There's a saying about drinking that I've known my whole life, something like, "How do you get rid of a hangover? Drink more," or rather, avoid stopping drinking altogether. It came to mind when I read a news story about Google 's latest attempt to spy on us. They're currently using cookies, but they're working on eliminating them. Without them, how do they show us personalized ads? And without that advertising, how do companies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon make money?
Make no mistake. When they try to fix something like this cookie issue, the result won't be any better for users. It might be less annoying, but we'll still lose out. Google has had several ideas to replace the current cookies, two of them being FLoC and Topics . After the criticism, the company backtracked and is trying again with another approach. What they're proposing now is nothing less than snooping on our browsing history . That's quite something.
Google intends to look at our browsing history
The company led by Sundar Pichai says that Chrome 115 includes enhanced privacy, and I'll say it in English because it sounds gentler, "my ass." This version of the browser has arrived with a feature called "Enhanced Ad Privacy ," which translates to "improved ad privacy" in Spanish, but in reality, it's quite the opposite.
If it's active, a website like Amazon, for example, can snoop on our browsing history, see what interests us , and show us items we might end up buying. The key point here is that it has access to our history. If we've searched for something about a topic that worries us, like an illness, it will know that we're (probably) sick and with what. If, I don't know, we're looking for dating services/apps, it will know that we're single. If we're looking for skimpy clothes, it will know that we're trying to become parents or are considering it. These are just examples that came to mind to make one thing clear: they'll know everything about us based on what we've visited.
Apple and Mozilla are against
Apple and Mozilla have already stated they won't implement anything like this , Vivaldi has flatly refused to use Google Topics , and Brave is much the same. Right now, it only seems to be available in Chrome, and in my humble opinion, unless other browsers adopt it, it's something that will also eventually fade into obscurity.
I installed Chrome in a virtual machine to see if it appeared, but I didn't find it. Theoretically, it's in the Settings/Privacy and Security/Ad Privacy menu . Once there, we can enable/disable Ad Topics, which are topics relevant to us; Ads suggested by sites, which allows websites to see our browsing habits (they can store this data for 30 days); and Ad Measurement, which provides statistics for websites.
And the worst part is that it's enabled by default . Since most users aren't up-to-date with the latest news, Google and any other service would have free rein.
It's rather ironic that they sell us something as privacy when it's actually the complete opposite . That's why I've put a screenshot from the movie "Mars Attacks!" at the top, when the aliens are destroying everything and everyone, and one of them uses a translator to say, "Don't run away, we're your friends" ( video on ViewTube ).
Better Firefox, Brave, Vivaldi… or any other
For a long time now, when I talk to acquaintances about browsers, I've recommended they don't use Chrome . I also don't recommend Vivaldi because it's for advanced users, but if they want something similar to Chrome that isn't from Google, I usually suggest they switch to Brave. It's almost the same, but without all the downsides. A bit like ungoogled-chromium , but with better support and the ability to sync with a Brave account, among other things.
It remains to be seen whether the idea catches on and goes ahead or not. Cookies' days are numbered, although I think we will end up missing them.