Goodbye, Chrome: Google’s web browser has become spy software

[Carlos]

Nord is indeed probably the best deal on a service almost nobody needs. 

[RV_]

Until you find out you did.

I believe it is needed by everyone. My VPN encrypts my data so my ISP can't see or determine what I'm doing. You see in 2018 the rules were changed:

House Votes To Allow Internet Service Providers To Sell, Share Your Personal Information

Excerpt 

" The new Federal Communications Commission’s rules intended to limit how companies like AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, and Charter can use internet customers’ sensitive personal information are effectively dead in the water, thanks to a House of Representatives vote today to kill the regulations, making sure internet service providers can use and sell user data.

Source: https://www.consumerreports.org/consumerist/house-votes-to-allow-internet-service-providers-to-sell-share-your-personal-information/

Trump Signs Measure to Let ISPs Sell Your Data Without Consent

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-signs-measure-let-isps-sell-your-data-without-consent-n742316

Your data and mine are valuable and companies are getting bigger because of the profit in selling our data. But they steal it from us without permission and make it difficult to say impossible to opt out.

How to stop companies from selling your data

Excerpt:

"Helpful tips for opting out of data sharing by banks, schools and data broker companies

Privacy experts warn against filling out online surveys if you want to prevent your personal data from being shared with data brokers. There are a variety of other ways to opt out of having your data collected and combined by data brokers but no single solution, experts say."

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/06/24/how-stop-companies-selling-your-data/?utm_term=.a14b3b66480b

I just had new fiber to home Internet service started with CenturyLink. They wanted permission to access my credit reports. I said no, they said I would then have to pay a $75 deposit. I said fine. They had tried to access my credit report and found them all locked/frozen by me. This effectively cuts off deep identity theft. My bank, USAA does not share or sell my data to data brokers either. My credit score is as high as it can be, but is no one's business but me.

Now remember that was my new ISP, who in the US are now accustomed to selling our data legally without our permission.

See, there are two sides to every coin. If it is not important, and no one has anything to hide, why would it be a commodity they want?

So no one can open any new accounts in my name on my credit, not even me until I decide to unlock the credit reporting agencies. My online surfing is encrypted and I do no surveys or open social network accounts. My military bank shares no data just pays who I tell them to via CCs, debit, check and wire transfers. I do all my investment buying and selling through their brokerage department, and need no other CCs or financial services. They have thus far had, or matched the lowest interest rates but we never need them as we carry no debt, no CC balance longer than 20-25 days. We buy used cars normally two years old but the dealer made me an offer I could not refuse for cash and a trade in for my new 2019 Forester. We bought my wife her favorite car, a 2006 Subaru Baja Sport Turbo (last year they made them) in all blue. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=subaru+baja+images&t=ffab&atb=v172-3_j&ia=images&iax=images

I share some of that research here. Some folks even read the links!

[Carlos]

Just now, RV_ said:

My VPN encrypts my data so my ISP can't see or determine what I'm doing.

Which is useless, outside of an emotional desire to not let your ISP know what you're doing.  It's not a security risk/benefit to use a VPN, nor does it protect your actual data outside of just seeing the location of your requests.  It does absolutely nothing that has a tangible value for nearly everyone in the US.  In other countries, there may be state problems, and occasionally content restrictions that can be bypassed with a VPN.  And obviously I use when when I pirate TV shows, but again, most people don't do that.  The average end user has an incorrect fear/belief that VPNs offer some measure of tangible security, when it doesn't.

 

[Lou Schneider]

14 hours ago, D&J said:

I down loaded Brave from the Play store a few months ago on my phone, tablet and Chromebook and it block all adds and trackers.

Denny 

x2 on the Brave browser.  I downloaded the Windows version from their website (https://brave.com) and it works as claimed.  ALL and I mean ALL of the annoying third-party ads disappeared, leaving nice clean web pages that loaded faster since you only download the page itself, not the third party ads.  Even embedded ads in YouTube videos went away.

If you keep the stock Home Page, at startup and every time you open a new tab you get a running tally showing the number of trackers and ads it's blocked.  Since getting Brave yesterday my total is 88 blocked trackers, 2,122 blocked ads and 3 blocked HTTPS upgrade attempts. 

Although it may seem counter-intuitive, I will continue using Chrome for my sensitive information like online banking and payments.  It already has that information so it's not as big of a risk to keep those activities there instead of sharing them with Yet Another Entity.

