Uninstall Chrome.
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Uninstall Chrome.
Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent. At a billion-device scale the climate costs are insane. — That Privacy Guy!
Google Chrome is downloading a 4 GB Gemini Nano model onto users' machines without consent, with no opt-in, no opt-out short of enterprise tooling, and an automatic re-download every time the user deletes it. The pattern is identical to the Anthropic Claude Desktop case I wrote about last month, but the scale is between two and three orders of magnitude larger. This article does the legal analysis and, for the first time, the environmental analysis. The numbers are not small.
That Privacy Guy! (www.thatprivacyguy.com)
Listen to me.
Install Firefox from this link: https://www.firefox.com/
Uncheck the AI pref.
Install the uBlock Origin addon from this link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-CA/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/
That's it. There's more you can do, but spend a few days with a proper web browser and a real ad blocker and you'll get it.
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Listen to me.
Install Firefox from this link: https://www.firefox.com/
Uncheck the AI pref.
Install the uBlock Origin addon from this link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-CA/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/
That's it. There's more you can do, but spend a few days with a proper web browser and a real ad blocker and you'll get it.
@mhoye en-CA specifically?
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@mhoye en-CA specifically?
@simon Whatever works for you, but I've fixed the link.
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Listen to me.
Install Firefox from this link: https://www.firefox.com/
Uncheck the AI pref.
Install the uBlock Origin addon from this link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-CA/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/
That's it. There's more you can do, but spend a few days with a proper web browser and a real ad blocker and you'll get it.
I've been enjoying librewolf - a bit more fiddly to get it usable (for me), with its builtin anti-fingerprinting stuff a bit overzealous for my tastes, so maybe not for the non nerd.
Do you have an opinion about that project? I landed there after a process of elimination, and I haven't found any problems with it yet. Always ready to learn tho
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I've been enjoying librewolf - a bit more fiddly to get it usable (for me), with its builtin anti-fingerprinting stuff a bit overzealous for my tastes, so maybe not for the non nerd.
Do you have an opinion about that project? I landed there after a process of elimination, and I haven't found any problems with it yet. Always ready to learn tho
@mhcat My opinion is that librewolf is a misguided spite-fork with no meaningful test or deployment infrastructure and no security team at all. You can do whatever you want with your computer but if you care about security or reliability at all you're far, far better off using mainline firefox, and - if you object to the idea of telemetry or automatic updates - click those two checkboxes and get on with your life.
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Listen to me.
Install Firefox from this link: https://www.firefox.com/
Uncheck the AI pref.
Install the uBlock Origin addon from this link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-CA/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/
That's it. There's more you can do, but spend a few days with a proper web browser and a real ad blocker and you'll get it.
@mhoye I can also recommend @Waterfox and @torproject / #TorBrowser…
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Uninstall Chrome.
Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent. At a billion-device scale the climate costs are insane. — That Privacy Guy!
Google Chrome is downloading a 4 GB Gemini Nano model onto users' machines without consent, with no opt-in, no opt-out short of enterprise tooling, and an automatic re-download every time the user deletes it. The pattern is identical to the Anthropic Claude Desktop case I wrote about last month, but the scale is between two and three orders of magnitude larger. This article does the legal analysis and, for the first time, the environmental analysis. The numbers are not small.
That Privacy Guy! (www.thatprivacyguy.com)
@mhoye sorry, I can't
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Listen to me.
Install Firefox from this link: https://www.firefox.com/
Uncheck the AI pref.
Install the uBlock Origin addon from this link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-CA/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/
That's it. There's more you can do, but spend a few days with a proper web browser and a real ad blocker and you'll get it.
@mhoye why not Brave
The browser that puts you first | Brave
The Brave browser is a fast, private and secure web browser for PC, Mac and mobile. Download now to enjoy a faster ad-free browsing experience that saves data and battery life by blocking tracking software.
Brave (brave.com)
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@mhoye why not Brave
The browser that puts you first | Brave
The Brave browser is a fast, private and secure web browser for PC, Mac and mobile. Download now to enjoy a faster ad-free browsing experience that saves data and battery life by blocking tracking software.
Brave (brave.com)
@sibrosan the cryptocurrency scam and eich specifically.
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@sibrosan the cryptocurrency scam and eich specifically.
@mhoye what is "eich"
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@mhcat My opinion is that librewolf is a misguided spite-fork with no meaningful test or deployment infrastructure and no security team at all. You can do whatever you want with your computer but if you care about security or reliability at all you're far, far better off using mainline firefox, and - if you object to the idea of telemetry or automatic updates - click those two checkboxes and get on with your life.
-
Listen to me.
Install Firefox from this link: https://www.firefox.com/
Uncheck the AI pref.
Install the uBlock Origin addon from this link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-CA/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/
That's it. There's more you can do, but spend a few days with a proper web browser and a real ad blocker and you'll get it.
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@mhoye what is "eich"
@sibrosan the founder.
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@mhoye what is "eich"
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Listen to me.
Install Firefox from this link: https://www.firefox.com/
Uncheck the AI pref.
Install the uBlock Origin addon from this link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-CA/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/
That's it. There's more you can do, but spend a few days with a proper web browser and a real ad blocker and you'll get it.
@mhoye I mostly use Firefox, but have to switch to edge for many web stores
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@mhoye I can also recommend @Waterfox and @torproject / #TorBrowser…
@kkarhan @Waterfox @torproject Waterfox and Librewolf are both spite-forks with no security team and no update mechanism. You can do what you want with your computer, but if you care about security at all you're far better off on mainline Firefox with the options you don't like turned off.
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@mhcat My opinion is that librewolf is a misguided spite-fork with no meaningful test or deployment infrastructure and no security team at all. You can do whatever you want with your computer but if you care about security or reliability at all you're far, far better off using mainline firefox, and - if you object to the idea of telemetry or automatic updates - click those two checkboxes and get on with your life.
@mhoye @mhcat that’s a bit harsh, have you had a negative personal interaction with the Librewolf team? I’ve found that even with the toggles you mentioned, Firefox still sends data back to Mozilla constantly. It’s as if they don’t honor their own settings. With Librewolf I have yet to find any nefarious or secret behavior like that. I can’t speak to their test environment since I’m not a developer, but the fact that the entire reason for their existence is to secure and harden Firefox is why I use their browser.
I’m going to dig into your claims about their lack of security and testing because that kind of thing is deeply concerning.
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@kkarhan @Waterfox @torproject Waterfox and Librewolf are both spite-forks with no security team and no update mechanism. You can do what you want with your computer, but if you care about security at all you're far better off on mainline Firefox with the options you don't like turned off.
@mhoye then I guess @torproject / #TorBrowser is the way to go…
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@mhoye @mhcat that’s a bit harsh, have you had a negative personal interaction with the Librewolf team? I’ve found that even with the toggles you mentioned, Firefox still sends data back to Mozilla constantly. It’s as if they don’t honor their own settings. With Librewolf I have yet to find any nefarious or secret behavior like that. I can’t speak to their test environment since I’m not a developer, but the fact that the entire reason for their existence is to secure and harden Firefox is why I use their browser.
I’m going to dig into your claims about their lack of security and testing because that kind of thing is deeply concerning.
@kaidenshi @mhcat Not sure what to tell you:
