With the number of people concerned about privacy, it is a wonder why chrome is even popular.

  • Metallibus@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    1 year ago

    IMO the thing is that people don’t care about their privacy. Sure, some people around here do, but your average person owns an Alexa, has a FB/Instagram account and constantly posts their location, uses the same password on many sites, uses TikTok, doesn’t block cookies, etc etc etc.

    Most people don’t actually care. Some claim they do, but then can’t even be bothered to stop using Instagram etc because of the “inconvenience”… So do they really care?

    Some companies (Apple, etc) push their products under a narrative around safety and security, and people will repeat that point as a way to justify a decision they already made, but if they actually cared, they would be doing other things too. But they don’t.

    The number of us who do actually care about privacy and security is actually very small.

    • Mihuy@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      1 year ago

      In adittion to this make sure to disable the telemetry that’s on by default. If you want even better protection from fingerprinting etc, use arkenfox/librewolf (librewolf being preconfigured fork of firefox)

      • HughJanus@lemmy.mlEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        They won’t. The vast majority aren’t using any kind of ad-blockers in the first place or Google would go out of business.

    • Frost Wolf@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Hmmm, on the bright side, with lemmy going mainstream maybe some of this culture (including privacy and FOSS) becomes more and more openly discussed.

      • Torres@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        As much as I love Lemmy I don’t see it going mainstream :/
        It’s too weird for the general user

        • theragu40@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          Yeah I agree. Arguably reddit isn’t even mainstream, and it is exponentially larger than Lemmy now and will remain so for the foreseeable future.

          I’m really loving Lemmy, but it is not even remotely a factor if we are having a conversation about things that are mainstream enough to reflect popular opinion.

        • Very_Bad_Janet@kbin.social
          1·
          1 year ago

          Reddit was too weird for most people until they ended up being in their Google search results for most topics. It will take a while but the Fediverse will eventually reach a level of popularity and mainstream utility.

  • GigglyBobble@kbin.social
    3·
    1 year ago

    Firefox is a weird buggy mess that constantly freezes.

    This is definitely not normal, Firefox never freezes for me. May be worth checking that out, especially your extensions.

  • Captain Poofter@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    The whole Reddit debacle has really made me rethink all my services. I recently installed duck duck go and still getting used to it, so not quite sure if I’m ready to make another drastic change.

    I used to love Firefox in 2006 or so, but got Chrome when it was released and forgot about Firefox. I think I’ll open a tab in my chrome browser for the Firefox page now…this is how I remind myself to delve deeper into stuff later. Thanks for the inspiration, everyone. Google has irked me ever since removing the Don’t Be Evil mantra.

    • TonyTonyChopper@mander.xyzEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      Firefox has a super simple way to import everything from your Chrome install. And from what I can tell it has every feature plus more. Was very easy for me to switch. I was actually inspired to try it as my daily driver since Chrome hogs an uncomfortable amount of RAM on my laptop

  • Pyro@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    With the number of people concerned about privacy

    That number appears to be very small, all things considered. Out of everyone I know, literally one person cares about privacy. My mother. She will even go as far as to only use her first initial online instead of her name if she can get away with it. However, she uses Chrome all the time because she doesn’t understand that your browser also tracks you.

    I think that’s what it comes down to. A mixture of lack of public interest, and lack of public awareness about tracking/privacy in general. If people can’t immediately see how having their data harvested will inconvenience/hurt them, they simply don’t care.

    • fatalError@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      1·
      7 months ago

      At work I guess you only do work related stuff, so at the end of the day it’s only work-related data that the browser has access to. Why would it matter to you?

      99.9% of my the personal browsing I do is in firefox both on phone and desktop, but on work laptop I use Edge because 1. the work web-apps seem to favour chromium based browsers and 2. it’s not my data so I don’t really care about the privacy of my company’s data, they have a data privacy officer to worry about that.

    • fatalError@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      2·
      7 months ago

      Dark reader - for dark mode everywhere

      Decentreyes - for avoiding CDNs that track you

      Sponsorblock - to skip sponsored parts on youtube

      Enhancer for youtube - for a nicer overall experience, specific quality setting by default, scroll wheel volume, and more

  • Porka_911@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    0·
    1 year ago

    Chrome does have a use, namely Selenium and automation.

    I’m guilty of having Chrome on my PC, as I need to nerf over my favourites to Firefox.

    Firefox is my browser of choice on my Google Pixel 7, but then again no doubt it makes little difference.

    I just choose to use a VPN, so any targeted adverts are blocked regardless of the profile built up from my browsing habits.