Microsoft Edge may create automatic tab groups using AI, but using the feature has serious privacy implications.

The main idea behind it is to improve the creation of tab groups for the user. The process is automated when the feature is used, which means that you do not have to create tab groups manually anymore and put tabs into them.

Edge sends information about all open websites to a Microsoft server when the option is selected. The AI processes the request then on the server and returns its suggestions after a moment.

While the automatic tab group creation features of Edge and Chrome look useful, privacy conscious users may want to skip those and create tab groups manually instead.

Having your entire list of open websites submitted to a company server without really knowing what is done with it and how it is stored outweighs the convenience of the feature.

Yeah… I went Apple to get away from Google, but now I’m looking at de-googled android options

Pretty shit all around. Almost like millions of wealthy and powerful people don’t want anybody to have private and secure phones.

I switched from MIUI (xiaomi android) to LineageOS a month ago now and my experience has only been better. There’s no google, it’s way less bloated compared to MIUI or any stock android so I think it’s actually faster. Though I must say that while it increases your privacy, it decreases the security of your phone because of having an unlocked bootloader but that’s mostly a concern for a threat having physical access to your device, and that’s something I’ve accepted. If you have or get a pixel phone then you can install GrapheneOS which is also very much secure while being google-free and high-privacy. I can’t buy a pixel so I’m with LineageOS right now. I highly recommend it, compared to Apple.

KptnAutismus
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the Fairphone 4 is supposed to work well without google, open camera even has access to the wide angle camera.

LineageOS, /e/OS, and ubuntu mobile seem to be popular options.

but of course everything google won’t work. that means almost all playstore apps as well. what a lame dystopia this is.

You can still get play store apps, if you must, on a de-googled phone using Aurora Store. You can bypass the safetynet attestation as well with some methods (used by things like banking apps). I’ve been using a google-free phone for a month now and after switching I reinstalled the apps I used the most (mostly through F-Droid), and then I created a separate profile solely for installing apps from Google Play (still through Aurora Store). It works well for me, I haven’t had a single issue. Maybe because I really only get 3-4 apps from Google Play, the rest is F-Droid.

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that’s awesome to hear, my library of play store apps is still quite large and includes a number of games, which likely rely on google services.

once it becomes possible without missing out on much, i’ll switch for sure. i will do the same with linux btw.

for now, i’ll have to wait for the EU to pass more privacy laws.

a number of games, which likely rely on google services.

For ads, mostly. The vew i tried, one didn’t let you select start because of a bug with a missing ad frame (imagine!). The 4 or 5 others ran fine. Might look different with the 90% of games who want to rip ypu off. Payment ingame might rely on Google Services too.

I understand the Android/Google Services part, but you wouldn’t be losing much if anything with a just-works Linux distro. I switched to Linux from Windows way before de-googling. Before switching it seems like it’ll be a very hard thing to do. Getting replacements for your Windows programs to run on Linux (you can run Windows programs on Linux with Wine by the way, I even got a Microsoft game running), get used to the whole operating system etc. But it hasn’t been bad for me. I really really recommend just downloading Linux Mint (just a recommendation for coming from Windows. You can get any other just works distro. I started with Debian), putting it on a USB and just testing it out in the live environment. Then if you have a spare hard disk or ssd, you can dualboot it with Windows. That’s how I got into it, I deleted Windows after a few months and used the now free hard disk as an encrypted volume. I haven’t missed Windows at all, and I still do not. I’m glad that I’m not using some closed-source, data collector corporation owned software for my operating system, I hope you have success in this area.!

Same.

Even for gaming, switching all my desktops to Linux was a breeze.

It’s mobile im struggling with

KptnAutismus
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i do already dual boot mint cinnamon edition on my computer, whenever i’m curious i’ll try to run a certain application. and most of the time it’ll work just fine.

i have problems with gaming, mostly. there was a time where fusion360 didn’t work vecause it required edge for login, but i believe it’s been patched.

i use a Trustmaster T300, a stream deck (which is “compatible”), and play some online games with anticheat. i get that there’s a runtime for battleye and easy anti-cheat alteady, but it’s (to my knowledge) impossible to play fortnite.

if i ever bought a laptop, i would install linux no problem. but my use case is in the very early stages of even being possible. believe me, i WANT to use linux. i just don’t want to create too much work passing through usb devices to a VM or rebooting just to play beam.ng.

Yeah, I think you can’t play online games with kernel-level anticheat on your PC… I remember trying to get valorant to work before I realized that :\ I guess it was easier for me as i didn’t use to play many multiplayer games other than valorant anyway… So, I guess we just have to wait for developers to support Linux.

Might be a good opportunity to drop some toxic games at the same time

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