Is Chrome getting too intrusive?

[Rick Law]

Well, in today's world, I should perhaps "just get over it."

I hate it when I feel the tools I use is constantly spying on me.  A couple of times, I went to eBay to look at the scope that one guy was talking about, now Chrome is constantly pushing scopes on me.  Every web page I go, it is scope advertisements.

I went to Newegg to buy some ink cartridge and now I am constantly bombarded by printer ads.

Not sure where the service is suppose to be, I went to look up an address of a funeral home.    I suppose I better stop because I fear I will get constant advertisement on comfortable coffins.  I don't want coffins, I am building my own pyramid, so there!

I am getting darn annoyed with Chrome.  Not just the ads, but each page constantly waiting for ads to load...  I am damn annoyed.  (Yes, I am keenly aware that advertisement is what makes useful sites like this one possible.  But when a 30 minute show contains 20 minute ads, that is too damn annoying!)

Darn!  I damn near forget, FDA just issue rules that medical devices (new hip, pace-maker, etc) should have RFID like the pet-chips so they can always find the patient should there be a recall.  Really?  So someone is going to drive the streets with RFID receivers like Google does with their camera for the street views?

Forget pace-makers, people having been telling me I am heartless anyhow so I will never need a pace-maker.  New hip? or old privacy?  With RFID, even my own pyramid may not do it.  New hip? or old privacy?  Hmm... hard choice...  Let's hope this hip holds out.

[c4757p]

s/Chrome/Google/g ?

The ads are creepy as fck... I'll admit... I'm not sure I could say they're "wrong", but they do creep me out a bit...

Darn!  I damn near forget, FDA just issue rules that medical devices (new hip, pace-maker, etc) should have RFID like the pet-chips so they can always find the patient should there be a recall.  Really?  So someone is going to drive the streets with RFID receivers like Google does with their camera for the street views?

I'm going to have to throw up a [citation needed]... that sounds a bit far-fetched... but if true, I have a big problem with that. Time to build a nice, powerful RFID zapper...

[fluxcapacitor]

you can block third party cookies easily enough in chrome ,and install a few plugins. Not-script and adblockplus .Give them a try ,youll see the difference .

[steve30]

I've never used Chrome, so I may be wrong, but is it not just Google ads (and others) rather than the browser itself? I use Opera and I often get 'creepy' ads. Of course, I have quite a lot of ad servers blocked, but not all.

 

[Rick Law]

s/Chrome/Google/g ?

The ads are creepy as fck... I'll admit... I'm not sure I could say they're "wrong", but they do creep me out a bit...

Darn!  I damn near forget, FDA just issue rules that medical devices (new hip, pace-maker, etc) should have RFID like the pet-chips so they can always find the patient should there be a recall.  Really?  So someone is going to drive the streets with RFID receivers like Google does with their camera for the street views?

I'm going to have to throw up a [citation needed]... that sounds a bit far-fetched... but if true, I have a big problem with that. Time to build a nice, powerful RFID zapper...

c4757p,

I first heard it on ABC radio news, but I didn't record it.  So, I had to do some websearch to confirm and give you some citation.  They are in separate announcements so it is hard to identify, but reading them and join the dots...  It goes down only one path.  The "trigger pulling" announcement was FDA's UDI announcement 6 days ago.  Joining the dots, I interpreted the whole thing the way ABC radio news did - RFID in every medical device.

(1) Article: The FDA’s UDI Rules Will Help RFID Integration in Healthcare
http://www.xerafy.com/blog/fdas-udi-rules-will-help-rfid-integration-in-healthcare/

(2) Wall Street Journal (re UDI ruling and an RFID provider)
http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20130923-904080.html

(3) FDA's own announcement:
http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm369276.htm
Let me quote from that:
“UDI represents a landmark step in improving patient safety, modernizing our postmarket surveillance system for medical devices, and facilitating medical device innovation,” said Jeffrey Shuren, M.D., J.D., director of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health.

(4) RFID Journal on UDI (written prior to FDA's UDI/GUDID announcement 6 days ago)
http://www.rfidjournal.com/articles/view?9685/1

So, they require a UDI/GUDID, implementing a "Medical Device Registry", FDA folks saids "postmarket surveillance system for medical devices, and facilitating medical device innovation", RFID Journal wrote about the implementation...

"Post marketing surveillance" (exact quote) kind of dictate that putting the chip in the packaging can't really do it. 

Like saying, want something with 4 wheels, runs on gas piston engine, seats four, 2 or four doors, ...  Wait, no one say anything about wanting car!

So, read the stuff and see if you interpret it the same way I did...

