Microsoft is once again asking Chrome users to try Bing through unblockable pop-ups – wait, you are not using Firefox?

Microsoft has been pushing Bing pop-up ads in Chrome on Windows 10 and 11. Windows Latest and The Verge reported on Friday that the ad encourages Chrome users (in bold lettering) to use Bing instead of Google search. “Chat with GPT-4 for free on Chrome! Get hundreds of daily chat turns with Bing Al”, the Read more about Microsoft is once again asking Chrome users to try Bing through unblockable pop-ups – wait, you are not using Firefox?[…]

Google admits it’s making YouTube worse for ad block and non-chrome (Edge, Firefox) users

[…] Earlier this year, YouTube began interrupting videos for those using advert blockers with a pop-up encouraging them to either disable the offending extension or filter, or pay for YT’s ad-free premium tier. More recently, netizens have reported experiencing delays in playback when using non-Chrome browsers as well. Upon launching a video, Firefox users have Read more about Google admits it’s making YouTube worse for ad block and non-chrome (Edge, Firefox) users[…]

Google Chrome’s Privacy Sandbox: any site can now query all your habits

[…] Specifically, the web giant’s Privacy Sandbox APIs, a set of ad delivery and analysis technologies, now function in the latest version of the Chrome browser. Website developers can thus write code that calls those APIs to deliver and measure ads to visitors with compatible browsers. That is to say, sites can ask Chrome directly Read more about Google Chrome’s Privacy Sandbox: any site can now query all your habits[…]

Google bans Downloader app after TV firms complain it can load a pirate website – Firefox, Opera, IE, Chrome, Safari: look out!

The Google Play Store suspended an app that combines a web browser with a file manager after a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) complaint pointed out that the app is capable of loading a piracy website—even though that same pirate website can be loaded on any standard browser, including Google Chrome. The free app, which Read more about Google bans Downloader app after TV firms complain it can load a pirate website – Firefox, Opera, IE, Chrome, Safari: look out![…]

Microsoft feels free to edit websites you browse: begs people to stick to Edge on Chrome download page

Microsoft Edge has been spotted inserting a banner into the Chrome download page on Google.com begging people to stick with the Windows giant’s browser. As noted this week by Neowin, an attempt to download and install Chrome Canary using Edge Canary – both experimental browser builds – led to the presentation in the Edge browser Read more about Microsoft feels free to edit websites you browse: begs people to stick to Edge on Chrome download page[…]

Chrome & Edge Enhanced Spellcheck Send your PII, Including Your Passwords to Microsoft and Google, Alibaba and 3rd parties

Chrome’s enhanced spellcheck & Edge’s MS Editor are sending data you enter into form fields like username, email, DOB, SSN, basically anything in the fields, to sites you’re logging into from either of those browsers when the features are enabled. Furthermore, if you click on “show password,” the enhanced spellcheck even sends your password, essentially Read more about Chrome & Edge Enhanced Spellcheck Send your PII, Including Your Passwords to Microsoft and Google, Alibaba and 3rd parties[…]

How to Stop Chrome From Sharing Your Motion Data on Android

[…] Mysk, a duo of app developers and security researchers, recently exposed Chrome’s shadiness on Twitter. In the tweet, Mysk brings to light that, by default, Chrome is sharing your phone’s motion data with the websites you visit. This is not cool. Why you don’t want third parties accessing your motion data To start with, Read more about How to Stop Chrome From Sharing Your Motion Data on Android[…]

FLoC, The Ad-Targeting Tech Google Plans To Drop On Us All might be using you as a test subject to spy on closely in Chrome

About two weeks ago, millions of Google Chrome users were signed up for an experiment they never agreed to be a part of. Google had just launched a test run for Federated Learning of Cohorts—or FLoC–a new kind of ad-targeting tech meant to be less invasive than the average cookie. In a blog post announcing Read more about FLoC, The Ad-Targeting Tech Google Plans To Drop On Us All might be using you as a test subject to spy on closely in Chrome[…]

Fedora’s Chromium maintainer suggests switching to Firefox as Google yanks features in favour of Chrome

