Stop! What browser are you using? Is it Chrome? Firefox? Something else like Arc, Brave, or Edge? Only one of these browsers is NOT Chromium-based (it’s Firefox). For a lot of people, that doesn’t matter, but if you care about privacy, keep on reading!
Why do people choose Chromium?
A lot of people (especially developers) love Chromium. This is because it’s open-source technology. Not only does this make it easier to develop so many new browsers, but it also inspires a false sense of security because anyone can see what’s going on under the hood. So what’s the big deal? Well, who owns Chromium, exactly? Google. This leads us to…
They have an online monopoly of (your) data.
Since so many browsers these days use Chromium as a base — and Google owns Chromium — a lot of your data is being parsed and stored by… you guessed it, Google. That can mean any key you press on your keyboard or any metrics on how you use the internet. You are the product.
In the long run (probably already by now, honestly), this leaves one company with a monopoly on internet access. There are already so few competitors left when it comes to browsers. The more this monopoly grows the harder it’ll be for new technologies to emerge. This is counterintuitive to creativity, freedom, and innovation on all fronts.
What about your Average Joe?
In simple terms, if one company has a reign over how everyone uses the internet — it’s bad. A lot of people don’t look under the hood, though. Why should your average user care? “I don’t do anything worth tracking,” they might say. Maybe. Sure. Well, we’re already starting to see some of the negative effects coming to the real world.
Since (almost) everything these days is Chromium-based, that’s a pretty tasty plug for advertisers. What’s the first thing people usually install on their browser? An adblocker. But if Google owns Chromium and Chromium is everywhere, they can control that too! And they’re going to — soon. Google is planning to introduce Manifest v3, new software within Chromium-based browsers that will break a lot of advertisement blockers (adblockers). You’ll soon have either less of, none, or no FREE choice in whether or not you consume ads while using the internet. This is just one of many changes that you can avoid by… switching to Firefox! :)
Should you switch browsers?
What can you do in the current climate? Switch browsers. Vote with numbers. The more support developers who aren’t using Chromium-based browsers get, the more space there will be for change. There are PLENTY of other open-source libraries that can be added to any non-Chromium browser. One that’s pretty popular is called user.js. It adds a bunch of security to your local Firefox browser out of the box. Want to customize Firefox so it looks and works like Arc? Try sidebery. Or… just plain ol’ Firefox will do. Safari even. Education is one of the only ways we can empower strangers. Keep your data safe, and keep the internet a free place.
Ok, it looks interesting and I don’t see any comments here, it seems I’m the first (I still don’t know if I’ll be the last) I can even agree with you but…when you suggest not using google and chromium based browsers, why you use google tag manager. How much more private is visiting with a non-chrome browser on a site with GTM in