying to big tech companies, that was a non-starter.
So, Google said it would introduce an alternative known as Federated Learning of Cohorts, or FLoC. The short version is that Chrome would track your browsing history and use it to identify you as a part of a cohort of other users with similar interests. Advertisers would then target ads to the "I like to buy expensive ski outfits," cohort, or the "I just turned 50 and have 2 kids about to enter college and want to re-finance my mortgage" cohort.
[...] Now, Google is introducing an alternative it calls Topics. The idea is that Chrome will look at your browsing activity and identify up to five topics that it thinks you're interested in. When you visit a website, Chrome will show it three of those topics, with the idea that the site will then show you an ad that matches your interest.
Google says that Chrome will allow users to view the Topics they are associated with, and give them the ability to delete them. Google isn't asking users if they'd like to be part of Topics, it's just leveraging the fact that it owns Chrome in order to force users to be a part and then giving them a way to opt out if they want. That's great, except almost no one is ever going to do that. Google knows that.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by drussell on Thursday January 27 2022, @06:29PM (10 children)
Just say NO!!
It doesn't have to be this way, people just have to stand up against this kind of complete bullshittery! The internet does not need to be completely ad-centric just to solely benefit the corporate overlords.
Enough is enough!
This crap reminds me of the internet in that Futurama episode:
https://youtu.be/YlGklt4BSQ8 [youtu.be]
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Thursday January 27 2022, @07:36PM (1 child)
I have to make sure my web sites aren't as shitty in Chrome as Google News is in Firefox.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27 2022, @08:43PM
But why?
No, seriously, after discontinuing Google Reader and Google Plus, why would anyone trust a Google news service when they could pull the rug from under you at any time?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by tangomargarine on Thursday January 27 2022, @08:13PM (3 children)
You say that like it's only a problem with the Internet...our entire *economy* revolves around ads. Capitalism is all about convincing people they need to buy things.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 5, Insightful) by drussell on Thursday January 27 2022, @08:36PM (1 child)
Capitalism does not necessarily mean rampant consumerism.
The push towards rampant consumerism however, has resulted in capitalism-run-amok. This has lead to the issues with regulatory capture and the epidemic of unbridled corporatism and the associated issues with widespread monopoly and oligopoly positions throughout virtually every industry.
I have most certainly never said it was only problem with the internet!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 28 2022, @01:53PM
How about incorporating Economic Limitarianism into our existing system?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limitarianism_(ethical) [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 28 2022, @02:10PM
have you EVER clicked on an ad on an internet page and purchased something?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by drussell on Thursday January 27 2022, @09:04PM
"That's awful! It's like brainwashing!" (indeed)
https://youtu.be/hlCrcMeVZHs [youtu.be]
(Ahh, good ol' Futurama with more about the proliferation of ads.)
(Score: 2) by crafoo on Friday January 28 2022, @02:03AM
Yeah, but, it kinda does have to be as crappy as it is, and worse. If it's open to all then it will necessarily cater to the majority. The majority are mouth-breathing cattle. It's a mean thing to say I guess but it is true, so start considering it when you throw around words like Should or Need.
What would actually work is a tiered system. Which is what is developing on it's own. So, no worries. Sit back and watch the basic animals pee on each others' legs on twitter or whatever to pass the time.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 28 2022, @03:53AM (1 child)
Agree. Suddenly, using elinks doesn't seem so crazy.
We need to fork the web in some kind of digital hippie counterculture movement.
Let the squares have their failbook google javascript application delivery platform. So many bytes, so little information. TV 2.0. Let them have it. I don't want it.
Remember colorful GTK2 and KDE3 themes and even some themes you could get for Windows XP before every UI became flat, square, and grey?
I hate everything that's come from Microsoft, IBM dba Redhat, and Alphabet dba Google.
I also hate this cancer:
No! Cookies are not code!!! This is why we can't have nice things!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 28 2022, @09:44PM
Yes. I remember using green screen with my Apple ][e. When the Amiga came out, it was an astonishing advance in color and resolution. Year after year, thousands of people strove to make computers with better graphics, higher resolution, more realistic images and icons. Things just kept looking better and better.
Then some fucking web designer somewhere said "Oooo, let's make everything flat-looking!" and everyone else followed the fucking herd.
I hate this timeline.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Thursday January 27 2022, @06:32PM (6 children)
There are certain topics that I ONLY ever search for in Incognito mode.
