It's up to you, but for now I recommend DISABLING Google's new Chrome
"real-time, privacy-preserving URL protection".
I'm getting a lot of questions about this, and I simply don't have
time right now to write this up in depth. So this will have to be
short (at least by my standards).
Google is implementing by default in Chrome a new system to expand
their detection of unsafe sites, via a complicated new real-time
system that sends hashes of URLs to a third-party, non-Google firm.
The details are in:
https://security.googleblog.com/2024/03/blog-post.html
Google's goal is laudable, but though it would probably be unfair of
me to call this system "Rube Goldberg-ish", it is definitely very far
from trivial.
I am in particular concerned about the ramifications of Chrome users
being connected by default to a completely non-Google entity to which
they are sending data, no matter how obfuscated that data may be.
While Google seems to be asserting that by creating a three-party
system (user, Google, outside firm) privacy is enhanced -- and this
would appear to be true in theory -- the possibilities for
interference by government or other entities seems increased with each
new player in the process. Also, users are now dealing with an
additional set of policies (and legal departments), that of Google and
that of the third party. Nor (as far as I know) has the contractual
basis of the relationship between Google and this third party been
made public.
There may be nothing at all wrong with this arrangement. But frankly,
the introduction of a third party and other aspects of this system
have raised a caution warning for me, especially when this is enabled
by default.
So my recommendation for now is to turn off this feature, until
significantly more is known about it in the respects I've mentioned
above and others. This is completely up to you of course. You may wish
to keep the Google default that uses this system and have the
additional protection, and may not be at all concerned about the other
issues I've mentioned. Absolutely your choice.
I do invite Google to contact me with more information about these
issues if they wish to do so. -L
- - -
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
[email protected] (https://www.vortex.com/lauren)
Lauren's Blog: https://lauren.vortex.com
Mastodon: https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/@lauren
Founder: Network Neutrality Squad: https://www.nnsquad.org
PRIVACY Forum: https://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
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