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Does 'not using Chrome' to you also mean 'not logging-in to any Google services'?

Madza on October 13, 2020

Once in a while, a new post on migrating away from Chrome appears here and there across the blogging platforms. The reasons for that surely may va...
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karandpr profile image
Karan Gandhi • Edited

Well, there are a lot of reasons to not use Chrome.
Changing a browser might give you a feeling that you are not being tracked. But realistically you have just adjusted one parameter, i.e browser. Everything is still the same
If you have privacy concerns and you have to ungoogle then it's a whole different ball game.

For starters, your current PC(HW id), mobile (IMEI), browser, email id(Gmail), ISP, MAC_ID, IP address(generic fingerprinting techniques), geolocation(Maps, Background services), credit card info(Google Pay), phone number(2FA) and other factors being tied to an identifier. The Gmail account is just an association with the identifier and not the identifier.

To have reasonable privacy, you will need a new computer (bought with cash), a mobile without android or iOS, new network equipment, VPN, (a new home if you can.), Technically you will have to identify most of the privacy holes and create a personal sandbox before accessing the internet.
Using OS like Tails and hosting your email is a good start. Sanitizing your entire workflow will take shitload of time and effort.
After creating a personal sandbox, you should probably avoid fingerprinting by blocking JS altogether, spoofing your parameters now and then, using custom browsers.

It will bring a lot of inconveniences btw. Because one of the major problems will be banking or anything that uses behavioral analysis. Intruders and Privacy Enthusiasts use more or less the same techniques to avoid tracking. So if you access using your privacy measures, sooner or later you will be flagged by a system.

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aurelio profile image
Aurelio

This is an amazing comment, thanks for sharing this depressing insight πŸ˜‚

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karandpr profile image
Karan Gandhi

Haha. Well privacy is inconvenient. 🀷 .

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madza profile image
Madza

Thanks for the wider insight on the topic πŸ˜‰πŸ‘

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karandpr profile image
Karan Gandhi

Haha. Not so wide really. Just stuff I read from here and there.

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SparklingINsilence

I use chrome but have decided to change search engine to DuckDuckG. Seems the only way to maintain total privacy is to disconnect completely. Sooner or later we all make the "mistake" of logging in from the wrong environment and we end up exposing ourselves. Interesting to see what solutions people adapt.

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patarapolw profile image
Pacharapol Withayasakpunt • Edited

I use Brave Browser, and used to used DuckDuckGo; but I changed search engine back to Google, because I cannot tolerate substandard search quality (and subsequent loss of productivity).

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SparklingINsilence

I understand what you mean with search engine results and is considering if it's worth the effort. They say the more people use the more DuckDuckGo should get better but im not 100% sure if it' worth the effort.

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Code Gears

If you're still using gmail or so, you just take the google machinery with you, no matter what browser you use.

For me personally, first of all I don't use gmail or any of those "personal" services they have. I use Chrome for DEV purposes only and use the tools required there (like Search Console, Tag Manager, ...). For my personal stuff I use Safari, Shopping and Bookkeeping on Firefox (because of compatibility) and really private stuff I do it on Brave.

Besides that I also use specialised Apps instead of Browsers, for different tasks like project and code management, documentation, ...

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Arnaud Delante

Not using Google at all as much as possible. My main browser is Firefox, my mails and calendar are in Fastmail, searches are done with DuckDuckGo. And if I really need to use something from Google (mostly YouTube), I have this extension to isolate it from the rest of my browsing

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Madza

DuckDuckGo has improved a lot since the initial phase πŸ‘

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patarapolw profile image
Pacharapol Withayasakpunt • Edited

I just love choices, and encourage healthy consumer-benefit competition.

But, I used to use Google products a lot.

Currently, I use

  • Google Map
  • Google Calendar
  • Google Cloud Platform (specifically, Google Cloud Run)
  • YouTube
  • Android, with Play Store; although I also tried to use F-Droid.
  • Google Docs (G Suite) and Google Drive (actually also instead of Dropbox)

For what I could switch, I use

  • Brave browser, which is also for Ad-blocking, Tracker-blocking
  • Zoho mail, for custom email. (Actually, there is also Zoho Docs, but having friends is an important factor.)

I also tried DuckDuckGo, but not yet good enough for me. Had yet to improve. Quality is important for my time.

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Adrian Matei

One of the reasons I use bookmarks extensively and have developed bookmarks.dev is to not (re)search stuff on Google as much as possible. As browser I highly recommend Brave if you want same "chrome" experience plus the security and lack of tracking by default...

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Alex Turner

No. That was a lot more involved. It seems pointless choosing not to use Chrome for privacy issues if still using other Google services.

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Darshak Parikh

You do prevent Google from looking at your browsing history though. (There's still Google Analytics on many sites, but that's easily blocked.)

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Alex Turner

A step in the right direction.

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Debojyoti Chakraborty

Degoogling is not a easy stuff I just installed fedora for this purpose only installed brave for browsing,using protonmail for email services,Now I am search from duckduckgo if required.

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Andrew Baisden

Google has its tentacles everywhere its very hard to get away πŸ™

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leonllrmc • Edited

WHY IT'S HAVE THE #webdev Tag?