Lately, those topics popped up in my Google news feed - so, apparently, while Incognito mode stops your history from remembering your search history, you are still tracked and information from your Incognito activities DOES spill over into your normal browsing experience.
Google bad? Yes.
Others doing the same, and worse? Also yes.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27 2022, @08:18PM (2 children)
Have you ever said anything related to the topics out loud? Near your phone, tablet, Amazon Echo or other device with a microphone? Or near the phones/etc. of others who may be associated with you in any way?
Might not be your browser, might be one of the many other ways technology spies on us all... I fully expect you're right, that incognito mode spills over, but it might be something else as well.
We live in the most boring dystopia... but at least the bread and circuses haven't run out yet.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by khakipuce on Friday January 28 2022, @11:35AM
You don't even need to speak, just being near a person with similar interests or in a place is enough. That is why they all push location "services" (read tracking) so hard, if you spend 20 minutes in a certain type of shop then you are probably buying that kind of stuff. Or if you spend time with a person who is also having their location tracked so they know that the two of you are in the same place at the same time, then it is highly likely you have similar interests to the other person and if that person has recently searched for something then there is a chance that you will have the same interest.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 29 2022, @07:27AM
I had a weird experience like that. I went to a campus lecture on the Ottoman Empire. After the lecture was over and I was on the bus home, I checked the weather. The very first ad I saw was for ottomans at a local furniture store and I kept seeing them for a while after that. I'm still not sure how they would have managed to put that together without listening since I didn't interact with anything mentioning the lecture or the building it was in on the phone and I toggled airplane mode on well before finishing my walk to the building and turned it off back on the bus.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27 2022, @08:25PM
Of course. Incognito/Private modes only clears the local data stored on your PC. Any fingerprinting a website does on its backend stays with that websites and gets traded/sold normally no matter what mode your PC is in. Most people's browser fingerprints are fairly unique. Private modes never claimed to stop websites from doing their own things, only to keep your history clear from your spouse.
If you want privacy from websites you need a second machine (can be virtual) and it has to browse from a different IP address (use a VPN). It also can't be allowed to see the same bluetooth and wireless networks as your main PC.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27 2022, @08:29PM
The first mistake made by whoever is suprised about this was to not understand what "Incognito mode" does and does not do. It is correctly advertised that that mode prevents _local_ persistence of information. No-where does it say that third parties won't track you because you're in Porn Mode.
This is of their own doing.
It's even dumber of one to use incognito mode and sign into online accounts.
Cool, this in no way gives a pass to google. Ditch them both!
It's not because there are others out there that are even worse, that we should accept that massive badness that is google.
Both can be unacceptably bad at the same time.
(Score: 5, Informative) by PinkyGigglebrain on Friday January 28 2022, @03:09AM
Do you use Google for those searches?
You must not have noticed that those links on the search page don't go directly to the desired page anymore. They all go back to Google when you click them and the your browser gets routed to the desired page.
So Google doesn't just know what you search for, they know what you click regardless of cookies, ingoneto mode, private windows and what ever else you might be hoping to hide behind.
If you don't want Google knowing what your looking at don't use Google in the first place.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 5, Funny) by DannyB on Thursday January 27 2022, @06:40PM (16 children)
Microsoft Edge, the browser with the icon of a toilet flushing swirl.
Edge is basically Chrome in wolves clothing. (or would that be sheeps clothing?)
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by janrinok on Thursday January 27 2022, @06:44PM (5 children)
That icon will be, from this point henceforth, always thought of as a flushing toilet swirl. Thank you. :)
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Thursday January 27 2022, @08:11PM
Legacy from The Other Site:
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27 2022, @10:41PM
They even got the colors right!
(Score: 5, Funny) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday January 28 2022, @02:23AM (1 child)
And that's not the half of it: in the southern hemisphere the icon is backwards!
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 29 2022, @07:37AM
Settings -> System -> Display -> Scale & Layout -> Orientation -> Landscape (Flipped)
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday January 28 2022, @02:32PM
Reminds me of the ending to Robinhood Men in Tights. How else do you think that the toilet came to be known as the John?
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27 2022, @07:29PM (2 children)
It's a sheep in wolves clothing?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27 2022, @08:09PM
wolf in wolf's clothing
whoooosh
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday January 28 2022, @08:16PM
A sheep in Heinz 357 clothing.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 3, Funny) by JoeMerchant on Thursday January 27 2022, @08:32PM (3 children)
It's Chrome in a Mob Boss suit.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Funny) by Reziac on Friday January 28 2022, @02:36AM (2 children)
I misread that as a Bob Moss suit, then wondered what Microsoft Bob had to do with it...