I do have some questions about their Rewards program where you view "non-offensive" ads to generate credits you can send to websites to compensate for the revenue they have lost from your blocked ads.  At least for now this is an optional program so I'm going to wait a while and see what others think before signing up.

Edited June 25, 2019 by Lou Schneider

[RV_]

Good info on brave, I'll give it a try.

Hey Carlos PCMag disagrees that VPNs are of no use.

Excerpt from previous link repeated below:

"To understand the value of a VPN, it helps to think of some specific scenarios in which a VPN might be used. Consider the public Wi-Fi network, perhaps at a coffee shop or airport. Normally, you might connect without a second thought. But do you know who might be watching the traffic on that network? Can you even be sure the Wi-Fi network is legit, or might it operated by a thief who's after your personal data? Think about the passwords, banking data, credit card numbers, and just plain private information that you transmit every time you go online.

If you connect to that same public Wi-Fi network using a VPN you can rest assured that no one on that network will be able to intercept your data—not other users snooping around for would-be victims, nor even the operators of the network itself. This last point is particularly important, and everyone should keep in mind that it's very difficult to tell whether or not a Wi-Fi network is what it appears to be. Just because it's called Starbucks_WiFi doesn't mean it's really owned by a well-known coffee purveyor.

Another example showing the value of VPNs is using these services to access blocked websites. Some governments have decided that it is in their best interest to block certain websites from access by all members of the population. With a VPN, those people can have their web traffic securely tunneled to a different country with more progressive policies, and access sites that would otherwise be blocked. And again, because VPNs encrypt your traffic, it helps protect the identity of people who connect to the open internet in this way.

For the most part, VPN clients are the same for both Windows and macOS. But that's not always the case, and I have found marked performance differences depending on the platform. I have split out reviews of Mac VPN applications, in case you're more into fruit than windows. Note that you can skip client apps altogether and connect to the VPN service simply using your computer's network control panel. You'll still need to sign up with a VPN service, however.

For mobile devices, the situation is a little thornier. Most companies offer VPN apps for Android and iOS, which is great because we use these devices to connect to Wi-Fi all the time. However, VPNs don't always play nice with cellular connections. That said, it takes some serious effort to intercept cellphone data, although law enforcement or intelligence agencies may have an easier time gaining access to this data, or metadata, through connections with mobile carriers or by using specialized equipment.

Your ISP may already be involved in some of these spying operations, but there's an even-newer concern. The FCC has rolled back Obama-era rules that sought to protect net neutrality, and in doing so allowed ISPs to profit off your data. The ISPs wanted a slice of that big data monetization pie that has fueled the growth of companies like Facebook and Google. Those companies are able to gather huge amounts of information about users, and then use it to target advertising or even sell that data to other companies. ISPs now have the green light to bundle anonymized user data and put it up for sale.

While it is true that companies like Google and Facebook make money off your behavior, you are not necessarily forced to use those services. If you suddenly decided to stop using Facebook, you might miss out on cute pet pics and political rants from your friends and family, but you could still live a decent, perhaps better, life. You could even choose to avoid the Google-o-sphere entirely by using the privacy conscious DuckDuckGo for your web searches, and drop the Google-backed Chrome for the nonprofit Firefox.

You don't have this same level of choice when it comes to your ISP, which controls your home's gateway to the entirety of the internet. While there are alternatives to Google and Facebook, most Americans have limited home ISP alternatives. Some areas have only one ISP offering wired internet access. That makes recent changes that allow ISPs to sell data from their customers all the more troubling. It's one thing to opt into a shady system, it's quite another to have no choice in the matter.

"ISPs are in a position to see a lot of what you do online. They kind of have to be, since they have to carry all of your traffic," explains Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) senior staff technologist Jeremy Gillula. "Unfortunately, this means that preventing ISP tracking online is a lot harder than preventing other third-party tracking—you can't just install [the EFF's privacy-minded browser add-on] Privacy Badger or browse in incognito or private mode."

What a VPN Won't Do

We should note that there are multiple ways your behavior can be tracked online—even with a VPN, things like cookies allow web services (Amazon, Google, Facebook, and so on) to track your internet usage even after you've left their sites (here's a handy guide to pruning cookies on your browser.)

VPNs also only do so much to anonymize your online activities. If you really want to browse the web anonymously, and access the dark web to boot, you'll want to use Tor. Unlike a VPN, Tor bounces your traffic through several server nodes, making it much harder to trace. It's also managed by a non-profit organization and distributed for free. Some VPN services will even connect to Tor via VPN, for additional security.