Rick

[MacAttak]

You can opt out of it in Chrome and Internet Explorer. Not sure about others. In Chrome, go to the Settings page and click for Advanced Settings. Tick the checkbox for "Send a 'Do Not Track' request with your browsing traffic". From the help information on that option:

"Enabling ‘Do Not Track’ means that a request will be included with your browsing traffic. Any effect depends on whether a website responds to the request, and how the request is interpreted. For example, some websites may respond to this request by showing you ads that aren't based on other websites you've visited. Many websites will still collect and use your browsing data - for example to improve security, to provide content, services, ads and recommendations on their websites, and to generate reporting statistics"

The option is similar in recent versions of IE. Not all ad delivery systems respect this, but I think Google AdSense does which is the largest ad provider.


edit: found more info here - http://donottrack.us/

[c4757p]

Hoo, wow, yeah... um, no. I'm not some anti-RFID nutter, but no freaking RF microchip is going inside me. No, no no no no no.

[Rick Law]

you can block third party cookies easily enough in chrome ,and install a few plugins. Not-script and adblockplus .Give them a try ,youll see the difference .

Actually, to avoid the damn ads, I started using a (non-persistent) VM to browse these days.  What triggered me to write that is, the recent auto-updated Chrome is having trouble with youtube on my VM version of XP, and I hate to get my "main machine" contaminated just to watch a video.

[Rick Law]

Hoo, wow, yeah... um, no. I'm not some anti-RFID nutter, but no freaking RF microchip is going inside me. No, no no no no no.

Look at the bright side, now like carrying an Easy Pass box on your person, you can never be missing again... Even aliens can't abduct you without someone knowing.  No more Flight 19 stuff.

Isn't that nice?

(For non-SciFi fans - Flight 19 is a training group with 5 planes that disappeared with 13 or 14 crews shortly after WWII.  Many SciFi movie uses their disappearance as part of the plot.  Others wont know what I mean by Flight 19 so this saves you a Google search.)

[c4757p]

The last time aliens abducted me to experiment, they just set up the lab in my living room so nobody would know I was gone.

[fpliuzzi]

I too am a Chrome browser user. When I visited the following URL it showed me a list of the 114 companies that were tracking me and pushing "interest based ads" in my direction.

http://www.aboutads.info/choices/

I hit the check boxes on that page and opted out of all 114 participating companies. All of their background activity in my Chrome browser was causing youtube videos to play poorly too.

Frank

[SeanB]

Chromium, the non advert and non tracking version. The same just does not report home to the chocolate factory, and does not auto update in the background ( annoying as it slows down the connection doing the 100M update) and you can easily just build it from source each time you need it.

Then again the only time i use Chromium is to do banking.

[Alana]

Come on guys. Adblock plus with "do not block ads on eevblog.com" setting enabled and all your problems are gone. And regular cleanup with ccleaner or alike.

[GEuser]

It is not just chrome OP imo , it is not just "browsers" either , its the net in general and the way its set up and filtered by the main servers and the way they watch what is being looked at , and then I presume there is a Algorithm that kicks in and follows one about .

I think its IP based or connection based and all the main servers watch what is going on as I have tried many times using different browsers , ip blockers , add blockers in which are for different programming/format and all that stuff and it still follows one about , until one disconnects then waits 1/2 a hour after cleaning all history , then reconnect and the very first link clicked in a search result or page advert will trigger it all off again following one about , until one disconnects/cleans and waits around 1/2 a hour again .

I do not think it is cookie based either , as I mentioned its server/connection based , I'm aware that there are different styles out there like cookie based and the like but the one you and I are typing about is different and sorta goes along the lines of the same system that is used to spy on people like the yanks got caught out doing recently but in this instance it is used as a attempt to flog stuff and just plainly "provide" a service in which one does not require , the good thing about it all imo is they actually are proving that they have the technology and power and are using it to keep a eye on one , and are telling one about it! .

all ^ imo and something like that ...

[GEuser]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24292897

And "coincidently" the above a hour or so later .

[GeoffS]

I only use Chrome on my laptop and that's because Firefox doesn't support flash (I'm a a Linux user). It's only used when watching ABC iView or SBS,
Ad blocker for Firefox on all systems keeps me blissfully unaware of whatever nasties Google is up to - at least for now.

[Rick Law]

Come on guys. Adblock plus with "do not block ads on eevblog.com" setting enabled and all your problems are gone. And regular cleanup with ccleaner or alike.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24292897

And "coincidently" the above a hour or so later .

