Future changes to Chrome

Discussions of applications and operating systems and any problems, tips or suggestions. Win XP, 9x/2k, Linux, NT, photo editing, Virus/Spyware help
User avatar
Executioner
Life Member
Posts: 10133
Joined: Wed Nov 22, 2000 11:34 am
Location: Woodland, CA USA

Future changes to Chrome

Post by Executioner »

Anybody here use Chrome? https://www.yahoo.com/news/google-quiet ... 04948.html

I use it mainly as a backup when FF does not render a page correct. Due to this change, I've turned off the auto updates by renaming the update folder under the x86 program folder.
Program Files (x86) - Google - Update

This must be good news for FF if this change really happens. Surfing the net without those adblockers is like looking into the sun.
User avatar
FlyingPenguin
Flightless Bird
Posts: 32773
Joined: Wed Nov 22, 2000 11:13 am
Location: Central Florida
Contact:

Re: Future changes to Chrome

Post by FlyingPenguin »

Well first off in this day in age, you can't afford to disable browser updates. So that's not a good solution. You're better off switching to the Brave browser which uses the Chromium engine and supports (and promises to continue to support) all existing Chrome add-ons. Brave is a security-conscious Chromium based browser with a lot of Google bloat removed, with excellent reviews, and it's what I'll switch to if Chrome ends up disabling the ability for uBlock Origin to work: https://brave.com/
I only use Chrome to access the Google account on my desktop I share with my cell phone (I leave the calendar, Contacts, Map and Text Messages open in Chrome all the time). My main Browser is Firefox.

Additionally, the jury is still out. Google isn't doing this for strictly advertising reasons, despite the media spin (although I'm sure that's part of it) but mainly for security reasons. Any addon that has permissions to intercept the browser's data stream (which is how an ad blocker does it's thing) can also do malicious things like man in the middle attacks, and inject ads into web pages.

They are working on a way to to continue to support addons that that need this ability, but do it more securely.

And like I said, you can always use Brave or any of a dozen other Chromium based browsers.
"Turns out I’m 'woke.' All along, I thought I was just compassionate, kind, and good at history. "

Image
User avatar
FlyingPenguin
Flightless Bird
Posts: 32773
Joined: Wed Nov 22, 2000 11:13 am
Location: Central Florida
Contact:

Opera, Brave, Vivaldi to ignore Chrome's anti-ad-blocker changes, despite shared codebase

Post by FlyingPenguin »

Well this is heating up. After promising a compromise, Google decided it's still doing this except for corporate users. All the other Chromium based browsers are threatening to fork and leave the functionality as-is and support all existing ad-blockers.

Also, Brave & Opera both have a built-in ad blocker that's not running as an add-on, that would continue to work even if they were somehow forced to do this.

Jan 2020 is when this is supposed to be implemented so if you're a Chrome user, and Google doesn't do an about face due to the push back, then I would recommend installing Brave.

I think I'm going to play with Brave this weekend anyway, since it's a privacy-centric Chromium browser anyway.

Opera, Brave, Vivaldi to ignore Chrome's anti-ad-blocker changes, despite shared codebase
https://www.zdnet.com/article/opera-bra ... -codebase/
"Turns out I’m 'woke.' All along, I thought I was just compassionate, kind, and good at history. "

Image
User avatar
Executioner
Life Member
Posts: 10133
Joined: Wed Nov 22, 2000 11:34 am
Location: Woodland, CA USA

Re: Future changes to Chrome

Post by Executioner »

They (google) probably got a lot of push back from their advertisers regarding the use of ad blockers since that is how they make their $$$. I can't imagine using a web browser without ad blockers.
User avatar
FlyingPenguin
Flightless Bird
Posts: 32773
Joined: Wed Nov 22, 2000 11:13 am
Location: Central Florida
Contact:

Re: Future changes to Chrome

Post by FlyingPenguin »

I just installed Brave. It doesn't use your Chrome profile, but you can easily import your bookmarks, cookies, and most settings. I'm using it with their built-in ad blocker for now. Works fine.
"Turns out I’m 'woke.' All along, I thought I was just compassionate, kind, and good at history. "

Image
User avatar
Executioner
Life Member
Posts: 10133
Joined: Wed Nov 22, 2000 11:34 am
Location: Woodland, CA USA

Re: Future changes to Chrome

Post by Executioner »

Weird...I just installed Brave, but it won't let me log into this site. I'm able to log in to all my other sites using Last Pass. When Last Pass auto fills and I click on log in, it goes back to an unlogged page. I uninstalled it and going to try it again, this time not importing everything from FireFox. Shame as I was ready to delete Chrome in favor of this browser.

