Ugh. I spent a long time writing a message and then accidentally deleted it.
I can't afford the time it would take to fully reconstruct it, so this will
not be the full response that many of your points deserve.
The forum is mirrored to a mailing list which you can join here:
https://listas.trisquel.info/mailman/listinfo/
I understand that the forum is being reworked. In the meantime, to ensure
that forum posts are readable for mailing list users, avoid relying on html
for coherence and update your comments by replying to them instead of editing
them.
If you want to start a thread that will be of interest to people here but
that you are afraid is too far off-topic from Trisquel, the Troll Lounge is
good for meaningful but off-topic discussions.
Although Tor Browser is as libre as Firefox and more so than Chromium, the
reason I use is for privacy. I agree that we *shouldn't* need anonymity to
protect our privacy, but right now we do. If Tor Browser sends the same data
Firefox does and it is either deanonymizing or not sent through the Tor
network then that is a serious bug. (If you find that this is the case, I'm
sure it can be addressed if you report it here:
https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor) However, if the data is not
identifying and is sent through the Tor network than it is irrelevant as far
as privacy is concerned, eliminating Chromium's advantage on this one point.
When it comes to other potential privacy issies, I see Chromium as far more
risky than Tor Browser. In many situations on the internet the only way to
protect your privacy is to avoid them entirely, or engage with them
anonymously. The former option is crippling, and more isolating than the
latter. Outside the context of the issue you are testing among browsers,
Google and Chromium have a far worse track record than Mozilla and Firefox,
and while Tor developers have an incentive to find and fix privacy issues
from Firefox, Chromium developers have an incentive to create as many privacy
issues as they can get away with and only have an incentive to remove them
after they get caught and if there is enough outrage. Unless Firefox has an
extraordinarily massive flaw we are unaware of that cannot be fixed in Tor
Browser, the hypothetical privacy gained from switching to Chromium, assuming
it is better overall than Firefox in situations outside of the one you are
testing, is far less than the actual privacy lost by failing to protect my
privacy from many parties, not just Google and Mozilla, with anonymity.
I understand your point about this not being a long-term solution. Many of
your points are about identifying things that are not long-term solutions,
and that is valuable because without long-term planning the good guys have no
chance of winning. However, if the bad guys win anyway then all that will
have mattered is mitigation of the harm to our lives, our communities, and
the people we care about, so I do not consider mitigating actions petty. We
have to do both.
As you point out, the best long term solutions are those that replace
important but harmful technologies, rather than isolate ourselves from them.
Just as important as the new technologies is a path toward transitioning from
the old technologies. I see Denver Gingerich's work with JMP and WOM to be a
very promising plan. It is already possible to use JMP to send and receive
texts and calls without a SIM card. No need to choose between isolating
yourself and being tracked. Having integrated with the cell network, the next
steps are to create advantages to using JMP over connecting the cell network
directly, and finally replace it. Good old EEE. Thanks Micro$oft. Diaspora
takes a similar approach with respect to Facebook, but I am more skeptical of
it. I have some ideas about ethical and pracical social media that I am still
organizing and are outside the scope of this thread.
As for JavaScript, you are right to avoid it when you can. However, no
individual can review every line of code in all software they use, whether
it's JS for a disposable email address or the Linux kernel. JavaScript is
unique in that many people install JavaScript programs everyday with out
knowing it (hence my suggestion for how browsers could better frame the issue
for uninformed users), but if you are as cautious about installing software
written in JavaScript as you are with any other software it is no worse than
C or Python. This is a good essay that probably won't tell you anything you
don't already know about the problem but has some good insight as to possible
solutions: https://onpon4.github.io/other/kill-js
> even with the risk of my scepticism being considered close to insanity :)
You aren't insane. The world is. That said, don't let perfect be the enemy of
the less-awful-option-until-we-maybe-solve-the-problem-for-real-one-day.
I didn't touch the capitalism stuff because at some point thread has to start
winding down. :) I'm really interested to hear your results with Tor Browser,
and I really apprecitate the time and energy you're putting into this. As for
some of the other issues we've touched on, they might be better explored in
new threads. I look forward to hearing more from you in this forum.
