This is misleading. Not sure if by ignorance or malice, but it’s very misleading.
This isn’t happening with your browser bookmarks. This is Google Collections, which is a shareable bookmarking feature, meaning it can be made publicly available. That’s why it’s moderated. It’s basically Google’s version on something like Pinterest.
IMO defending Google is the underhanded move.
Sharing misleading info means people are less likely to believe you on real issues.
Firefox IS better, Chrome’s meddling IS a problem. We don’t need to make stuff up in favor of that, and clarifying the point isn’t “defending Google”
Every single comment chain on this thread besides this chain are 100% wrong and operating on misleading information. I fucking hate how up in arms people get when they don’t even have the full picture - even the basics, like having read the fucking article.
DAE GOOGLE BAD???
I don’t give a fuck if you like Google or not, but spreading misleading FUD is the real underhanded move.
There are plenty of valid reasons to be critical of Google. This ain’t one.
IMO targeting someone you don’t like with antipathy regardless of their actions is a sociopathic move.
Honestly, I’m not surprised. Not just because of their lack of privacy (them knowing your bookmarks), but also legally. Some countries are trying to crack down on piracy, and other illegal material, asking companies (like Google) to do this.
Bottom line, don’t use Chrome, and Google Sync.
This doesn’t involve your browser bookmarks. Google Collections is a link sharing tool.
It doesn’t feel legal. A bookmark is textual data you’ve stored on your computer for later reference, and while it is on their application, somehow this feels wrong. It’s definitely wrong ethically, but is there something in the user agreement that says they have full reign of whatever the browser can touch?
Pretty much everything you do on Chrome gets sent to Google. It is one of, if not the worst browsers, for privacy. Their Privacy Policy is pretty clear on this. It’s all for a better “user experience”.
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Actually this is only on Google Collections which is a bookmark sharing service, not just the browser bookmark sync.
Your synced bookmarks should be unaffected as Google says everything in browser sync is encrypted locally before being synced, so Google shouldn’t be able to scan those (or really care about them at all)
They are doing it to protect themselves from legal liability specifically because of the public-facing nature of Google Collections bookmarks.
They don’t care about your synced bookmarks or browser history because it’s not public-facing and they aren’t legally liable for the contents
There was a post on this yesterday.
They are moderating something, the issue with the article was it’s not user’s bookmarks. It’s some app-specific feature called collections.
edit: it’s the same post…it’s a bit weird linking a direct link to a lemee.ee post when they get federated here anyway…
That’s something I hate about the fediverse is that we have so many layers of links that you never get the original article, you get seven recursive links to other federated sites and maybe if you’re lucky on the last link you find the original article.
What the actual hell? I hate this so much. Google won’t touch right-wing extremist content, yet they’ll just poof your bookmarks? Bullshit.
laughing in firefoxian.
Even if you hate Google, don’t go around spreading bullshit, please
Not bookmarks. Google collection
Well… https://floccus.org/ + https://github.com/TCB13/LoFloccus + Syncthing.
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cinched
I wonder how they did it. The sync data is supposed to be protected by E2EE where the key is derived from the user password or an separate sync password, at least before I abandon Chrome and go FF few years ago.
It’s not Chrome and it’s not through sync.
It’s Google Collections. Read the post.
Yes. I read that. Thank you.
And thanks the person clarifying it.
Encrypted between… Chrome and Chrome? Two installations of Google’s non-FOSS browser? You never really had control over that data.
At least what they claim to be back then.
Last I looked, Chrome’s sync is not E2EE. Next to nothing (user space) is E2EE, in Google’s ecosystem. By default it’s only Encryption in Transit. I think you can enable a Passphrase (encryption on device), but that’s optional.
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Idk then. I had a separate sync password which will not sync anything after logged on in Chrome until I gave that password.