Google bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome (Ars Technica) [LWN.net]

This Ars Technica article looks at the widespread deployment of Google's "privacy sandbox" in the Chrome browser:

If you haven't been following this, this feature will track the web pages you visit and generate a list of advertising topics that it will share with web pages whenever they ask, and it's built directly into the Chrome browser. It's been in the news previously as "FLoC" and then the "Topics API," and despite widespread opposition from just about every non-advertiser in the world, Google owns Chrome and is one of the world's biggest advertising companies, so this is being railroaded into the production builds.

For those who use Chrome anyway, there are instructions on how to disable this functionality.

Google bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome (ars technica)

Posted Sep 8, 2023 17:00 UTC (Fri) by fredrik (subscriber, #232) [Link] (4 responses)

Google presenting this concept as a "Privacy Sandbox" is one of the best worst example of corporate Orwellian Newspeak I've ever seen in real life.

Google bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome (ars technica)

Posted Sep 8, 2023 17:36 UTC (Fri) by dullfire (guest, #111432) [Link]

Naw, the idea of newspeak is to take away the ability to express bad things. So having a word for "privacy" and "sandbox" would be anathema to the "language". Because otherwise you could say "ungood privacy" (which would be terrible)

Google bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome (ars technica)

Posted Sep 9, 2023 10:25 UTC (Sat) by ibukanov (subscriber, #3942) [Link]

The usage of the term sandox for security was bad as well. Children are not supposed to spend all the time in a sandbox.

Or was it a subtle trolling when the usage for security was introduced? Like with children the sandbox is a boundary only in the imagination of the parents and code can leave it at any time. Then perhaps Google is also trolling.

Google bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome (ars technica)

Posted Sep 9, 2023 14:17 UTC (Sat) by mcatanzaro (subscriber, #93033) [Link] (1 responses)

On the one hand: yes.

On the other hand: it is legitimately much less bad than the status quo (third party cookies), so it really is a privacy improvement. So my vote is "not awful."

Google bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome (ars technica)

Posted Sep 14, 2023 10:00 UTC (Thu) by LtWorf (subscriber, #124958) [Link]

But 3rd party cookies can be blocked in the browser. This is preventing to do that.

Google bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome (ars technica)

Posted Sep 8, 2023 18:19 UTC (Fri) by Archimedes (subscriber, #125143) [Link] (19 responses)

Some years ago the InternetExploder Browser send a good bar for being evil, incecure, .... google is really playing hard to set a new record on the evil side ;)

(But on the other side, I never got why to use chrome in the first place, Firefox (or the other Browsres based in FF) was always the better option.)

Google bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome (ars technica)

Posted Sep 8, 2023 20:08 UTC (Fri) by rgmoore (✭ supporter ✭, #75) [Link]

But on the other side, I never got why to use chrome in the first place

Google has a lot of money to throw at developing the best browser. For a long time, they had the best javascript engine. They were the first ones to keep each tab in a separate process. Those things really made Chrome the most advanced browser for quite a while, and people who wanted the best had serious reasons for wanting to use it. And, of course, Chrome was the default browser on Android, so it had a big built-in user base.

Google bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome (ars technica)

Posted Sep 8, 2023 22:49 UTC (Fri) by alspnost (guest, #2763) [Link] (4 responses)

Because they often just don't work any more? I'm using FF now, and have since it existed, but more and more sites only work in Chrome-based browsers. It's like 2002 all over again, but with Big G instead of Big M. The web is a grim monopoly, and all hope seems lost...

Google bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome (ars technica)

Posted Sep 9, 2023 3:58 UTC (Sat) by ibukanov (subscriber, #3942) [Link] (1 responses)

Compared with IE Chromium is open-sourced. So there are browsers based on it that work just as good as Chrome but preserving privacy, like Brave or Vivaldi.

But their minuscule market share even on desktop tells that users still do not care about the privacy.

