[markawesome]

God, people are so quick to jump on the Google-hate train and then advocate for a politicized justice department to hop in and somehow make everything better. Mozilla is just as guilty as Google. Mozilla has Firefox sync and Chrome has its own sync. This is basically to stop clearing browser data from automatically disabling sync, which most people would want. There are a plethora of third-party tools that allow you to clear your browser data completely if you want. There is nothing stopping you from using them, and you'd also be surprised how much you can do (including disabling Google Sync) from a simple policy file.

Stop waiting on your government to fix things because they aren't going to. If you want to fix things, then build your own tools to abstract syncing, bookmarks, and other features from the browser. They exist, whether you've ever taken the time to look or not. Somehow it is easier though for people to simply say... The government will fix it for me, rather than fixing things yourself.

[mthoms]

The author posted elsewhere in this thread that they were signed out of Google entirely. So sync was disabled.

>Mozilla is just as guilty as Google.

Since Mozilla doesn't do anything similar when not signed into their sync service, this is plainly false.

>If you want to fix things, then build your own tools to abstract syncing, bookmarks, and other features from the browser. They exist, whether you've ever taken the time to look or not.

If you're not highly technical, you're not entitled to privacy?

>Somehow it is easier though for people to simply say... The government will fix it for me, rather than fixing things yourself.

It's simple. Some of us believe that a base level of privacy is a human right. And the only entities capable of facilitating those human rights are governments.

[markawesome]

> The author posted elsewhere in this thread that they were signed out of Google entirely. So sync was disabled.

I once had an issue similar to this, and it turned out to be an issue with my profile. Once I manually deleted the site data the problem didn't come back. They admit that this may be a bug and I wouldn't be surprised to find out it is, but regardless there are plenty of other options including ephemeral profiles that you can use by setting a policy. If they aren't signed into sync, then I also suggest they disable syncing from the settings and the policy as well.

> Since Mozilla doesn't do anything similar when not signed into their sync service, this is plainly false.

They _just_ install Pocket and a bunch of other unrelated services and send your DNS queries to third-parties, as well as opting you into recommendations and telemetry.

> If you're not highly technical, you're not entitled to privacy?

You don't have to be highly technical. There are a lot of options for Google accounts to disable ad personalization, history, third-party access, etc. In fact, I find it much easier than almost every other company I come across. The documentation is easy to follow and is so easy my kids could do it. I'm all for privacy, but at the same time the rules need to be applied equally to all companies. Just attacking Google isn't going to fix the issue, in fact it will make it worse by giving a politicized government the ability to go after anyone that they feel doesn't represent their political goals.

> It's simple. Some of us believe that a base level of privacy is a human right. And the only entities capable of facilitating those human rights are governments.

We don't live in a socialist society that believes that humans have fundamental rights to basic necessities. I'm all for privacy being a human right, but shouldn't housing, healthcare, etc also be human rights? Google gives a lot away for free. Until we start addressing other issues, privacy as a human right will never be on the table and when it happens you can't just apply the rules to one or two companies. It has to be equal.

[mthoms]

I honestly don't know how to debate someone who would equate the privacy invasions of Google with Mozilla. You say in one comment that "there are a plethora of third-party tools that allow you to clear your browser data [...] you'd also be surprised how much you can do [...] from a simple policy file." and in the very next comment insist that "it's easy!".

Lastly, your suggestion that we shouldn't enshrine privacy in law because we haven't enshrined other important things is nonsense. As you well know, enshrining privacy in law would cost the taxpayer $0 while the others you mentioned would literally cost trillions.

Not a very convincing argument.

[vehemenz]

Mozilla does not have other websites and an advertising platform tied to your browser history, and bookmarks. Firefox Sync is basically a standalone service.

Pretty big difference.