It's worth noting that most VPN services are not philanthropic organizations that operate for the public good. While many are involved in progressive causes, they are all still for-profit organizations. That means that they have their own bills to pay, and they have to respond to subpoenas and warrants from law enforcement. They also have to abide by the laws of the country in which they officially reside.

This is why it's so important to read the privacy policy for VPN services, and to find out where a VPN company is headquartered. NordVPN, for example, operates out of Panama, and is not subject to any laws that would require it to retain user data.

Protect Yourself With a VPN

When the internet was first being pieced together, there wasn't much thought given to security or privacy. At first it was just a bunch of shared computers at research institutions, and computing power so limited that any encryption could have made things extremely difficult. If anything, the focus was on openness, not defense.

Today, most of have multiple devices that connect to the web that are vastly more powerful than the top computers of the early days. But the internet hasn't made a lot of fundamental improvements. Consider that it is only in the past few years that HTTPS has become widespread.

This means that, unfortunately, it is up to individuals to protect themselves. Antivirus apps and password managers go a long way toward keeping you safer, but a VPN is a uniquely powerful tool that you should definitely have in your personal security toolkit, especially in today's connected world. Whether you opt for a free service or even go all-in with an encrypted router, having some way to encrypt your internet traffic is critically important."

source, PCMagazine:

https://www.pcmag.com/article/352757/you-need-a-vpn-and-heres-why

Tor for privacy? CyberSec?

Tor over VPN functionality is also included as well as an auto kill switch and some more neat features. Another cool feature is CyberSec. it blocks dangerous and malicious websites and lets users avoid annoying ads.

Source: https://vpnspecial.com/reviews/nordvpn/?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=APD_BING - Search - Brand - Nordvpn bmm - US - english %2B all lang&utm_content=%2Bnordvpn&msclkid=0095107502471e9e8ba84d6493131fa5&gclid=CO_a5IXVg-MCFQSJxQId4DEI6w&gclsrc=ds

 

 

 

Edited June 25, 2019 by RV_

[Carlos]

Either that article is ancient, or the author is completely ignorant.  Intercepting data on wild networks is a thing of the past--long past.  It's not longer a threat at all since everything is encrypted anyway.

I use my own VPNs on my own servers to get to my own network and manage servers without exposing them to the internet.  That's the most obvious use of VPNs.  I never tunnel other traffic on the VPN, because there's simply no reason to.  I still can't come up with anything that benefits an end user.

 

[RV_]

Wrong again Carlos. You might want to check how recent and the credentials yourself. The date is at the top of any source article I use. PCMag also has a link to each of their author/contributors so you can check their credentials. This one is just over six months old from November 2018. I notice you provide no sources. Apparently you don't read links. Care to provide sources other than your say so?

 

[Carlos]

Wrong about what, that data is encrypted in flight?  I mean, I only create and manage the networks and servers, what would I know?  Seriously though, are you saying that data is flying in the clear between you and your bank, or your mail server, or whatever?  I don't read end-user level articles and no, don't have links to provide.

[RV_]

Hey Denny and Lou, thanks! I'm on Brave now. The CEO invented Javascript and was a cofounder of Mozilla and Firefox? I downloaded and installed it fine! It feels good and I love the concept. It set up my favorites bar and browser environment just like FF! And it is fast.

Don't know how I missed it but thanks for letting me know about it guys.

[colddog15]

I am not here to defend Google or ANY other internet company or provider but .....

And I say this with all humbleness there are many other companies that track and compile  large amounts of personal information.  They gather the personal data with a very high degree of accuracy and sell it to folks that don't have your personal best interest at heart.   IMHO if you are going to be upset then those companies need to be brought out into the light also.   At least the internet companies provide some sort of personal benefit in exchange.  

A small list of companies gathering personal data with NO personal benefit to the user.  

Credit Card companies

Medical Insurance companies - your Doctor, Hospitals, and HMO ALL share your medical histories

Banks and Credit Unions

Amazon

Credit Reporting Agencies

 

[Carlos]

Many of those actually do have a benefit to the user:

Credit cards...  Citi sent me a note saying that because of my usage, I could get an option to get more rewards at certain stores.  I was able to buy a new phone with 12% cash back.  Amex sent me an offer to save a whopping 6% cash back at supermarkets!