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 28 2022, @06:03AM (1 child)
What? Not Bob Ross?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 29 2022, @03:45AM
Why don't you get out your keyboard and program along with us? We're going to make some big decisions today. We don't make errors, just happy little accidents.
Let's add some happy little linked lists here. See how they connect with each other just like that, and let's put a few more nodes over here. Now let's program a happy little hash map, and its buckets are going to live right over here. Your program might look a little different, but that's ok. It's your program and you get to make the big decisions.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by RS3 on Thursday January 27 2022, @11:50PM (1 child)
Do they show a mirror image icon south of the Equator?
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday January 28 2022, @04:23PM
Whether they do, I don't know.
Whether they can, the answer is Yes. All icons, images and text are customizable for all international languages and dialects.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 28 2022, @02:12PM
Edge is a clone of Chrome. The only difference, other than the crappy Microsoft Windows integration and shitty shopping feature, is that your data is sent to Microsoft instead of Google.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27 2022, @06:50PM
Just wait until your Jewish health provider requires Chrome and only Chrome to perform certain functions remotely. Yeah, user-agent switchers exist, but don't always work, and that's not the fucking point anyway.
This is how Jewish administrators earn their paycheck -- not by working like Goys do, but by hustling deals that require Jewish technologies and then making everybody else do the work. You know how when using a menu in a phone call, you could just press a buutton, and even memorize sequences to save time? Well, Jews didn't like that and they weren't profiting from it, so now Schlomo gets a bonus for shitting up customer care, and Schlomo's buddy Chaim who makes the replacement system also profits handsomely as well.
(Score: 3, Touché) by MIRV888 on Thursday January 27 2022, @07:17PM (1 child)
So they're going to stop motoring everything you do in order to direct advertising at you, and 'pool' you with people who have the same direct advertising needs?
That's a huge difference.
(Score: 4, Funny) by jb on Friday January 28 2022, @03:04AM
Yes. It does indeed seem much more likely that they'd give up their cars than that they'd ever give up spying on us.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Freeman on Thursday January 27 2022, @07:29PM
They don't yell at us for using Firefox, but they tell you to try X thing on Google Chrome first. Then, ask again. While I get the idea that they have limited funds and time. The vast majority of time, Firefox didn't break X thing. Their design and choices lead to the breakage. Yet, please make sure you're using Google Chrome . . .
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27 2022, @07:59PM (1 child)
*sigh* i am not sure this whole "buy'n'large" approach is ethically supportable.
we saw that people that can "tidy up" get massive hits ...err ... interest (to-under-rocklings: the japanese "tidy-up-lady").
i think it show how much "stuff" we buy for a too short of time of usage to be landfilled ...errr... discarded (and having remorses of throwing it away).
nobody likes to talk about this. i get it. we need jobs and money to like ..err... buy more stuff we can throw away and create more jobs to make the previous mentioned stuff.
i think g. is trying to sell (ehm) their approach for "your convenience" but it's just to make money.
i mean if their serious (and we have the technology for it) we should make stuff more durable AND more repairable and, alas, would also require less ads...
to this end, where is the new "killer app" and "marketing to manufacturers" that lets you scan a device (toaster, some pump, tv (maybe this less since it's so super high-tech), washing machine, etc.) and get a freaking "building manual" and complete spare parts lists with a one-click-working-link-to-original-part-order?
for me, obviously this is a good thing(tm), but i can see that some people are swimming in money and another washing machine or fridge or whatnot contributing to landfill volume is maybe even what got them rich and keeping them rich in the first place and thus not really a problem?
also, again, we have the tech to make it easier and simpler for manufacturers to do more warehousing (of spare parts) on their end. why not help there? for a manufacturer the optimal scenario is if nothing ever gets repaired; no parts warehousing management required and keep on making new stuff ...
alas, in the "climate debate" the energy incorporated in manufacturing "stuff" (including getting that stuff in one piece to the consumer) and then sequestering that energy as a whole waste in landfills doesn't get mentioned much.
so without further ado, the honest solution todo is just invent the "ads://" scheme already. tho penny pinchers at g. will not quickly cede the whole "http(s)" to "serious" websites, not if another penny can be wrung from another "promise you the world" ad...
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday January 28 2022, @11:59PM
The phrase is "by and large" [merriam-webster.com], and has nothing to do with purchasing.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by NateMich on Thursday January 27 2022, @08:17PM
The same Google that can't figure what news articles I'm interested in, is going to decide what "Topics" I should be in?
Oh well, can't be any worse that Amazon's ads.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by mmh on Thursday January 27 2022, @08:28PM (4 children)
I've been using it as my daily browser for years. Their website has complete documentation of all the changes, but the TL;DR is — Chromium with all Google's spyware stripped out.
(Score: 3, Touché) by FatPhil on Thursday January 27 2022, @09:12PM
(Not that I'm recommending 4-year-old Palemoon - literally 50% of the web simply doesn't work with it any more. But the modern web can eat itself for all I care.)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by inertnet on Thursday January 27 2022, @10:17PM
Tried it again but it keeps freezing up, so I gave up again.
(Score: 2) by DrkShadow on Saturday January 29 2022, @01:00PM (1 child)
Or, SRWare-Iron. Basically the same thing?
https://www.srware.net/iron/ [srware.net]
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Saturday January 29 2022, @03:36PM
Have they resolved the source problem yet?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SRWare_Iron#Criticism [wikipedia.org]
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27 2022, @08:28PM (6 children)
The biggest issues with all of these systems is the user can't directly say what they're looking for! I know exactly what I'm interested in but they won't let me say. Instead they all guess based on what I just bought so all the ads are for things you already have and no longer need. It's amazing how bad the ad industry is.
I'm also interested in more than 5 different domains at the same time. Do most people not have lives and only do 1-2 things with their life?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27 2022, @08:38PM (3 children)
I get where you're coming from but I'm here to warn you to be careful what you wish for.
Let's say that you are looking for a multimeter and are declaring "yeah, show me ads for multimeters", remember that you'll be bombarded with ads for multimeters by people that want to sell as many multimeters as possible and probably already sell a huge amount of multimeters.
My point is, those people may have the most money and win out on the ad bidding, but there is no guarantee that you'll see the ads for the multimeter you'd really need or that would actually be best for you.
You'd still only see ads for multimeters that have been sponsored (through the ad bidding process).
Typically, organization who need to advertise that much, aren't really the best value for money product anyway (for one, they have a lot of overhead cost in buying all those ads)
You see where I'm going...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27 2022, @08:54PM (1 child)
Advertisement is inherently manipulation.
Online advertisement is even worse, it inherently is theft, it steals your:
I could go on
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27 2022, @09:19PM
While we're at it: advertisement is theft of your money as well, dollars spent on ads increases the price of the sold product as well.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Sunday January 30 2022, @12:43AM
You should never ask to be shown ads for anything! Generally, if someone is looking for something specific like a multimeter, one would use search using terms like "best", "best value" or such. You would then read a few reviews or articles, pick out something that fits your needs, then either order it online or see if a local shop has such a thing. Or even more likely, head to your local hardware store and and grab one of the ones on the shelf there. Ads? I don't need to see ads of things that vaguely resemble multimeters from far away places that may or may not be legit. That seems to be what drives the advertising industry, or did when I last allowed ads on my browser.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27 2022, @10:44PM (1 child)
What I love is when someone sends you a link to something and ask for your opinion: Should we get this tablecloth for Mom? Then suddenly you're identified as wanting to buy tablecloths, and they'll show up for weeks.
Another thing I noticed. A friend gave me a fig tree cutting. I got to the point where I needed to know how to best prune it for optimal growth. I watched two or three videos on it in YouTube, then suddenly at least 1/5 of the recommended videos for me were about pruning fig trees. And that lasted for many days. Eventually it dies down to a much less frequency, but then after a long period of time it resurges. I see things come up from things that I searched for a long time ago. The reason that I noticed it is that they come in clusters. Don't see anything about how to change brake pads on a Corolla for several years, then I'll start seeing them recommended again. There seems to be time delays worked into the algorithms.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 28 2022, @09:45AM
The way my father knows to change his oil once a year is that he starts seeing ads for synthetic oil changes again. They appear in 1 year intervals almost to the day.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27 2022, @08:34PM (1 child)
Does Chrome set the aristarchus tracking cookie?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27 2022, @08:50PM
The only fingerprints of his stupidity are on his own fingertips.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday January 27 2022, @10:16PM (4 children)
Whatever you might think of Runaway1956, he is NOT a 'normie'. Out of the ~350 million people in the US, there probably aren't 50 people who share all of my interests. How does a corporation like Google create a 'cohort' of users like me? It ain't happening. You can find lots of assholes who share one or two interests with me, but you're not finding more than a few who share my wider interests.
