If you regularly visit the web, you know that cookies are part of the landscape. These small files allow websites to save certain information and preferences that are supposed to make your navigation easier… Plug-ins like AutoDelete cookie allow you to delete them automatically, but don't they encroach too much on our privacy? Is it essential to hide behind a VPN all the time? By doing tests on Google Chrome, a journalist realized that not all browsers treat your privacy the same way.
In his article published in the Washington Post et available here (in English), technology specialist Geoffrey Fowler explains why he thinks Chrome has become surveillance software and why he chose Firefox as his web browser.
But why did it come to this?
For some time now, he's been toying with the idea of what technologies actually protect your privacy. And when it came to web browsers, he wanted to compare Chrome to Firefox. And what he found made him completely lose faith in Chrome's ability to protect your privacy. His tests revealed that in a week of web browsing, Chrome allowed 11 tracking cookie requests by default; at the same time, Firefox automatically blocked all of those same requests.
So he decided to do some further research and discovered that " Chrome had accepted trackers, even on websites that one might think were private and secures ». For example, he claims that sites like the US government student aid site set cookies for Facebook and Google, allowing the two tech giants to know when the browser is displaying the site's insurance and loan service login pages. And he adds that Google is logging him into his account without his knowledge.
Finally, he points out that the mobile version of Chrome is even more terrible since it shares your location with Google every time you launch a search (and even if you deactivate the sharing of your location).
Firefox isn't without its faults. For example, the default search engine is Google's and the browser allows other tracking... but it at least has the decency not to share your information with Mozilla (the foundation behind Firefox).
For Google officials, a balance must be struck to achieve a "healthy ecosystem for the web," and that's why Chrome prioritizes privacy choices and controls. At Mozilla, on the other hand, privacy should not be a " option » for users to manage with lots of settings in all directions, and that's why Firefox offers a « very advanced tracking protection"
But Chrome's director of product management says cookies play a role in privacy, but it's just one element among many, and focusing on that alone obscures other practices that allow users to be tracked.
It is therefore difficult to form an objective opinion and some points should be put into perspective. If you connect to your Gmail account on Chrome, you will be connected to your Google account on the browser by default. This behavior is therefore not abnormal, but you should be aware of it!
Finally, the ultimate solution to guarantee your privacy when surfing the net remains of course the use of a VPN.