Fedora’s maintainer for the open-source Chromium browser package is recommending users consider switching to Firefox following Google’s decision to remove functionality and make it exclusive to its proprietary Chrome browser.The comments refer to a low-key statement Google made just before the release of Chrome 88, saying that during an audit it had “discovered that some Read more about Fedora’s Chromium maintainer suggests switching to Firefox as Google yanks features in favour of Chrome[…]

When you tell Chrome to wipe private data about you, it spares two websites from the purge: Google.com, YouTube

Google exempts its own websites from Chrome’s automatic data-scrubbing feature, allowing the ads giant to potentially track you even when you’ve told it not to. Programmer Jeff Johnson noticed the unusual behavior, and this month documented the issue with screenshots. In his assessment of the situation, he noted that if you set up Chrome, on Read more about When you tell Chrome to wipe private data about you, it spares two websites from the purge: Google.com, YouTube[…]

Another body for the Google graveyard: Chrome Web Store payments, citing alternatives – unlike Apple. Costs were 5%, also unlike Apple’s 30%.

Google has decided to shut down the Chrome Web Store payments API permanently after what was supposed to be a temporary closure at the start of the year. In January, the internet advertising biz halted the publication of Chrome apps, extensions, and themes in the Chrome Web Store that were either paid-for or took in-app Read more about Another body for the Google graveyard: Chrome Web Store payments, citing alternatives – unlike Apple. Costs were 5%, also unlike Apple’s 30%.[…]

We’re suing Google for harvesting our personal info even though we opted out of Chrome sync – netizens

A handful of Chrome users have sued Google, accusing the browser maker of collecting personal information despite their decision not to sync data stored in Chrome with a Google Account. The lawsuit [PDF], filed on Monday in a US federal district court in San Jose, California, claimed Google promises not to collect personal information from Read more about We’re suing Google for harvesting our personal info even though we opted out of Chrome sync – netizens[…]

Massive spying on users of Google’s Chrome shows new security weakness

A newly discovered spyware effort attacked users through 32 million downloads of extensions to Google’s market-leading Chrome web browser, researchers at Awake Security told Reuters, highlighting the tech industry’s failure to protect browsers as they are used more for email, payroll and other sensitive functions. Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google said it removed more than 70 Read more about Massive spying on users of Google’s Chrome shows new security weakness[…]

Bad news: ‘Unblockable’ web trackers emerge. Good news: Firefox with uBlock Origin can stop it. Chrome, not so much

Developers working on open-source ad-blocker uBlock Origin have uncovered a mechanism for tracking web browsers around the internet that defies today’s blocking techniques. A method to block this so-called unblockable tracker has been developed by the team, though it only works in Firefox, leaving Chrome and possibly other browsers susceptible. This fix is now available Read more about Bad news: ‘Unblockable’ web trackers emerge. Good news: Firefox with uBlock Origin can stop it. Chrome, not so much[…]

White Screen of Death: Admins up in arms after experimental Google emission borks Chrome – yay auto updates

An experimental feature silently rolled out to the stable Chrome release on Tuesday caused chaos for IT admins this week after users complained of facing white, featureless tabs on Google’s massively popular browser. The issue affected thousands of businesses’ terminal servers, with multiple users on the same server experiencing “white screen of death” at the Read more about White Screen of Death: Admins up in arms after experimental Google emission borks Chrome – yay auto updates[…]

House Antitrust Investigators Now Scrutinizing Google’s Plans to Add DNS Encryption to Chrome

Antitrust investigators with the House Judiciary Committee are looking into Google’s plans to add Domain Name System over Transport Layer Security (DNS over TLS) to its Chrome browser, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, in the latest escalation of scrutiny over the company’s business practices. The Department of Justice has also heard complaints, a Read more about House Antitrust Investigators Now Scrutinizing Google’s Plans to Add DNS Encryption to Chrome[…]

Mozilla says Firefox won’t defang ad blockers – unlike Google Chrome, which is steadily removing your privacy from 3rd parties

On Tuesday, Mozilla said it is not planning to change the ad-and-content blocking capabilities of Firefox to match what Google is doing in Chrome. Google’s plan to revise its browser extension APIs, known as Manifest v3, follows from the web giant’s recognition that many of its products and services can be abused by unscrupulous developers. Read more about Mozilla says Firefox won’t defang ad blockers – unlike Google Chrome, which is steadily removing your privacy from 3rd parties[…]

