I came across this article, which seems to imply that Chrome has a hidden tracking feature built-in. Why doesn't this surprise me? The problem is that it's probably also built into Chromium itself, which also affects Edge, Brave and Vivaldi. https://borncity.com/win/2024/07/13/user-identification-via-chromium-browser-chrome-edge-brave/
It doesn't seem to be there in Edge. My guess is that it is possible to disable it with this policy: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/deployedge/microsoft-edge-policies#extensioninstallblocklist P.S. I tried out of curiosity to set the policy with that ID.
Performed a new test: https://simonwillison.net/2024/Jul/9/hangout_servicesthunkjs/ Without result: https://imgur.com/WVsYHlf The extension ID blocking policy is not needed. I also ran a search for each manifest.json files with negative results. So the author of the article is wrong to write that Edge has this extension hidden.
Until October 2023 I could easily have made this verification. I would have assigned the verification to a colleague or student. Now that I am retired, unfortunately not. I have not installed,and do not want to install the browsers you mentioned. However a thorough verification is easy. You can physically search your pc for any Manifest file and verify that there are no extensions with that ID Code: browser name://serviceworker-internals/ (this is the test to trust the least) Copy/paste into DevTools console the code I showed in the article and image.
OK I see, no problem. But I'm a bit surprised, I thought you liked to test all kinds of apps, that's why I asked. But I will certainly check if I can find this hidden extension in Vivaldi.
BTW, turns out that you can disable the Google Meets extension in Vivaldi, I have always done this. Vivaldi made a post about this, see link. https://social.vivaldi.net/@Vivaldi/112761583314954575
I've always wondered... if when you install a browser (pretty much any browser) it offers to import any bookmarks and credentials form an already installed browser. What is to stop that same browser from taking that info and uploading it to... pretty much anywhere? I've not researched it, at least not yet. I'll assume it can't be done but I can't think of a reason why it couldn't be.
No correct, it's a big problem indeed. So make sure that you fully trust your browser, that's why I chose Vivaldi. I assume they don't upload my bookmarks and passwords and they don't track all websites that I visit. But the problem is that those files are freely accessible by any app. And the biggest problem is that the browser passwords can be easily decrypted. So that's why I have chosen to protect by browser profile folder with a tool like Secure Folders, so that only trusted apps can access them. And of course you should use 2FA on the most important online accounts.
