Google Chrome has become surveillance software. It’s time to switch.

Technology

Review: Google Chrome has become surveillance software. It’s time to switch. 

Our latest privacy experiment found Chrome ushered more than 11,000 tracker cookies into our browser — in a single week. Here’s why Firefox is better.


By Washington Post | wapo@dfmdev.com |
PUBLISHED: June 21, 2019 at 11:56 am | UPDATED: June 22, 2019 at 9:14 am


By Geoffrey A. Fowler | The Washington Post Columnist

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 and data companies ride shotgun while I clicked around the web.

This was made possible by the web’s biggest snoop of all: Google. Seen from the inside, its Chrome browser looks a lot like surveillance software.

Lately I’ve been investigating the secret life of my data, running experiments to see what technology really is up to under the cover of privacy policies that nobody reads. It turns out, having the world’s biggest advertising company make the most-popular web browser was about as smart as letting kids run a candy shop.

It made me decide to ditch Chrome for a new version of nonprofit Mozilla’s Firefox, which has default privacy protections. Switching involved less inconvenience than you might imagine.

My tests of Chrome versus Firefox unearthed a personal data caper of absurd proportions. In a week of web surfing on my desktop, I discovered 11,189 requests for tracker “cookies” that Chrome would have ushered right onto my computer, but were automatically blocked by Firefox. These little files are the hooks that data firms, including Google itself, use to follow what websites you visit so they can build profiles of your interests, income and personality.

Chrome welcomed trackers even at websites you’d think would be private. I watched Aetna and the Federal Student Aid website set cookies for Facebook and Google. They surreptitiously told the data giants every time I pulled up the insurance and loan service’s log-in pages.

And that’s not the half of it.

Look in the upper right corner of your Chrome browser. See a picture or a name in the circle? If so, you’re logged in to the browser, and Google might be tapping into your web activity to target ads. Don’t recall signing in? I didn’t, either. Chrome recently started doing that automatically when you use Gmail. 

Google Will Let Users Send Money as an Email Attachment

Cameron Scott on May 15, 2013 5:48 PM

Gmail users will be able to send money as an attachment to make person-to-person payments online, Google said today.

Along with the paper clip attachment icon, users will see a dollar sign that allows them to send money.

The feature draws on Google Wallet, an app once intended to facilitate in-store payments with smartphones but which has increasingly focused on Web payments. Wallet allows users to store their credit card or bank account information with it to make it easier to pay multiple vendors.

“Wallet is now integrated into Gmail. This means you can securely send money to friends and family in the U.S. – without leaving your Gmail inbox,” the company said in a blog post.

The service is free when it’s used to debit bank accounts directly. Senders pay a 2.9 percent fee if Wallet accesses a credit or debit card.

This feature will be available to U.S.-based Gmail users over 18. It will roll out “over the next few months,” Google said.

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Now You Can Send Money Via Email With Google Wallet

MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES 2013

ARE YOU A U.S RESIDENT OVER 18 WITH A GMAIL ACCOUNT? YOU ARE? WELL, THIS ONE'S FOR YOU.

BY: ADDY DUGDALE


Google has just introduced a nifty little service to U.S. residents who are over 18 and who use Gmail. Its Google Wallet service can now be used within an email to send people money--provided your bank account is hooked up to Wallet.

All you have to do is click on the $ button above the content box, type in the amount you want to send, and presto! Instant bucks to your friends. The email service only works on the desktop version of Gmail, so mobile users will have to make do with using Google Wallet in its traditional way.

Google's I/O conference is currently underway, and here are just some of the innovations that it rolled out yesterday.


May 16, 2013 | 6:01 AM

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Gmail in widespread outage, also caused Chrome browser crashes

Summary: Gmail suffered a widespread outage earlier today. It's not yet clear what caused the problems, but in many cases it also caused Chrome browsers to crash worldwide.


By Zack Whittaker for Between the Lines | December 10, 2012 -- 17:39 GMT (09:39 PST)




Gmail was hit with an outage at around 12 midday ET. Screenshot: ZDNet

Gmail is down... and it's up again, in what may be the strangest, shortest outage the company's cloud-based email service has suffered in memory.

