When Privacy is Your Thing

Story: ReKonq Gaining Chrome Extension Support, Still Sponsored By Blue SystemsTotal Replies: 4
Author Content
Fettoosh

May 23, 2013
10:41 AM EDT
... And you like Google Chrome functionality and features, Rekonq is the browser for you.

Quoting:It’s unclear to us how many KDE users prefer ReKonq over Firefox or Chrome but I would assume that it’s not an army.


Rekonq is still not widely known enough. There hasn't been much talk about it because until recently, it was still lacking quite a bit in functionality and features for most users to make it their default or favorite. Besides, initially it wasn't being installed by default but now it is. I have been checking it periodically and it is at a stage where I can use it instead of Google Chrome.

Having the capability to support Chrome extension could be a real boon and might encourage many users who appreciate privacy to adopt it.

Edited: One word about Blue Systems: It is the commercial company which supports FOSS projects that Canonical/Ubuntu was supposed to be as stated in its original advertised goals.

notbob

May 23, 2013
3:56 PM EDT
> Having the capability to support Chrome extension could be a real boon

I'm sorry, but I fail to understand how having google anything supports privacy in any way, shape, or form. Google's entire raison d'etre is to gather information about users. You think any of their "extensions" are going to let a user pass untouched? Unscathed? Undrained of every single iota of obtainable data it can possibly detect?

Mama notbob never raised such a foolish child.
Fettoosh

May 23, 2013
4:44 PM EDT
Quoting:I'm sorry, but I fail to understand how having google anything supports privacy in any way...


@Nobob,

First off, I believe, but not sure, that the browser is what eventually sends the data back to mother-ship, and Rekonq doesn't do that.

2nd, every extension I have used, before it gets added, does tell/inform the users if it does collect data and offers the user the chance not to add it.

3rd, Rekonq support might not be just in the form of adding extension code but probably just creating their own with similar functionality.

I wonder how Chromium does it?

CFWhitman

May 23, 2013
5:31 PM EDT
Just because Google created the plug in architecture that the extensions are based on doesn't mean that extensions have to communicate with Google in any way.

Extensions aren't universally written by Google, so there's no reason to believe that the ones that aren't written by Google (I believe most of them aren't) would send any information to Google. So if the browser doesn't send information to Google, and the extensions you select don't send information to Google, I don't see the problem. It's all open source software, they can't really hide anything in it.
notbob

May 23, 2013
7:02 PM EDT
"Scraper is a simple data mining extension for Google Chrome™"

"Amazon and other sites can get your browsing behavior from Google when a particular Chrome extension is installed. "

Jes a couple.

Most web pages one visits have google analytic scripts, which I keep at bay with noscript. No cookies, no scripts, no extensions. Jes because it's open source doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Like most computer users, I'm no coder. I can no more locate/change data mining code in google extensions than I can flap my arms and fly to the moon. But, I have no doubt whatsoever that google is doing data mining and I try to keep informed on how to foil it. Avoiding using google for anything other than what I absolutely need to is how I deal with the problem. I damn sure don't use google's chrome browser or any of its extensions, many of which are geared to run with google cloud apps. IOW, the user is sending the data to google, voluntarily!! Here!! Log my every breath! IMO, that's jes plain foolish.

Am I paranoid? Yer damn right I am. Often, I think I'm not paranoid enough.

As with most things, you are free to believe and do as you choose. ;)

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