- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.zip
- browsers@lemmy.ml
- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.zip
- browsers@lemmy.ml
If you are keen on personal privacy, you might have come across Brave Browser. Brave is a Chromium-based browser that promises to deliver privacy with built-in ad-blocking and content-blocking protection. It also offers several quality-of-life features and services, like a VPN and Tor access. I mean, it’s even listed on the reputable PrivacyTools website. Why am I telling you to steer clear of this browser, then?
Once again, that’s not privacy (the context of this discussion). Your point is that using Chromium encourages websites (as in, developers) to keep making sites that are Chromium-optimized, instead of browser-agnostic.
When you take all the “Google” out of a browser, they’re not getting any information from you because those mechanisms no longer exist. Again, I’m talking about Google and Chrome. You’re combining 3 different “issues” and slapping a “PRIVACY” label on them.
The real issue is that people default to Chrome, because for years it was the most performant browser (until it became a bloated shitfest). People need to become the change they wish to see (like me, who switched from Brave back to Firefox on all devices). That’s how you defeat a browser monopoly. This is just Internet Explorer from the 90s/2000s all over again. Remember how everyone used to default to it because it’s what they were taught? We (collectively) need to stop telling people “download chrome” as the default. It’s the equivalent of saying “google it”, instead of “look it up”.
You’re the kind of person that gets told repeatedly that X is bad, don’t do X.
Then you do X, get in deep trouble, and cry about how could anyone possible let this happen, and expect everyone else around you to clean up the mess, arent you.
Google dominating the internet IS a privacy problem.
Taking google tracking bullshit out of your browser does nothing to address their monopolistic power that allows them to violate your privacy even without their tracking shit in their browser. Using Chrome/Chromium hurts privacy. Because using google shit in general hurts privacy. Using chrome/chromium furthers googles base, further forces the web to align with what google wants, and is bad for privacy, and for everything.
And Chrome was never the most performant. Google just sabotage their own services to run worse on competitors browsers, because end users are stupid and will just assume "not google browser = bad " and use chrome.
And if you still cant wrap your head around it, then you’re hopeless.
I’m starting to get the picture that you don’t understand how a web browser works. Otherwise you wouldn’t be equating Chrome to Chromium/forks that remove Google-everything. Blink being the dominant renderer is a completely separate issue. The renderer itself does nothing for Google in terms of “collecting data” on its own. You’re talking about the browser as a whole (e.g. “Chrome” = Chrome + Blink). They’re two separate things that are shipped together.
I agree, but using a non-Google, Chromium-based browser/fork that removes all of the Google bits is a separate issue than Google Chrome having huge marketshare. I don’t know how old you are, and the reason I say that is because I’m old enough to remember the original beta release (and 1.0) of Chrome. Chrome then isn’t what Chrome became years later, and now. That was my point in bringing up the past; because you’re acting like it’s been like this since Day 1. It’s taken over a decade for it to become enshittified.
Sure, rewrite history. Chrome was never the most performant, and nobody had anything to say about its ludicrous speeds during the Windows XP/7 era, when it was released /s. I understand what you’re saying, but my overall point is that you’re being hyperbolic and tying together separate issues under one label. For example, Brave sucks, but not because it’s based on Chromium. It sucks because of their policies and the actual execution (e.g. removal of privacy-preserving features, whitelisting Meta ads, etc).
Also, you clearly don’t read anything because I already told you that I switched from Brave to Firefox on all of my devices. Now what I’d like to know is, what browser(s) are you using, and do you recommend, and why. Because, by your logic, it’s the rendering engine (Blink) that is the issue, since you say that even anti-Google forks of Chromium (not Chrome) are as bad as Chrome itself. Does that means that now I can’t use Firefox forks, because they’re all tied back to Mozilla, who also has inserted/removed/changed features that have to do with privacy? I’m genuinely asking you. Also what does it mean when Mozilla gets a huge chunk of their funding for Firefox directly from Google?
tl;dr – The Blink renderer used by Chrome/derivatives does nothing on its own. You should be complaining about web developers who skew (design) their sites towards it instead of following general best practices for all renderers. Separately, and additionally, people should move away from Chrome because it’s a privacy nightmare, but that has nothing to do with the renderer. Finally, I do agree with you about Google kneecapping their web properties so they work worse with other browsers, but that’s user-agent related, and Google-related (not something Chrome does).