I am no longer sure I am complaining about Chrome or the general state of affairs.  As thoughts about privacy got triggered, the general state of affairs is perhaps what is annoying me more.  One can do "point-fixes" and block (fix) any specific things, but I think I was reacting to info-tech and tech-gidgets getting to a point where the privacy in our life are gone.

You walk around with cell phones in our pocket, your position can be narrowed to within a few blocks.  You walk around with a smart phone in our pocket, your position can be narrowed down to single digit meters.  In the not too distant future, you walk around with a replacement hip, your position can be narrowed down to single digit centimeters.

NSA using smart phones' capabilities to spy on its owner, phones (at list who you are calling and for how long) are recorded, Easy Pass toll paying sticker/box can track you for speeding, Credit card transactions are monitored by government(s)...

Kids readily post what should be private information about themselves on the web.  So, the next generation would probably see people like me as dinosaurs.  "What?  Why does it bother you?  So what if I get an instant alert every time you go to the toilet?  I want to know if you are as full of sh*t as people say you are..."

[XL5]

While we're on the subject, chrome seems to be the only browser that can't sort it's life out enough to handle ssl certificates properly.

[madires]

I only use Chrome on my laptop and that's because Firefox doesn't support flash (I'm a a Linux user). It's only used when watching ABC iView or SBS,

:-) Download the flash player for linux and copy libflashplayer.so into the plugins folder.

It's also a good idea to install Flashblock.

[walshms]

I am no longer sure I am complaining about Chrome or the general state of affairs.

General state of affairs, Rick.  No doubt. 

Kids readily post what should be private information about themselves on the web.  So, the next generation would probably see people like me as dinosaurs.

Until the day that the information they so freely gave away bites them in the arse.  Then they'll cry a river.  Society will choose, and will live with its choices. 

The reality is that there's probably very little of what we do that involves pushing electrons that isn't already subject to some kind of monitoring or collection.  It's just too easy to do, extremely cost-effective, and non-invasive.  People were dreaming of having this kind of power for so long that now that they have it it's going to play heck to get it away from them.

Probably the only way to do it would be to throw out all of the politicians en-masse and replace them with people of conscience that value individual freedom and rights and would immediately dismantle the apparatus with which they currently do this.  Odds, anyone? 

[Greyersting]

I once looked for a certain book (some c++ book) on Google.  A few days later I went on Amazon without even being logged in to either Google or Amazon and it had that book under the suggestions thing.  I wonder if it logged the search to my IP or something because I am sure I had cleared my cookies before it happened.

[Rick Law]

I am no longer sure I am complaining about Chrome or the general state of affairs.

General state of affairs, Rick.  No doubt. 
...

Yeah, you are absolutely right.  Someone just told me a recent statistics.  Hong Kong is now the #1 free-est country (it is not a country really), and USA is like 17 or 27.  I don't know if that is true, but that got me thinking:  We have tools today that Heydrich Reinhard, Joseph Stalin, or the Stasi would love to have then.  They had a hard time filling in the data and connecting the dots.  We now freely get ourselves into this connected web (as in spider web and not www), we laid the infrastructure, and we dwell in it.  Some dwellers even freely fill in the blanks to make sure all i's are dotted and all t's are crossed.  Now all we need is someone willing to use it for evil and we all be in deep doo-doo.  Recent disclosures doesn't make me warm and fussy.

We are approaching our world as naive innocent kids ready to be taken advantage of.  Lets hope we are as lucky as we need to be, and 1984 but is just a novel.

[walshms]

Interesting allusion: naive kids.  I'm sure that there's truth in that.

Fact is, though, we do have a choice.  We can choose what we disclose, we can choose whether to participate at all, but the smart money is on people choosing to elect officials that represent their views.

Trouble is, there's some confusion about who has the majority view right now.  There's a lot of loud, angry voices on all sides -- but that's just a tiny fraction of the total.  It's going to take a lot more participation to make a difference.  And it's not good enough to say "it ought to be this way" -- you have to be willing to be the change, not just call for it.

Look around you.  How many people do you know that would be willing to take a stand?

[Sar]

Even if you disable cookies and other things and move to different locations/networks it is possible that you can still be tracked depending on the uniqueness of your browser configuration. If you go to the EFF's http://panopticlick.eff.org it will tell you how unique you are (on an admittedly limited sample group of  almost 3.5 million other systems.)

[SgtRock]

Greetings EEVBees:

--My current complaint about Google is that now they are grabbing up all the really good old movies on youtube like "The Maltese Falcon" and forcing you to sign because of "Adult Content". In a pig's eye.

“Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.”
H.L. Mencken 1880 - 1956

Best Regards
Clear Ether