DEV Community

Discussion on: Does 'not using Chrome' to you also mean 'not logging-in to any Google services'?

Collapse
 
karandpr profile image
Karan Gandhi • Edited

Well, there are a lot of reasons to not use Chrome.
Changing a browser might give you a feeling that you are not being tracked. But realistically you have just adjusted one parameter, i.e browser. Everything is still the same
If you have privacy concerns and you have to ungoogle then it's a whole different ball game.

For starters, your current PC(HW id), mobile (IMEI), browser, email id(Gmail), ISP, MAC_ID, IP address(generic fingerprinting techniques), geolocation(Maps, Background services), credit card info(Google Pay), phone number(2FA) and other factors being tied to an identifier. The Gmail account is just an association with the identifier and not the identifier.

To have reasonable privacy, you will need a new computer (bought with cash), a mobile without android or iOS, new network equipment, VPN, (a new home if you can.), Technically you will have to identify most of the privacy holes and create a personal sandbox before accessing the internet.
Using OS like Tails and hosting your email is a good start. Sanitizing your entire workflow will take shitload of time and effort.
After creating a personal sandbox, you should probably avoid fingerprinting by blocking JS altogether, spoofing your parameters now and then, using custom browsers.

It will bring a lot of inconveniences btw. Because one of the major problems will be banking or anything that uses behavioral analysis. Intruders and Privacy Enthusiasts use more or less the same techniques to avoid tracking. So if you access using your privacy measures, sooner or later you will be flagged by a system.

Collapse
 
aurelio profile image
Aurelio

This is an amazing comment, thanks for sharing this depressing insight 😂

Collapse
 
karandpr profile image
Karan Gandhi

Haha. Well privacy is inconvenient. 🤷 .

Collapse
 
madza profile image
Madza

Thanks for the wider insight on the topic 😉👍

Collapse
 
karandpr profile image
Karan Gandhi

Haha. Not so wide really. Just stuff I read from here and there.