Gmail suffered from a widespread outage earlier today. First reported from social media services -- such as Facebook and Twitter -- many were unable to access their Google-based email accounts for minutes.

At 12:30 p.m. ET, Google said that it was "investigating reports of an issue with Google Mail," and said it would provide more information shortly. It did not offer anything else, except marking it has a "service disruption," rather than a "service outage."

At 1:10 p.m. ET, Google gave the all-clear and said that the "problem with Google Mail should be resolved." Google also noted a problem with Google Drive, which has also been fixed.

ZDNet's Rachel King said that her personal email account was down, while our Google Apps-powered email system remained "spotty." All in all, it appears that Google was down for only a few minutes -- perhaps no 15-20 minutes or so -- but it certainly left its mark on social media feeds.

Many users received 502 server errors when visiting their Gmail. So far, there's nothing from Google on the official Twitter accounts and no word back from the company. (Perhaps their Gmail is down? I jest...)

Google Apps was not reporting any outages at the time of writing, suggesting that Google Apps for Business, Government and Education users were not affected.

However, Eric Harrison on Twitter said:

EricGHarrison@EricGHarrison


@zackwhittaker I can confirm that Gmail for businesses is being impacted by the outages.
10 Dec 12



CBS Interactive's email system, hosted by Google Apps, was also impacted. However, it did not hit everyone in all of our offices, but seemed patchy for few. Others were left out in the cold for 20 minutes or so.

At the same time, Twitter suddenly spiked with a number of reports that Google Chrome was crashing. (I experienced it myself. I had to write much of this report three times due to crashes.) It could well be that a bug co-exists between Chrome and Gmail that is causing the crash, and may somehow relate to Google Sync.

Matthew Ebel@matthewebel


WTF, Chrome? RT @Dragoneer: Four separate people I was talking to had their Chrome crash all at the EXACT same time.
10 Dec 12



There have been a few reports of other Google services failing to work, such as Google Calendar, Google Drive and Google Docs, although it seems to be mostly focused on the firm's cloud-based email service.

According to Ian Danforth on Twitter:

iandanforth@iandanforth


WARNING: Google chrome latest has a bug that will cause it to crash while in gmail. To reduce frustration use another browser today.
10 Dec 12



Also, Google Drive was causing problems. It appears likely that global Google site code was conflicting somehow with Chrome, or Chrome's synchronization service, that was causing the crash.

CNET's Danny Sullivan said:

Danny Sullivan
✔@dannysullivan


wow. google drive is now crashing chrome. wow. and i'm not the only one this is happening to.
10 Dec 12


The last major outage with Gmail was back in April where up to 35 million customers were affected, or roughly 10 percent of Gmail's global user base. Many were left unable to access their personal email accounts, and in some cases, their Google Apps-powered email accounts.

We've checked in with Google but did not hear back at the time of writing. We will report back when we have more.

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Google to include people’s Gmail in search results

SUNDAY AUGUST 12, 2012, 11:05 AM
BY MICHAEL LIEDTKE
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
THE RECORD

SAN FRANCISCO — Google is creating an information bridge between its influential Internet search engine and its widely used Gmail service in its latest attempt to deliver more personal responses more quickly.

The experimental feature unveiled Wednesday will enable Google’s search engine to mine the correspondence stored within a user’s Gmail account for any data tied to a search request. For example, a query containing the word "Amazon" would pull emails with shipping information sent by the online retailer.

Such Gmail results will typically be shown to the right of the main results, though in some instances, the top of the search page will highlight an answer extracted directly from an email. For example, the request "my flight" will show specific airline information imported from Gmail. Something similar could eventually happen when searching for a restaurant reservation or tickets to a concert.

Although Google has a commanding lead in Internet search, it remains worried about the threat posed by social networking services such as Facebook Inc. As social networks have made it easier to share information online, the Web is starting to revolve more around people than the keywords and links that Google’s search engine uses.

Google has been trying to adapt by building more personal services and plugging them into its search engine.



Privacy concerns



Blending email information into general search results could raise privacy worries. Google is trying to mitigate that by showing Gmail results in a collapsed format that users must open to see the details. For now, users must sign up to participate.

