[ttt_]

This will only get worse as Google progressively decides to plussify Chrome.

Out of all of Google's products, Chrome is the one that worries me the most. Using Chrome means that you just upped Google's reach on you by many fold, they now are running code directly tied to your machine and not within the constraints of a web page or app.

Are they invading your device privacy through Chrome? I dunno, probably not yet, but they can, and how long until they decide to? Given their history, specially their recent history, I don't plan on giving them the chance to do so.

[Produce]

It's funny how just a few years ago Google could seemingly do no wrong. The more I see of life, the more I agree with Stallman's fundamentalist perspective that all software should be free and open. It would prevent these abuses as anyone could just setup a search engine or web based document editor if they didn't like the way their provider was conducting business.

[Sindisil]

Yeah, I agree. In fact, I've recently switched back to FF as my primary browser.

The thing that pushed me over the edge was the way chrome insists I log in to my google account.

Granted, it doesn't force you to log in, but the version I recently installed on my Ubuntu based netbook kept popping up a dialog at launch, nagging me to do so. The options on the dialog were to log in or wait until later (no option for never).

I just looked now, and it appears that if I go in and manually disconnect my google account, it no longer bugs me. Hmm ... I could swear I tried that before switching back to FF.

[onemoreact]

The fact that Chrome added incognito window is a good sign, the fact that there is still no flash block is a bad one IMO. Honestly, I think gmail and search are probably more dangerous when it comes to privacy. People can track the information Chrome sends back to Google, but you have no idea what happens once your data is on their servers.

[Sindisil]

You can set Chrome to block all plugins. There's a context menu item to selectively run the plugin, and a white-list, as well.

Nice.

Still, I've recently switched back to FF as my primary, for other reasons.

[onemoreact]

Cool, thanks!

[thewordis]

They're adding 'click-to-play' as an option for plugins like flash in the default browser settings (no extension required) in version 18. It's allowed people to turn on the radio button using about:flags for more than a year.

Once enabled, go to wrench menu > Settings > Under the Bonnet > Advanced Settings > Privacy > Content Settings > Plug-ins