Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Claims Google Chrome Steals Your Privacy
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft is going on the offensive against Google, accusing the search giant of creating a browser that does not respect user privacy. The company posted a video, embedded below, on TechNet Edge with the following description: 'Watch a demo on how Google Chrome collects every keystroke you make and how Internet Explorer 8 keeps your information private through two address bars and In Private browsing.' Microsoft's first criticism is Chrome's combining the address bar and the search box into a single entry box; IE8 keeps those fields separate. 'By keeping these boxes separate, your privacy is better protected and the addresses of the sites you're visiting aren't automatically shared with Microsoft, or anyone else,' says IE product manager Pete LePage."
Has anyone ever tried to implment the Microsoft privacy policy? Here is one guy who did.
I'm assuming you didn't actually read the article because you wanted to look like a jackass.
And what did you wanted me to read about it? This?
We downloaded Fiddler to make some comparisons of our own. As we suspected, Chrome can be set to send information on every keystroke to Bing (or any other search engine that supports Search Suggestions) instead of Google. The same behavior occurs in IE8, but only in the search bar. LePage is only correct in his assertion that IE8 does not send information to anyone when the user types into the address bar.
The last sentence is a major point.
Umm, the boxes are all controlled by the same program, so whether or not there is physical separation between them (does that have any meaning in a user interface?) has nothing to do with whether or not the data is collected or not.
And you don't understand the problem. This isn't a trust issue with the Chrome application. If it was, you would have lost the battle as soon as you installed it on your computer. This is a privacy problem (a recurring theme with Google's applications).
The issue that MS is pointing out is that because Chrome combines the address bar and the search box, when you start typing hotmidgetoatmealpor, that information is sent directly to Google so they can do auto-completion/auto-searching. Where it is associated with you. And saved. Forever.
In IE, the search box is a separate entity, and you can turn search suggestions on or off for each search provider. Because of this, the only information sent to MS (or whatever search provider you use) is what you type in the search box. You can visit whatever URLs you want to and Bing/Yahoo/Google will never know about them.
Honestly though, I still struggle to figure out what the point of search suggestions are. I suppose they're helpful for people who don't know what they're looking for, but when I go to Google, I already know what I'm going to search for -- that's why I'm there! That said, I suppose it does provide some entertainment.
"What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
/)
Bu not Opera Mini, which routes all your traffic through their proxys. http://www.opera.com/mobile/help/faq/#security (third question).
Dilbert RSS feed
Chrome actually has a bunch of fine-grain privacy controls they added in the last release.
http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en/more/privacy.html
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
Google Wave uses AJAX to show other users in your wave what you're typing as you type it. This does not mean "they want to know everything you type". It's a feature, and a tool. Like any tool it can be used for both benevolent and malevolent purposes, but itself is not inherently either.
Unless you go to Preferences->Advanced and turn off the appropriate option in the Privacy category.
/. didn't see that option? I saw only a comment or two mentioning that.
Or am I missing something major here? Is it possible that most people on
The issue that MS is pointing out is that because Chrome combines the address bar and the search box, when you start typing hotmidgetoatmealpor, that information is sent directly to Google so they can do auto-completion/auto-searching. Where it is associated with you. And saved. Forever.
From Google's Privacy Blog (in 2008):
That's what occurs on the surface of Google Suggest. Here's what happens under the hood. To provide its recommendations Google Suggest needs to know what you've already typed, so these partial queries are sent to Google. For 98% of these requests, we don't log any data at all and simply return the suggestions. For the remaining 2% of cases (which we select randomly), we do log data, like IP addresses, in order to monitor and improve the service.
However, given the concerns that have been raised about Google storing this information -- and its limited potential use -- we decided that we will anonymize it within about 24 hours (basically, as soon as we practically can) in the 2% of Google Suggest requests we use. This will take a little time to implement, but we expect it to be in place before the end of the month.
No, actually I didn't look closer, because it doesn't really matter specifically which part of the application or which plugin is causing the problems, does it? The end result is the same. If Flash was such a problem then I would expect the same memory usage in every browser using Flash. In fact, considering the fact that other browsers use the exact same plugin which Firefox does for Flash, but don't exhibit the same problems, doesn't that sort of rule out Flash alone as the culprit? Wouldn't it be more likely that the problem is a combination between Firefox and something else? The common denominator is Firefox, not Flash.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
What a lame attempt, microsoft ...
1) - If you use explorer, you are using windows. The chances of someone exploiting your browser and getting access to all your files is 90%
- You can use Chrome in Mac or GNU/Linux. Both Chrome and your OS keep your data secure
2) - I have the source code for Chrome (Chromium) and I can study it, make sure it's safe, or change whatever I want. Also, I know the community has reviewed it, and the company is not trying to hid anything behind a binary
- I don't have the source of explorer, and microsoft has a huge history of phoning home and spying on users
3 - Chrome is standards compliant, so there's no vendor tie-in. If I find something I don't like, I can move on to another browser
- Explorer is platform specific, and non compliant with standards. That means, if I develop anything for it, it'll probably be incompatible with other browsers and moving away will be hard.
Sorry microsoft, Google published the source code for their browser, it's well developed, multi-platform, they'll take my patches and if they are good implement them on their source, and they are open and transparent about everything the browser does. They are doing all the right things, and I just love this browser.
WTF am I doing replying to an AC at 5 A.M on a Friday night?
So then what is a good browser? I do value privacy so I don't use Chrome (I figure google can have either my search history or web browsing history but not both, and adblock for Chrome really sucks). I hate ads so I don't use Opera (the adblock solution also sucks). I don't care about bloat, but I do care about speed, and firefox is the slowest of the main browsers I use (I do not use IE8). The four things I care about are security, ad-blocking, speed, and privacy. It looks like this is another case of "choose 3 out of 4".
1. Take off the tin foil hat and spend 5 seconds disabling whatever it is that offends you in the clearly labeled and displayed Privacy settings in Chrome.
2. Download a good hosts adblocking file.
3. Download a good extension that'll hide the blocked elements and text ads.
4. Enjoy using a blazingly fast and responsive, free browser.
Or if you're still paranoid that Google is using Chrome to hijack your life, you could even do this:
1. Download Opera.
2. Use this guy's stuff.