Fook Google and its fookin' sheet

phiw13 · 2019-11-12 09:03:48

colak wrote #320011:

Even FF is problematic as Mozilla gets much of its funding from Google. I am also hugely sceptical of their recent, aggressive expansion to the cloud.

hmm, yeah their Cloud (cloudy?) business is not that nice. And their attempts to force the DNS-over-HTTPS down everybody’s treat is downright ugly. On the flip side their Tracking Prevention is very interesting – when set to strict it obviates the need of an ad blocker (!). I still prefer Safari by far.

I don’t have Chromium browsers installed anywhere, except on my iMac where I have Brave to test websites on that rendering engine. I certainly would not install Chrome itself.

Edit: some links on DNS over HTTPS.

Last edited by phiw13 (2019-11-12 09:05:39)

zero · 2019-11-12 16:33:05

Another Google acquisition of personal data

I recently had a hernia repair paid by the National Health Service performed at a private hospital (private hospitals perform many operations cos of public health services being so busy. They then bill the NHS). I was called to see the anaesthetist before the op and he knew all about me, had all my records on his computer but was worried I wasn’t taking any drugs. He was covering his back and I had to sign a form to allow him and the surgeon to do whatever they saw fit.

What’s interesting is that the private hospital had my medical records that went back at least 20 years, whereas when at public health places, GP surgeries etc, I am forever having to repeat my details because it seems that one department does not pass on personal details to another department. I say seems because the doctors might be able to view all my details whereas the admin staff are paid to follow protocol. I’m not bothered either way but perhaps I should be? Now that Google has access in USA, it will not be long before they have access in the UK, especially if the right-wingers win the election coming up in a month’s time.

Knowledge is power and Google’s purpose appears to be to collect all the information of 8 billion people, for starters.

Algaris · 2019-11-13 10:01:42

I realise my post is a sidetrack from the original topic, so apologies in advanced.

phiw13 wrote #320013:

I still prefer Safari by far.

I’ve tried Safari a few times but I find it’s less customisable than other browsers and doesn’t have all of the plugins that I use in either Vivaldi or Firefox. I do however love the integration Safari has with macOS.

zero wrote #320027:

…especially if the right-wingers win the [UK] election coming up in a month’s time.

Yeah I’m worried about that too.

phiw13 · 2019-11-13 23:12:06

zero wrote #320027:

Another Google acquisition of personal data

And now it seems thy’ll go into banking (are technica link, as I had this one at hand) as well (checkin accounts). But promise in all cases “we won sell your data’. Right, don‘t laugh, that is bad for blood pressure.

Naked Capitalism has an item on that health records issue. It appears they didn’t even had a contract (prolly because their search engine is so bad).

Incidentally, Zero, that Naked Capitalism site is another victim of Google agressive filtering out of information that does not match the established truth.
(and they are such a middle of the road site)

Knowledge is power and Google’s purpose appears to be to collect all the information of 8 billion people, for starters.

Yeah, that has been the purpose since day one – we want to know all about you – but they never made so clear as now what that actually mean.

bici · 2019-11-14 01:08:46

i sense my soul is being googled

evil bastard wankers

gaekwad · 2019-11-14 10:32:04

If you want to make a practical difference with how Google et al track you, set up a Raspberry Pi with Pi-Hole on your home/office network. It’s straightforward, largely set and forget, and you’ll start seeing changes in how your network works.

Just don’t dwell too much on the volume of tracking that Instagram does, especially if your household/workplace has a lot of social media-ites.

Edit: my Pi-Hole admin, if you’re curious – imgur.com/LTQ0gM0 (image safe for work). Note that the two graphs with overlay text look fine in a browser, I used a screen grabber to get the image. Also note that someone else in my house spends a lot of time on Instagram…

Edit #2: I’m also a big fan of AdGuard (pay-for), totally worth the money in my opinion. imgur.com/kWW7xEc (image safe for work)

Last edited by gaekwad (2019-11-14 11:18:10)

jakob · 2021-03-03 22:07:43

A potential alternative in the offing: Brave.search. Not much to go on as yet but “Hope for the future” perhaps? (Announcement on Twitter with notification of a waitlist for early testers).

bici · 2021-03-04 02:22:49

jakob wrote #329102:

A potential alternative in the offing: Brave.search. Not much to go on as yet but “Hope for the future” perhaps? (Announcement on Twitter with notification of a waitlist for early testers).

i installed Brave.. then it abruptly pissed me right off… i get prompts about bitcoin. F$%K BITCOIN!

phiw13 · 2021-03-04 03:05:37

bici wrote #329103:

i installed Brave.. then it abruptly pissed me right off… i get prompts about bitcoin. F$%K BITCOIN!

:-)

I use Brave to test layouts etc on the Chromium engine but I certainly would not use it for daily necessities. They do good work in the field of privacy protection and anti-tracking protection, though.

jakob wrote #329102:

A potential alternative in the offing: Brave.search. Not much to go on as yet but “Hope for the future” perhaps?

