đ„ Don't use Google Chrome
January 2024
You know how Facebook tracks your every scroll, click, and view in order to build a profile of your habits and tastes, so they can sell access to your eyeballs based on that profile?
Itâs probably not your favorite thing that they do. But if you use Facebook anyway, itâs because youâve decided the tradeoff is acceptable. Maybe itâs the only platform where youâre able to keep in touch with certain classmates or family members. Maybe you get amazing deals on the marketplace.
Still, if there was another version of Facebookâor several other versionsâthat had all the same features, content, and people, but didnât track your behavior ⊠youâd probably use that instead. Right?
By the end of 2024, Googleâs Chrome web browser will be tracking every page you visit and engage with in order to build a profile of your interests. (You can see a provisional list of those interests here.)
This is all part of their work-in-progress but already-creepy Privacy Sandbox initiative, which is less about âprioritizing privacyâ and more about âavoiding prosecution for privacy violations by as narrow a margin as possible.â
The amazing news here is that unlike Facebook, Google Chrome is 100% replaceable. Just pick another browser. Any browser. None of them will attempt anything remotely close to this type of tracking.
Personally, Iâve switched to Firefox and it works great. Give it a shot, or try another one. Like Safari, Edge, Opera, Vivaldi, or Lynx:
It doesnât really matter what you pick. Just donât use Chrome.