Google bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome (ars technica)

Posted Sep 9, 2023 19:18 UTC (Sat) by dilinger (subscriber, #2867) [Link]

Or ungoogled-chromium, or your local freedom-respecting Linux distribution's chromium package. Debian's chromium defaults to having third-party cookies off, and doesn't include any of this privacy sandbox nonsense.

Google bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome (ars technica)

Posted Sep 10, 2023 13:42 UTC (Sun) by rsidd (guest, #2582) [Link]

I haven't encountered issues with Firefox and I have used it on both linux and android for years. I have seen people flag websites on reddit etc that seem to be hard-coded to only accept chrome, but those seem to be rare exceptions that I have not encountered in practice. Zoom used to have issues with firefox but not any more. Teams complains about unsupported browser but works.

Google bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome (ars technica)

Posted Sep 11, 2023 7:10 UTC (Mon) by MortenSickel (subscriber, #3238) [Link]

I have for a while been using three browsers on my work windows laptop - edge for workrelated things where I need to be logged in on my work microsoft account, chrome when I need to use google-related services and firefox for everything else. The latter one set up to delete all cookies when I exit. A bit extra work, but mostly this is working for me. Privately it is firefox on debian (just for a few things I need chromium)

Google bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome (ars technica)

Posted Sep 9, 2023 2:29 UTC (Sat) by rfunk (subscriber, #4054) [Link] (12 responses)

Every time I try to switch to Firefox on desktop, the chunky scrolling is what drives me away. Especially when I try to scroll using my touchscreen.

On Android, however, there's nothing better than Firefox.

Google bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome (ars technica)

Posted Sep 9, 2023 13:08 UTC (Sat) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link] (11 responses)

> chunky scrolling

Uhh... What?

Google bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome (ars technica)

Posted Sep 9, 2023 13:52 UTC (Sat) by rfunk (subscriber, #4054) [Link] (10 responses)

Heh.... So in Chrome, scrolling is infinitely smooth, able to position at any pixel row. In Firefox, even with "smooth scrolling" turned on, it will only position at approximately character-height intervals. It feels like I'm in a terminal window. The "smooth scrolling" option changes how smoothly it moves between positions, but doesn't change where it can end up.

Google bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome (ars technica)

Posted Sep 9, 2023 14:06 UTC (Sat) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link] (1 responses)

Is this why printouts put the pagebreak half-way down a line of text? So the top half of the characters is at the bottom of one page, and the bottom half of the characters are at the top of the next?

Yet another breach of the web's design goal that web pages should be output-device independent :-(

Cheers,
Wol

Google bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome (ars technica)

Posted Sep 9, 2023 16:40 UTC (Sat) by mpr22 (subscriber, #60784) [Link]

> Is this why printouts put the pagebreak half-way down a line of text?

I would expect that to be a simple case of "rasterization is being done before pagination".

Google bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome (ars technica)

Posted Sep 9, 2023 18:00 UTC (Sat) by mathstuf (subscriber, #69389) [Link] (1 responses)

FWIW, it seems that I can stop on any pixel in Firefox 117 on LWN at least. Or my DPI (256) is too high to see the resolution of the detents you're witnessing at the pixel level.

Google bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome (ars technica)

Posted Sep 10, 2023 19:51 UTC (Sun) by mathstuf (subscriber, #69389) [Link]

Given the report that it may depend on the HID used, this is with a trackpad and two-finger scrolling. I'll have to check what happens with a detented scroll wheel (I don't think I own any mice with smooth-scrolling wheels).

Google bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome (ars technica)

Posted Sep 9, 2023 20:21 UTC (Sat) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link]

I'd been using Firefox up until lately and scrolling was completely smooth. Perhaps you need to check your settings? Try launching Firefox in safe mode and see if it helps.

This article might also help: https://www.guidingtech.com/how-to-enable-firefox-smooth-...

Google bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome (ars technica)

Posted Sep 10, 2023 3:06 UTC (Sun) by himi (subscriber, #340) [Link]

Mouse wheel scrolling (at least on Linux) is line-by-line, but dragging the navigation bar allows pixel level positioning. Which makes sense to me - if you're scrolling with a wheel you're not looking for precision, you're looking for convenience and immediate readability, scrolling so that there's always a fully visible line at the top of page will be more readable than leaving you with a partially obscured line of text.