Reading their twitter text, and that webpage, me goes Hmmm. But OK, more players in that field, more fun!

colak · 2021-03-04 04:19:19

bici wrote #329103:

i installed Brave.. then it abruptly pissed me right off… i get prompts about bitcoin. F$%K BITCOIN!

I use brave for my social media and ff for the rest of my browsing. I never received a bitcoin prompt after I customised the splash page to show nothing.

zero · 2021-03-07 13:19:54

I saw this article on my social media which gives step by step details on how to set up the Searx search engine on Linux. You would need self-hosting or full access to the server but the author links to his own and a list of other publicly available versions ready to use.

bici · 2021-03-16 22:26:21

From DuckDuckGo:

After months of stalling, Google finally revealed how much personal data they collect in Chrome and the Google app. No wonder they wanted to hide it.

Destry · 2021-03-17 11:19:09

At the risk of being a complete boor and disagreeable ass…

Had I known that was a Twit link, I would not have clicked it. Share them if you want, but there should be indicators on those (is that possible to automate?), or at least provide the links using an alternate interface that does not promote the vile platforms. Nitter in this case. (They also exist for YouTube, Medium, etc.) I quite recommend the Invidition plugin for FF. Unfortunately I used my phone this time.

I don’t know if it’s just my dumb luck (or stupidity for looking), but all of the tweets under that one shared, under the ‘More Tweets’ area, are from right wing nationalist Trump supporters who are still pissed their repeat coup didn’t work out. I mean, every tweet. As if the world doesn’t have bigger problems.

I killed my shitter account in 2017 and have never looked back to that cesspool once, so I don’t know what’s going on there. Is that just the saturated state of it now? Such that the algorithms can only churn up the seething rantings of verified orange worshippers and Qononimists?

Good people should no more use Twitter than they should Facebook, it’s just a different format of the same poisonous practices. Capitalism is no excuse anymore.

I hope Russia follows through and turns Twitter off, even if it is for the laughably obvious hypocritical reason it is. Twitter’s problem now is Americans, though, as it always is for the rest of the world, too. I wish France would turn Twitter off, but its politicos, journos, and economos are as addicted to the filthy teet as every other country.

</::wednesday_rant>

💚

michaelkpate · 2021-03-17 12:59:18

Destry wrote #329316:

Had I known that was a Twit link, I would not have clicked it. Share them if you want, but there should be indicators on those (is that possible to automate?), or at least provide the links using an alternate interface that does not promote the vile platforms. Nitter in this case.

I am not sure how using an alternative interface to reach Twitter actually discourages the use of Twitter but here you are:

And while I have given up on Twitter, I still find Facebook useful.

Destry · 2021-03-17 22:00:23

michaelkpate wrote #329318:

I am not sure how using an alternative interface to reach Twitter actually discourages the use of Twitter

Heh. Well, the idea is that in the rare times you might look at something there, or share a link there, as the case is here, you at least deny Twitter any tracking benefit. As Nitter says:

No JavaScript or ads

All requests go through the backend, client never talks to Twitter

Prevents Twitter from tracking your IP or JavaScript fingerprint

Just curious, are there tracking strings on that twitter url in bici’s post? Or did they at least get removed? Overlooking those strings is usually the second mistake people make.

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#16 2019-11-12 09:03:48

Re: Fook Google and its fookin' sheet

colak wrote #320011:

#17 2019-11-12 16:33:05

Re: Fook Google and its fookin' sheet

#18 2019-11-13 10:01:42

Re: Fook Google and its fookin' sheet

phiw13 wrote #320013:

zero wrote #320027:

#19 2019-11-13 23:12:06

Re: Fook Google and its fookin' sheet

zero wrote #320027:

#20 2019-11-14 01:08:46

Re: Fook Google and its fookin' sheet

#21 2019-11-14 10:32:04

Re: Fook Google and its fookin' sheet

#22 2021-03-03 22:07:43

Re: Fook Google and its fookin' sheet

#23 2021-03-04 02:22:49

Re: Fook Google and its fookin' sheet

jakob wrote #329102:

#24 2021-03-04 03:05:37

Re: Fook Google and its fookin' sheet

bici wrote #329103:

jakob wrote #329102:

#25 2021-03-04 04:19:19

Re: Fook Google and its fookin' sheet

bici wrote #329103:

#26 2021-03-07 13:19:54

Re: Fook Google and its fookin' sheet

#27 2021-03-16 22:26:21

Re: Fook Google and its fookin' sheet

#28 2021-03-17 11:19:09

Re: Fook Google and its fookin' sheet

#29 2021-03-17 12:59:18

Re: Fook Google and its fookin' sheet

Destry wrote #329316:

#30 2021-03-17 22:00:23

Re: Fook Google and its fookin' sheet

michaelkpate wrote #329318:

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