Infosec friends are unanimous: if you're using Chrome, you want to visit chrome://settings/adPrivacy and turn off Ad Topics, Site-Suggested Ads, and Ad Measurement.
IMPORTANT: you must do this for each of your Chrome profiles, since it's not a global setting.
Getting a bunch of replies urging me to stop using Chrome. Okay, thanks, yes, roger, mm-hmm, got it, understood ... but there are plenty of people within the sound of all of our voices who cannot (for various reasons) stop using Chrome. Making them feel crappy about it doesn't help.
@kentbrew I hear that a lot, do you have actual exemples of that happening? Because from where I stand you always have at least a few different software options, and you’re kinda make it sound like Google is holding their puppy hostage or something.
@ombremad anyone whose computer or phone is locked down, must access a site that requires Chrome, or is not confident enough to try to install new software. Actual example: a close friend who came to visit recently works remotely with HIIPA-protected data. Her laptop was 100% locked down and Chrome was her only option. The update landed while she was here and she was able to turn off tracking, and earn brownie points with her sysadmin by reporting that it wasn't off by default.
@kentbrew okay, I get that. Though, at some point maybe we do have to discuss the legal status of using Chrome as a sysadmin for your staff since it logs and tracks so much information about the user
@kentbrew I don't hate Google for implementing shit. I hate those who still use Chrome and suggesting workarounds instead of suggesting replacements for Chrome.
@kentbrew do you know how Chrome gets the topics for a particular site? Does it send the domain to Google? Or does the website itself provide the topics?
@kentbrew If you're on Windows, you can also save the following text as "chrome.reg" and double-click to import to Registry, which should disable these settings globally:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00<br></br><br></br>[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREPoliciesGoogleChrome]<br></br>"PrivacySandboxAdMeasurementEnabled"=dword:00000000<br></br>"PrivacySandboxAdTopicsEnabled"=dword:00000000<br></br>"PrivacySandboxPromptEnabled"=dword:00000000<br></br>"PrivacySandboxSiteEnabledAdsEnabled"=dword:00000000<br></br>
@kentbrew
Brave is a compatible Chromium browser with the Google specific stuff removed - my choice.
Google Docs doesn't like it, otherwise it is fine.
@kentbrew I worked in InfoSec. Your suggestion just throws the poorly informed to the wolves, to satisfy Google's greed. Dump Chrome. Teach Google a lesson: that we won't stand for #enshitification. They need to return to doing no evil.
@kentbrew I have zero interest in configuring a web browser. That type of non-sense was not even useful in the '90s let alone now. I want browsers that work out of the box.
LB: Chrome has been warning me for a while it won't update anymore unless I upgrade to macOS 10.15 or higher (which I won't because then I can't run 32-bit apps anymore). But Google lied and decided actually it would push through one more update so it could track me more for advertising purposes. #enshittification
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