UPDATE:
Removing it completely requires you to go into your registry and search for Brave. What a pain. They need to fix this. After I used Add/Remove in windows 10, and reinstalling it, all of my bookmarks and other items came back. So I'm going to hold off on reinstalling it. I also had to go into AppData folder and delete all the files there.
User avatar
FlyingPenguin
Flightless Bird
Posts: 32773
Joined: Wed Nov 22, 2000 11:13 am
Location: Central Florida
Contact:

Re: Future changes to Chrome

Post by FlyingPenguin »

You need to turn off the built-in adblocker & shields for PCA (click the little orange shield to the right of the URL & click the slider "Shields up for this site").

Had the same problem with another site. I find the built-in shields a BIT too aggressive, although this would be a really safe browser for porn or torrent sites.

Instead of worrying about the shields for every site, I turned off the built-in shields and just installed uBlock Origin like I had in Chrome.

To turn off all the shields, change the first three "Allow" and turn the last two off:

Image
"Turns out I’m 'woke.' All along, I thought I was just compassionate, kind, and good at history. "

Image
User avatar
Executioner
Life Member
Posts: 10133
Joined: Wed Nov 22, 2000 11:34 am
Location: Woodland, CA USA

Re: Future changes to Chrome

Post by Executioner »

Maybe they may add an option for the adblocker: strict or high, medium, low (or something like that).
User avatar
FlyingPenguin
Flightless Bird
Posts: 32773
Joined: Wed Nov 22, 2000 11:13 am
Location: Central Florida
Contact:

Re: Future changes to Chrome

Post by FlyingPenguin »

You can tweak it, and disable certain features per-site, but it seemed overly aggressive. I like uBlock Origin. The author is an insane privacy nut, but he's always extremely careful not to break any websites.

So far I like the browser. All I use it is for Google account stuff, and all of that works fine even with the shields up. Browser seems real snappy.
"Turns out I’m 'woke.' All along, I thought I was just compassionate, kind, and good at history. "

Image
User avatar
Executioner
Life Member
Posts: 10133
Joined: Wed Nov 22, 2000 11:34 am
Location: Woodland, CA USA

Re: Future changes to Chrome

Post by Executioner »

I installed it on my Samsung S9 phone. Works great!
User avatar
FlyingPenguin
Flightless Bird
Posts: 32773
Joined: Wed Nov 22, 2000 11:13 am
Location: Central Florida
Contact:

Re: Future changes to Chrome

Post by FlyingPenguin »

Here's a lot more details and back story to the changes Chrome wants to make, and why people like Raymond Hill (uBlock Origin's developer) disagrees with it.

Why are fervid Googlers making ad-blocker-breaking changes to Chrome? Because they created a monster – and are fighting to secure it
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/06/1 ... _security/
"Turns out I’m 'woke.' All along, I thought I was just compassionate, kind, and good at history. "

Image
User avatar
FlyingPenguin
Flightless Bird
Posts: 32773
Joined: Wed Nov 22, 2000 11:13 am
Location: Central Florida
Contact:

Re: Future changes to Chrome

Post by FlyingPenguin »

WIRED: It's Time to Switch to a Privacy Browser
https://www.wired.com/story/privacy-bro ... ery-brave/
"Turns out I’m 'woke.' All along, I thought I was just compassionate, kind, and good at history. "

Image
User avatar
Executioner
Life Member
Posts: 10133
Joined: Wed Nov 22, 2000 11:34 am
Location: Woodland, CA USA

Re: Future changes to Chrome

Post by Executioner »

I must say that the Brave browser is very fast. I can't believe how much faster it loads than FF with the same addons:
LastPass
Ublock Origin
Privacy Bagger
AdGuard Ad Blocker
User avatar
Losbot
Almighty Member
Posts: 4991
Joined: Sun Jul 13, 2014 8:59 am
Location: South Florida

Re: Future changes to Chrome

Post by Losbot »

Executioner wrote:I must say that the Brave browser is very fast. I can't believe how much faster it loads than FF with the same addons:
LastPass
Ublock Origin
Privacy Bagger
AdGuard Ad Blocker
I have problems with Brave and this site (PCA). I can't login. I enter my username and password, only to be sent back to the main page and I'm still not logged in. Very weird. Works with Chrome and FF.
User avatar
Executioner
Life Member
Posts: 10133
Joined: Wed Nov 22, 2000 11:34 am
Location: Woodland, CA USA

Re: Future changes to Chrome

Post by Executioner »

Read FP's thread #4 or 5 I think that tells you to turn off the ad blocking. Once I did that it works great. If you use Ublock Origin you don't need the built in ones as they seem very restrictive.
I had exactly the same problem logging into this site until I turned off their first 3 shields.
Post Reply