Technology @beehaw.org esaru @beehaw.org 9 mo. ago

Google's Chrome Browser Analyzing Your Browsing History with so-called "Privacy Sandbox" Feature

For nearly two years now, Google has been gradually rolling out a feature to all Chrome users that analyzes their browsing history within the browser itself. This feature aims to replace third-party cookies and individual tracking by categorizing you into an interest category and sharing that category with advertisers. It's like having a function in your credit card account that evaluates your activities to pass on your spending habits to the advertising industry, so they can send you tailored ads. Ironically, it's called "Privacy Sandbox". To check if this is enabled in your Chrome or Chromium browser, simply enter chrome://settings/adPrivacy into the address bar (yes, the configuration page is called "Ad Privacy"). However, I wouldn't even want to have this built into my browser, no matter if activated or not. If you're not a fan of this, you might want to consider switching to Firefox.

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18 comments

I’m about 99% sure that this is exactly what credit card companies do.
- There’s another comment here about banks scrapping your history. Guess I’ll ask because now I’m curious. What’s a realistic way to get around this type of thing with banks and credit cards short of using cash? I hate cash :(
  
  Probably a local credit union, provided it's FDIC insured and has decent terms of membership. Most credit unions aren't in the business of spying on the people that own them, their purpose is just to manage their clients' money and facilitate spending.
  
  Okay thank you. I’ll do my homework and find a local credit union.
  
  None.
  
  Even if your bank doesn't do it, the credit card processor will. They will be very careful to "anonymize" the data up to a legally plausible deniability level, just like Google does, before selling it, but that's about it. Even if you use multiple banks with multiple credit cards with different card processors, someone purchasing enough of the "anonymized" data would be able to correlate some of it.
  
  If you don't want (almost) any data to be scraped, it's either cash or Monero.
  
  However... if you have no credit history, don't expect to get any loans, so you might want to build a history of being a ~~reliable fool~~ good client.

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