Firefox on Android scrolls smoothly for me, as I'd expect on that platform; not sure about other platforms or browsers, though.

Google bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome (ars technica)

Posted Sep 12, 2023 4:30 UTC (Tue) by jag (subscriber, #3766) [Link] (3 responses)

Sounds like the gesture is converted to mouse scroll wheel events. Try setting the env var mentioned here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Firefox/Tweaks#Pixel-per...

Google bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome (ars technica)

Posted Sep 13, 2023 0:08 UTC (Wed) by rfunk (subscriber, #4054) [Link] (2 responses)

We have a winner! When I set MOZ_USE_XINPUT2=1 the trackpad, touchscreen, and trackpoint scrolling all work as I expect! Thank you so much!

I saw somewhere else that some distributions set this by default; I hadn't considered that my use of Manjaro/Arch could be a factor.

Now I just have to get rid of the forward/back page trackpad gestures, and the blinking cursor, but I'm sure those settings are in there somewhere.

Google bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome (ars technica)

Posted Sep 13, 2023 2:00 UTC (Wed) by jag (subscriber, #3766) [Link] (1 responses)

What worked for me was to set browser.gesture.swipe.left (and .right) to the empty string in about:config.

And that blinking cursor, if that shows up whenever you click on regular text and can move it with the cursor keys, it's probably the "caret browsing" accessibility feature. F7 to toggle, or search settings (General tab) for "cursor". To disable the F7 shortcut completely, search about:config for "caret_shortcut" and toggle it to false.

Google bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome (ars technica)

Posted Sep 13, 2023 12:34 UTC (Wed) by rfunk (subscriber, #4054) [Link]

Heh, almost every search result for Firefox blinking cursor talks about that caret browsing mode, but I'm just talking about the cursor in text input boxes (including the location bar).
I did learn that I can create a "ui.caretBlinkTime" config key and set it to -1, and that stops the cursor from blinking. Progress!

Google bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome (ars technica)

Posted Sep 8, 2023 20:01 UTC (Fri) by flussence (guest, #85566) [Link]

I think at this point they're doing it because the 24/7 attention from mainstream media handling them with safety mittens of decorum is free “native advertising” in itself.

This contrasts quite starkly with the last negative thing I saw written about Firefox, which was written by a Mass-Produced Podcast Guy™ who was apparently once taken seriously, and veered off into insane conspiracy theories and boring mass-produced bigotry after about 3 paragraphs.

Not that I'd ever use anything Chrome-based again, but seeing who fights on its behalf certainly validates that decision.

Google bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome (ars technica)

Posted Sep 9, 2023 8:01 UTC (Sat) by mat2 (guest, #100235) [Link] (2 responses)

This isn't the only nefarious thing Google is pushing into Chrome. They want to make sure that you don't use any other browser. Basically, Chrome is going to receive a remote attestation "feature" that lets websites check (using a Google server) if they are interacting with an unmodified Chrome browser (e.g. on an unmodified Android device) and deny service otherwise. It is called Web Environment Integrity.

There is a statement about it from the FSF: https://www.defectivebydesign.org/blog/web_environment_in...

Google bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome (ars technica)

Posted Sep 9, 2023 8:36 UTC (Sat) by bojan (subscriber, #14302) [Link]

It they name it ActiveX, we'll have gone full circle to making sure web doesn't work as it should. 🤬

Google bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome (ars technica)

Posted Sep 9, 2023 20:41 UTC (Sat) by Herve5 (guest, #115399) [Link]

Wow! For the first time I somehow imagine what it must be when your doctor tells you you'll be dead much sooner than you thought...

Google bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome (ars technica)

Posted Sep 11, 2023 22:21 UTC (Mon) by marcH (subscriber, #57642) [Link]

Everyone's talking about a "switch" to a different browser but they're not mutually exclusive. I have a chooser on both my laptop and phone.