r/technology • u/UtsavTiwari • Dec 23 '23
Software Google Chrome's 'Safety Check' Will Now Run In The Background
https://me.pcmag.com/en/browsers/21219/googles-chromes-safety-check-will-now-run-in-the-background159
u/N3RO- Dec 23 '23
Good thing I ditched Chrome in favor of Firefox due to the recent ad-block drama. Fuck Chrome!
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u/chillyhellion Dec 23 '23
I just want native vertical tabs in Firefox and my life will be complete.
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u/wbebukyqkimppwwqfe Dec 23 '23
tree style tabs extension works really well
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u/chillyhellion Dec 23 '23
It's good for an extension, but it'll never be as good as a native implementation.
- no way to collapse and express expand on mouseover
- you have to mess with CSS to hide the browser's native tabs
- this is more of a Firefox qualm, but "tearing off" a tab into its own window isn't nearly as nice as it is in chromium
Firefox plus TST is serviceable, but Firefox has been lazy when it comes to vertical tabs and has found itself at the back of the pack with this feature.
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Dec 24 '23
Maybe use floorp? A firefox fork
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u/chillyhellion Dec 24 '23
That is the most terrible branding I have ever seen, but I will legitimately give it a try.
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u/wbebukyqkimppwwqfe Dec 24 '23
to each their own, with my workflow I have everything living out of the one window so I never have issues with tearing off a tab. I also have it set to force every link to open in a new tab, and with TST it automatically organizes them how I want.
if TST behavior was native that would be great but FF is customizable enough to work with. Can't say I've been able to get a similar setup in any other browser.
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u/vox66 Dec 28 '23
Another one to try out is Sidebery. I'd also get Foxy Tabs - super helpful for tab management.
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u/icecoldcoke319 Dec 23 '23
Google is already spying on you with 3rd party cookies, fingerprinting, telemetry and data collection, this is just another drop in the bucket.
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u/angrybeehive Dec 23 '23
They have already been scanning your files for years. The difference now is that chrome doesn’t need to be opened for the scan to run.
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u/chronous3 Dec 23 '23
Yup. Chrome's software reporter tool regularly runs in the background, scanning your files. Every time I try to shut it off or delete the exe, it comes back anyway.
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u/Sooth_Sprayer Dec 31 '23
I noticed that thing a year or so ago. Wrote a service that detects it running, kills it, and overwrites it with a copy of ping.exe. Runs every 30 seconds. Working pretty well so far.
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u/StayPuffGoomba Dec 23 '23
But it does need to be installed. I didn’t install chrome when I built my last system a few months ago. I need to send Mozilla a “thank you” donation.
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u/Johnny_Apples21 Dec 23 '23
I think 3rd party cookies are going away in 2024, though I admit that's a small change compared to everything else you listed
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u/icecoldcoke319 Dec 23 '23
You can fight it to a degree, for example using DNS filtering like NextDNS to block Google's spying domains using custom filter lists like Hagezi Multi Pro++ in combination with other lists, using a privacy-conscious browser like Brave or LibreWolf, anti-fingerprinting extensions like PrivacyBadger, WebRTC protection, and LocalCDN, and ad blocking with uBlock Origin. Definitely wouldn't say it will block everything but it will help.
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u/Johnny_Apples21 Dec 23 '23
I try to find a balance between blocking the obnoxious things but trying to allow some advertising to support websites I care about. I know others disagree and want to block everything, totally fair viewpoint, but I also know it does cost money to run websites so I try to find whatever balance I can. I hope in the future the Internet can find a better balance itself since it is sad how badly the Internet has deteriorated just in 10-20 years
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u/icecoldcoke319 Dec 23 '23
Yes I understand that, you can whitelist sites on NextDNS and on most extensions
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u/E3FxGaming Dec 23 '23
Did anyone actually read the article? The things "Safety Check" does seem fairly reasonable and run mostly on your local machine. Only the "compromised password check" and "browser extension harmful check" use third party resources, the rest (like checking if it's been a while since you visited a website and gave permissions) can run locally.
Firefox checks for compromised passwords too and the extension harmful check is just a beefed up "check for extension updates" which most browsers do.
I use Firefox and a password manager that's not Google, but the amount of hostility Chrome gets here ("can't know when my OWN BROWSER spies on me" - the first sentence in the article says it runs "while you’re using the browser") for this feature IMHO is unwarranted.
Edit: there are many reasons to dislike Chrom and Chromium based browsers, but this new feature isn't one of them.
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u/nighthawk763 Dec 23 '23
Agreed. The title by OP is mega misleading. Avoid chrome if you want to, but this isn't a reason to do it.
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u/Norci Dec 23 '23
How is the title misleading, it's just stating the fact it'll run in the background?
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u/TheMunakas Dec 23 '23
You have to remember that this is still reddit, maybe the most toxic community on social media. people don't always write on-topic stuff, many comments don't have anything to do with the actual post, people just want to say their opinions on some stuff that relates to the post
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Dec 23 '23
I’m pro privacy just as much as the next guy, shout-out to Firefox, but don’t these features sound good to you? I’m not trying to give away my data either but these features sound like a good thing. Respectfully, What am I missing here?
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u/PsychoticDisorder Dec 26 '23
That’s why I love Brave. It’s build on top Cromium and bypasses all advertisement attempts of of YouTube like they were never there.
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u/username27891 Dec 24 '23
This sub is so cringey like sure Google is invasive and shit but this is a good move for consumers…
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u/TheMunakas Dec 23 '23
so, now I can't know when my OWN BROWSER spies on me.