EFF's "privacy badger" extension today expanded its...

mcc

EFF's "privacy badger" extension today expanded its effects on your Chrome settings to disable the Google "Ad Sandbox". This disables not just Topics (the worst of Ad Sandbox's features so far) but also the other two features— including "Ad Measurement", a feature that Apple copied a couple years back and Firefox adopted as an "experiment" this month.

https://mastodon.social/@eff/112831156838249955

The EFF here succinctly argues why all of these ad features should not be running on your computer:

Privacy Sandbox might be less invasive than third-party cookies, but that doesn’t mean it’s good for your privacy. Instead of eliminating online tracking, Privacy Sandbox simply shifts control of online tracking from third-party trackers to Google. With Privacy Sandbox, tracking will be done by your Chrome browser itself, which shares insights gleaned from your browsing habits with different websites and advertisers. Despite sounding like a feature that protects your privacy, Privacy Sandbox ultimately protects Google's advertising business.

Like 22 July at 20:56 | Open on mastodon.social

11 comments

Adam Shostack :donor: :rebelverified:

@hrbrmstr I know you've been following this closely -- is Privacy Badger now doing everything that can be done to manage Chrome?

22 July at 22:24 | Open on infosec.exchange

Joracle

@adamshostack @hrbrmstr the only true way to manage chrome is by uninstalling it.

22 July at 23:17 | Open on mastodon.social

bhcompy

@adamshostack Considering Chrome lacks the hooks to implement NoScript, it's definitely not *everything* that can be done, but maybe the most that's feasible within the confines of Chrome

23 July at 0:33 | Open on hachyderm.io

Adam Shostack :donor: :rebelverified:

@bhcompy How does that “most that’s feasible” stack up from a privacy perspective?

23 July at 0:39 | Open on infosec.exchange

Emmy :hatched_trans_egg:

@mcc@mastodon.social Looks like I have a reason to re-install Privacy Badger again. I uninstalled it a couple of years ago when Firefox's built-in "Strict Enhanced Tracking Protection" and "Total Cookie Protection" features made it redundant. It's sad that we now need protection from Firefox itself.

23 July at 1:12 | Open on transfem.social

Take It EV Podcast 🎙️

@mcc @lisamelton Reason no 48419375729 not to ever use google browsers. Any.

23 July at 1:41 | Open on mastodon.social

Tiffany Lynch

@mcc so privacy sandbox isn't private at all 🤷‍♀️

23 July at 4:26 | Open on lauraorchid.my.id

mcc

@tiffany see this box? They put your privacy in it

23 July at 4:27 | Open on mastodon.social

liebach; ++ungood; // 🏳️‍🌈

@mcc Oh, I had read about Google war against 3rd party cookies, and how that was just to protect their own business, but hadn't made the connection to the latest Firefox change.

23 July at 6:13 | Open on bsd.network

mcc

@liebach According to Mozilla their new ad features were developed "working with Meta". I feel like there must be a story there

23 July at 6:21 | Open on mastodon.social

liebach; ++ungood; // 🏳️‍🌈

@mcc There's that anti-trust case where it is alleged that Google and Facebook give each other preferential treatment on their advertising platforms in exchange for some meta data to help tracking users. And now Mozilla is in on that too, maybe? They are after all, mostly sponsored by Google.

23 July at 6:28 | Open on bsd.network