Some other Soylentils are probably as weird as I am. Just as weird, but with different sets of interests. How many of you will find yourselves in a cohort of one, or fifty, or a couple hundred? There's not much anonymizing happening in a small cohort.
(Score: 5, Touché) by stretch611 on Thursday January 27 2022, @10:57PM
Never would I have thought this... Not even close.
Of course, I doubt any regular visitor to SN would think that Runaway1956 is a "normie."
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 28 2022, @12:49AM
> but you're not finding more than a few who share my wider interests.
Come on, tell us what they all are...so we can compare of course...
[meanwhile the Goog will nail you into a cohort box, Ha!]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Reziac on Friday January 28 2022, @02:42AM
So long as businesses keep buying advertising, thereby keeping the marketing department off the street, Google couldn't care less what your interests are, other than as tags for ads. It's nothing to do with you and me; it's an excuse to tally more paid-by-the-each ad impressions for some sucker who was willing to pay for ads.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Friday January 28 2022, @03:35PM
"Normal is what everyone else is and you are not." - Dr. Soren, Star Trek Generations. Not the greatest movie, but I've always liked that quote.
I imagine there is no single cohort that would include *all* of your interests. What you will get is membership in several different distinct cohorts (for example, in your case: gun enthusiast) where you share a single or narrow interest with a lot of others.
I for one will continue to not use google search (DDG for the win) and block ads with extreme prejudice.
The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 28 2022, @12:56AM (1 child)
We should all appreciate what this company is doing for us.
A free Browser that will track and directly market to us!
Sure hope Google buries sites that don't use their FloC/Topics technology.
That way. we will only be visiting sites they decide to promote for our well being and enhsnced user experience.
Time to give Google the crown it deserves:
Emperor of the biggest steaming pile of marketing/advertiser bullshit ever squeezed our of societies' ass.
(Score: 2) by RedGreen on Friday January 28 2022, @11:31AM
"Emperor of the biggest steaming pile of marketing/advertiser bullshit ever squeezed our of societies' ass."
Perfectly sums it up a +1 for you.
"I modded down, down, down, and the flames went higher." -- Sven Olsen
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 28 2022, @01:16AM (5 children)
Although it seems that some web sites won't work with Pale Moon, like the Apple ID site. Just get a spinning wheel image. Youtube has so much garbage in it that it takes forever for pages to load.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday January 28 2022, @11:53PM (3 children)
I'm not really sure what the point of Pale Moon is anymore though, since they finally jettisoned the classic Firefox extension system that was their raison d'être...from what I remember they keep rebasing to a more recent branch of FF every year or two, so I'm skeptical how much bloat they're actually cutting out.
According to the Wikipedia page, looks like the main differences are that PM is single-process and doesn't use the Australis interface.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by DrkShadow on Saturday January 29 2022, @01:02PM (2 children)
When did that happen? I'm still using extensions written for Firefox 3..
but really, it was about keeping XUL and the older interface.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Saturday January 29 2022, @02:50PM (1 child)
When was the last time you updated? I found out about this because one day after updating, basically all my extensions broke.
https://www.palemoon.org/releasenotes.shtml [palemoon.org]
I guess if you weren't using any old-style extensions when it happened, it wouldn't've impacted you, though.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by DrkShadow on Saturday January 29 2022, @04:09PM
Ah, I see.
I did update the plugins (unzip XPI, modify install.rdf or something) to include the Palemoon UUID in their supported browser/version list. It's not that they removed functionality, just that they stopped using the Firefox UUID.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Sunday January 30 2022, @12:48AM
Use NoScript with only the Youtube script allowed. It will load the video, recommended videos and the comments. Nothing else.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 28 2022, @04:50AM
When I try to use Google Image search for the topics I'm interested in, it always returns "girl".
> "I just turned 50 and have 2 kids about to enter college and want to re-finance my mortgage"
..which is about 14-16 bits of information, and is practically a unique identifier if it's ever paired with desensitized location data. (Probably only need 4 bits to identify former College students in my town..)