Google Inc. ran into trouble over privacy in 2010 when it tapped the personal contact information within Gmail accounts to build a social networking service called Buzz. Google set up Buzz in a way that caused many users to inadvertently expose personal data from Gmail. An uproar culminated in a Federal Trade Commission settlement requiring the company to improve its privacy controls and undergo audits for 20 years.

Google is treading carefully as it hooks Gmail up to its Internet search engine. The new feature initially will be available to 1 million Gmail users who sign up at http://g.co/searchtrial. That’s a small fraction of the more than 425 million Gmail accounts that have been set up since Google launched its free email service eight years ago to compete against the offerings from Yahoo! Inc. and Microsoft Corp.

After getting feedback from the test participants, Google hopes to give all Gmail users the option of plugging their accounts into the main search engine, according to Amit Singhal, a senior vice president for the company.

Singhal said Google is also willing to display information from other email services in its main search results. The gesture could avoid spurring additional complaints about Google abusing its position as the Internet’s search leader to favor its other services. That issue is the focal point of an antitrust investigation by antitrust regulators in the U.S. and Europe.



Increasing searches



Yahoo and Microsoft, the biggest rivals to Gmail, had no comment about Google’s offer.

When it started in 2004, Gmail provided 1 gigabyte of free storage, an amount that was unheard of at the time. Now, many longtime Gmail users have 10 gigabytes of storage. That has turned Gmail into a valuable storehouse of personal information going back several years.

Gmail users already can pluck information contained in old correspondence by conducting a search within Gmail. Google is betting Gmail users will appreciate being able to eliminate a step by including any relevant email information alongside the results of its main search page.

In the process, Google is hoping Web surfers will have even more reasons to use its dominant search engine, which already processes more than 100 billion requests every month.

Luring more queries is crucial to Google because they give the company more opportunities to show the ads that generate most of its revenue, which is expected to exceed $49 billion this year.

Personal information from Google Plus, a social networking service started last year to compete with Facebook, has been featured in Google’s main search results since January.

Ultimately, Google hopes to know enough about each of its users so it can answer their questions with the precision and insight of the artificial intelligence that so far has been the stuff of science fiction.

"The destiny of search is to become that perfect Star Trek computer," Singhal said.

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Gmail: your account will be suspended within 24 hours for (safety) security reasons

When I checked my Email today, I found this friendly notice:

Invitation: Dear Google Account User @ Tue Sep 8 3:30pm – 4:30pm Inbox

customer service Tue, Sep 8, 2009 at 10:25 AM
To: "xxxxxxxxxxx@gmail.com"


xxxxxxxxxxx@gmail.com, you are invited to

Dear Google Account User
Tue Sep 8 3:30pm – 4:30pm
(Timezone: London)

Calendar: xxxxxxxxxxx@gmail.com

Owner/Creator: customercscenter@gmail.com


This Email is from Gmail customer care and we are sending it to every Gmail accounts owner for safety. We are having congestion due to the anonymous registration of Gmail accounts so we are shutting down some Gmail accounts and your account was among those to be deleted. We are sending this email to you so that you can verify and let us know if you still want to use this account. If you are still interested please confirm your account by filling the space below.Your User name, password, date of birth and your country information would be needed to verify your account.

Due to the congestion in all Gmail users and removal of all unused Gmail Accounts. Gmail would be shutting down all unused Accounts, you will have to confirm your E-mail by filling out your Login Information below after clicking the reply button or your account will be suspended within 24 hours for security reasons.

* User name: ............................

* Password: ................................

* Date of Birth: ............................

* Country Or Territory: ....................


Warning!!! Account owner that refuses to update his or her account within Seven days of receiving this warning will lose his or her account permanently.

Thank you for using Gmail !


The Gmail Team
G MAI L BETA
More event details»

Will you attend?

___________________________________

Related:

http://www.ciol.com/Technology/News-Reports/Gmails-Tuesday-blues-affect-millions/8909124717/0/

http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/09/03/is-gmail-ready-for-business/

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What a way go!

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So long, partner!

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September 9, 2009 (999) is ramping up (newspeak) to be a decisive day, after all.

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Arsenio.

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