Comment by asuffield | Hacker News Reader

Comment by asuffield | Hacker News Reader

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(Tedious disclaimer: not speaking for anybody else, my opinion only, etc. I'm an SRE at Google.)

> All phones comes preloaded with Google Chrome

That's not true. There's still a fair bit of Android Browser out there - it's up to the OEM whether they ship Chrome or their own customised version of Android Browser.

> (apart from sending your every keystroke to the mothership)

I don't believe you. Here's the source, show me where it does this: https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src.git

Here's the privacy policy, which explains what it actually sends: https://www.google.co.uk/chrome/browser/privacy/

(Perhaps you're thinking of the instant search feature? That's quite a long way from "every keystroke", and the page above explains how to turn it off if you don't like it.)

I believe the parent is referring to the URL/search bar, which does pass along every key stroke to Google. This is for purposes of search suggestions/autocomplete. Unfortunately, since search and URL are combined into a single bar on desktop Google Chrome, that means that every URL you type is passed along to Google, including some you may not want to be passed along. As Firefox has a separate URL and search box, it doesn't have the same issue. On mobile, it's a bit of a different story since there is only one bar for Firefox and it has the option to pass every keystroke along to your preferred search provider for suggestion/autocomplete purposes. I can't recall if it is on or off by default, though. I have it on on Firefox on Android.

> can't recall if it is on or off by default, though. I have it on on Firefox on Android.

It's Firefox. It's your privacy. It's off until explicitly enabled.

That is the link for the source to Chromium. Chrome (on desktop and mobile) is a different product, derived from Chromium.

> I don't believe you. Here's the source, show me where it does this

You're wasting your breath. This thread is littered with people uncritically repeating that assertion. It's officially graduated from "fact" to "article of faith among the cynical and ignorant".

She's did not link to the source for Chrome. She linked to the source for Chromium. Chrome is a closed source browser based upon the open source Chromium code.

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