Google: We're not killing ad blockers. Translation: We made them too powerful, we'll cram this genie back in its bottle

>Gmail --> ProtonMail

IMO, ProtonMail probably gives a false sense of privacy. Could be another honey pot. ProtonMail creates, stores and manages GPG keys, public and private. The password protecting the key can be captured by the web application. It has to be fed in clear text to the GPG libraries in any case. How private is the secret key then ? It's all up to trust, for non-critical user data. Please correct this assertion if I'm wrong.

Gmail --> SomeMailProvider

> Gmail --> SomeMailProvider

Well, we use pobox.com (now owned by fastmail) as a mail forwarder and he.net (hurricane electric) as a web host, so we have them forward our email to he. They offer webmail, though I seldom use it.

But for folks who are used to gmail, protonmail is something a lot closer to what they'll be used to, and they're far better than Google even if they're not completely trustworthy. I've never heard of any problems with them though.

I share the opinion of gus3 in that I am unconvinced that my personal data is safe from abuse when I put it on Google servers. (Please Google, convince me that you don't sell my data to governments.) For my part, I'll add these ideas to the list:

Google Android --> LineageOS (does not require Google identification)

Google Play Store --> F-Droid (very nice), Yalp Store, Aurora Store

Google Maps --> OSM (open street maps)

Gmail --> K-9 Mail attached to my own mail server

Google ADB --> SSHelper.apk (if you like rsync for scripting backups and moving data in bulk, then this is THE app for you)

Note 1: I have two mobile devices, one of which runs without Google login/identification and is completely free of Google closed applications. The other device is still running with Google Maps for navigation and therefore still requires Google identification. OSM continues to improve while at the same time Google Maps continues to "dumb down" so maybe the time will soon be right to take the final step and go completely free of Google entanglements on both devices.

Note 2: Always check the LineageOS compatibility list before buying your next device.

Google developing a censored search engine for China,

Nuff said.

It was their first big mis-step, when they went against their motto "Don't Be Evil." And they regretted it.

For a while.

My August Gus III,

What exactly was Google's first big misstep? I ask, because Alphabet, the holding company that owns Google, dropped "Don't Be Evil" 2nd of October, 2015. If it, that big misstep, happened later than the creation date there was no regret.

As Always,

TxtEdMacs

In either 2004 or 2005, Google censored searches for "tiananmen square protests", at the behest of Beijing, an action Larry Page(?) later said the company never should have done.

This is a wild, unverified guess: I just do not see Page as the one likely to have regretted an immoral stance or action. Brin is the more likely person. Moreover, I remember an incident where Brin regretted something that Google had done. He, Brin, based his regret on his experiences / knowledge of the actions seen and known to have occurred in the former Soviet Union. So Brin would have preferred not to be seen as doing similar acts.

I will gladly accept derision should I be proved wrong. However, observing Page in charge of Google and Alphabet I doubt I will have to ever apologize.

As always, your buddy,

TxtEdMacs

Review: Google Chrome has become surveillance software. It’s time to switch.

Our latest privacy experiment found Chrome ushered more than 11,000 tracker cookies into our browser — in a single week. Here’s why Firefox is better.

https://www.siliconvalley.com/2019/06/21/google-chrome-has-b...

> Review: Google Chrome has become surveillance software. It’s time to switch.

Palemoon, Brave, Opera, Vilvadi, and I've really been liking what I've seen of Otter so far. There are lots of options.

How about Waterfox? Any opinion?

> How about Waterfox?

I've never tried it. Anyone else with pros or cons?

gus3,

>> How about Waterfox? Any opinion?

Sure, isn't that an Otter by another name?

You did say opinion ...

TxtEdMacs

> Sure, isn't that an Otter by another name?

I'd think that would be WaterWeasel or WaterFerret.

"Otters are carnivorous mammals in the subfamily Lutrinae ... Lutrinae is a branch of the weasel family Mustelidae, which also includes badgers, honey badgers, martens, minks, polecats, and wolverines."

Foxes are canines, members of the Canidae family.

Except for firefoxes...

jd,

Shame on you!

Don't confuse us with FACTS, when we adore opinion ... no matter how wrong.

As always,

TxtEdMacs

P.S. gus3 got it right.

> Except for firefoxes...

Correct. As I understand it, they're actually red pandas, a completely different species.

"The red panda is the only living species of the genus Ailurus and the family Ailuridae. It has been previously placed in the raccoon and bear families, but the results of phylogenetic analysis provide strong support for its taxonomic classification in its own family, Ailuridae, which is part of the superfamily Musteloidea, along with the weasel, raccoon and skunk families."

jd,

You had me going there, believing everything. You know facts, but I smelled something fishy. It was too good a story especially one that ends with a skunk. Now I saw it. After all it ends where the threads are tied together neatly:

Waterfox is just a drowned Skunk!

Your buddy,

TxtEdMacs

Google to block all anti-cancer, “anti-vax” and anti-GMO websites at the browser level as tech giant goes all-in with pharma drug cartels

https://www.naturalnews.com/2019-07-02-google-to-block-all-a...

@gus3

>It was their first big mis-step, when they went against their motto "Don't Be Evil." And they regretted it.

> For a while.

+1 !

All the way from "Don't Be Evil" to "Do MORE and MORE Evil!"

2c