All of the medical companies are required by law to exchange certain information about you.  Some with your permission, and some without.  The obvious benefits are coordinated care, checking for drug interactions, and being ready to care for someone in an emergency.  When my wife landed in the ER two years ago, they had all of her info before she even got there.  Is that not a good thing?  She was prescribed a drug by one doctor, and our new one could see the history on it.  He said his opinion was different on it, and we should try something different.  It worked.  Benefit?

Banks and CUs are a mixed bag.  I got an offer to refi that saved us a bunch of cash because of data sharing.

Amazon...no benefit that I can think of.

CRA...how else would you manage credit worthiness?

 

[RV_]

 

[Pieere]

10 hours ago, RV_ said:

 

RV; I Concur you are correct!

[k4rs]

19 hours ago, Carlos said:

Either that article is ancient, or the author is completely ignorant.  Intercepting data on wild networks is a thing of the past--long past.  It's not longer a threat at all since everything is encrypted anyway.

As we travel I get many opportunities to connect to campground Wi-Fi.  One of the first things I do is to check to see if I am leaking any sensitive data.  You would be amazed at the number of people who connect to public systems with file sharing turned on.  Not just photos but medical records, tax documents, banking info, etc.  These open Wi-Fi systems are a rich harvest for data miners.  Like RV, I am a firm believer in using a VPN.

Safe Travels...

 

[Carlos]

Those two things have nothing to do with each other.  Like most VPN users, you don't really understand what it does.  I make, manage, and use VPN servers.  This is part of my job.  As is capturing and inspecting traffic on networks.  TCP/IP routing has been my specialty for a couple decades.  I may have been around this for a while.

Cleese nailed it, people who haven't had any training or experience fancy themselves experts in medicine, physics, and all manner of subjects now because they did five minutes of google research and think they know.

 

[Pieere]

Some come out of nowhere and we are suppose to take their opinions for the gospel truth! I am not a computer geek/by far! I will say this everything I`ve used from posters who have been on this forum thread for as long as I have has worked ; so it will take me a little time to take someones opinion and chance messing up my computer!In the meantime I will use a VPN, MalwareBytes, and Eset that has been working for me! Thank You!

Edited June 27, 2019 by Pieere
error

[Carlos]

That's why I think it's important to keep opinions out of threads like this and concentrate on the known facts.  I spend a lot of time dispelling myths with users and securing networks and devices even though people often just don't care to, or their uncle's brother in law told them what's the perfect solution (it never is).

[k4rs]

On 6/26/2019 at 12:16 PM, Carlos said:

Those two things have nothing to do with each other.  Like most VPN users, you don't really understand what it does. 

I am quite familiar with what a VPN will and will not do.  I also spent decades providing computer support, including networking, in my career.  The point I was trying to make is that public Wi-Fi is an attractive target for data thieves.  Anything you can do to protect yourself in such an environment is a good idea.  As an analogy:  If you like to scuba dive in shark infested waters, especially if some fisherman has been chumming, it makes good sense to use a cage.

Safe Travels...

[Pieere]

On 6/27/2019 at 8:36 PM, k4rs said:

I am quite familiar with what a VPN will and will not do.  I also spent decades providing computer support, including networking, in my career.  The point I was trying to make is that public Wi-Fi is an attractive target for data thieves.  Anything you can do to protect yourself in such an environment is a good idea.  As an analogy:  If you like to scuba dive in shark infested waters, especially if some fisherman has been chumming, it makes good sense to use a cage.

Safe Travels...

Agreed! 

 

[Pieere]

I believe little about what I hear and maybe a little more of what I see! Action speaks louder than words!

[hemsteadc]

Of all the wifi networks at all the coffee shops in the world, what are the chances there's a hacker on yours?

[Carlos]

8 hours ago, hemsteadc said:

Of all the wifi networks at all the coffee shops in the world, what are the chances there's a hacker on yours?

By that logic, why bother with car insurance?  The reality is that there are threats to your data all over, and everyone should be taking steps to protect themselves.  VPNs do nothing to protect data on modern services however, since they are all encrypted anyway.

 

[hemsteadc]

17 hours ago, Carlos said:

By that logic, why bother with car insurance? 

 

Because you can get a big ticket for not having it. Life is full of risk and we all assess it differently. I know people who won't even do Facebook.

 

 

Edited June 30, 2019 by hemsteadc

[packnrat]

they ALL keep and sell your browsing history's. its all in the money here.

[Pieere]

Too each their own! I am not one to argue but being on the  web since 1988! I will only use what someone has sources to back up their sources! So far everything I have used from referenced sources has worked well for me! Thanks to those who've done this!