Privacy-first browsers look to take the shine off Google’s Chrome

Before Google, Facebook and Amazon, tech dominance was known by a single name: Microsoft. And no product was more dominant than Microsoft’s web browser, Internet Explorer. The company’s browser was the gateway to the internet for about 95 percent of users in the early 2000s, which helped land Microsoft at the center of a major Read more about Privacy-first browsers look to take the shine off Google’s Chrome[…]

Chrome is the biggest snoop of all on your computer or cell phone – so switch browser before there is no alternative any more

You open your browser to look at the Web. Do you know who is looking back at you? Over a recent week of Web surfing, I peered under the hood of Google Chrome and found it brought along a few thousand friends. Shopping, news and even government sites quietly tagged my browser to let ad Read more about Chrome is the biggest snoop of all on your computer or cell phone – so switch browser before there is no alternative any more[…]

Google Now Forces Microsoft Edge Preview Users to Use Chrome for the Modern YouTube Experience – a bit like they fuck around with Firefox

Microsoft started testing a new Microsoft Edge browser based on Chromium a little while ago. The company has been releasing new canary and dev builds for the browser over the last few weeks, and the preview is actually really great. In fact, I have been using the new Microsoft Edge Canary on my main Windows Read more about Google Now Forces Microsoft Edge Preview Users to Use Chrome for the Modern YouTube Experience – a bit like they fuck around with Firefox[…]

All Chromebooks will also be Linux laptops going forward – the catch: on top of Chrome OS in a VM container. So not really a linux laptop then.

At Google I/O in Mountain View, Google quietly let slip that “all devices [Chromebook] launched this year will be Linux-ready right out of the box.” Wait. What? In case you’ve missed it, last year, Google started making it possible to run desktop Linux on Chrome OS. Since then, more Chromebook devices are able to run Read more about All Chromebooks will also be Linux laptops going forward – the catch: on top of Chrome OS in a VM container. So not really a linux laptop then.[…]

Google gives Chrome 3rd party cookie control – which allows it to track you better, but rivals to not be able to do so

Google I/O Google, the largest handler of web cookies, plans to change the way its Chrome browser deals with the tokens, ostensibly to promote greater privacy, following similar steps taken by rival browser makers Apple, Brave, and Mozilla. At Google I/O 2019 on Tuesday, Google’s web platform director Ben Galbraith announced the plan, which has Read more about Google gives Chrome 3rd party cookie control – which allows it to track you better, but rivals to not be able to do so[…]

Firefox cracks down on creepy web trackers, holds supercookies over fire whilst Chrome kills ad blockers

The Mozilla Foundation has announced its intent to reduce the ability of websites and other online services to track users of its Firefox browser around the internet. At this stage, Moz’s actions are baby steps. In support of its decision in late 2018 to reduce the amount of tracking it permits, the organisation has now Read more about Firefox cracks down on creepy web trackers, holds supercookies over fire whilst Chrome kills ad blockers[…]

Wow, fancy that. Web ad giant Google to block ad-blockers in Chrome. For safety, apparently

Google engineers have proposed changes to the open-source Chromium browser that will break content-blocking extensions, including various ad blockers. Adblock Plus will most likely not be affected, though similar third-party plugins will, for reasons we will explain. The drafted changes will also limit the capabilities available to extension developers, ostensibly for the sake of speed Read more about Wow, fancy that. Web ad giant Google to block ad-blockers in Chrome. For safety, apparently[…]

Researcher Distributes Tool That Enables Mass-Hijacking of Google Chromecast Devices

Uploaded to Github on Thursday, a tool called Crashcast enables the almost instantaneous takeover all of Chromecast streaming devices left accessible online by mistake. This same misconfiguration issue was taken advantage of by the hacker duo Hacker Giraffe and j3ws3r earlier this week to broadcast a message in support of the YouTube star Felix Kjellberg, Read more about Researcher Distributes Tool That Enables Mass-Hijacking of Google Chromecast Devices[…]