Firefox 117 Available With Local Automated Translation Support

[schmidtbag]

You are not getting it.

...

Yes you are right it totally depends on what X entails. Lets say its your medical record with your home address and phone number and everything else. Remember the way the built in translate in chrome works happens to end up sending almost complete web pages you might not have the URL but you can still work out its a medical record and the like. There is a need with online translation for particular sites not to be translated.

By that logic, you shouldn't be visiting the site at all, because those packets are being sent over the Internet, and those packets can be intercepted. I figure GT is using SSL, so there's still some encryption. But yes, if all the details about your medical record are being logged by Google, that would be highly unacceptable.

EU laws the law does not kick in when you publicizing personal information the law kicks in when you are storing personal information you should not have. The way the EU Data protection laws are written are not compatible with online translation of particular data.

Hence my comment about PII. I don't think Google could be that dumb.

[oiaohm]

By that logic, you shouldn't be visiting the site at all, because those packets are being sent over the Internet, and those packets can be intercepted. I figure GT is using SSL, so there's still some encryption. But yes, if all the details about your medical record are being logged by Google, that would be highly unacceptable.

Yes intecption is risk but that why sites SSL between you and them. Yes google translate uses SSL but that does not solve the problems.

https://github.com/ssut/py-googletrans/blob/master/googletrans/constants.py#L3:1

Do note all the country locations. EU records that should stay in the EU chrome can end up exporting if you are using google translate built into chrome.

Hence my comment about PII. I don't think Google could be that dumb.

Problem here

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/21/technology/google-europe-gdpr-fine.html

Google being that dumb before and got fined for it.
With huge volumes of data to be processed with different countries laws its comes really easy doing online translation to goof up.

The firefox route with a true local translation engine is the safer option all around.

Remember you said highly not acceptable if google does log your medical record. There are lots of cases where google or any party running a browser integrated on line translation can end up being sent data they should not and then end up due to diagnostics of issues and the like end up long term storing records they should not have.

Something to remember using full site translate inside chrome using google translate the URL has been stripped of this means google translate does not have the URL to go hang on this is coming from a location I should not be receiving data from due to country where the server is or due to what the data is.

[Luke]

Never assume the government can find you no matter what your security precautions: if THAT was true, all the posters of arson communiques over the Cop City project in Atlanta would have been caught. Instead, NONE have been caught and nobody has ever (as of 9-1-2023) been charged for one of the fires or for posting one of the communiques. Whatever you think of this project or of the resistance to it, what this proves is that serious computer counter-forensics can defeat a high priority, determined investigation with police and FBI involvement.

Also never assume you have "nothing to hide." The example of Dutch records of religion used by the Nazis after they took over is one example. Another is that Dobbs abortion case in the US: before May 2022, nobody in the world of Internet services seriously expected their data to be used to lock up women for abortion, but that has not happened. Facebook not Google was the culprit this time around, but since this was a warrant, Google would have cooperated too. Defense is not to let Meta or Google know who you are or what you are doing.

Google data BTW has sent a LOT of people to prison: many of the Jan 6 2021 US Capitol storming participants were found by geofence warrants to Google. The warrants sought all phone numbers etc that were logged into Google, had location sharing and location enabled, and were shown by GPS and/or "high precision" to be inside the US Capitol and not outside it. They then compared that to a list of all phone numbers expected to be inside the Capitol and got arrest warrants against the owners of all other phones on that list. Phone company tower data cannot tell being inside the Capitol from being on the Mall in front of the Capitol, possibly all the way to 3ed st NW. Those who did not have Google accounts, were not logged in, had location sharing off, or were on prepaid phones services with cash were never found except by other means.

That was the US Capitol, next time could be gender-affirming care. Abortion cases are somewhat less likely w Google as they claim to destroy all such information coming in from phones, but if the GOP takes the White House in 2025 a "national security letter" could change that with zero notice.

No matter WHO you are on the poliitical and economic spectrum, computer security and privacy directly affect your safety.

[Luke]

Google data BTW has sent a LOT of people to prison: the post Capitol storming geofence warrants are a well-known example.

[Luke]

Also if the government could find anyone regardless of security precautions, you would not see all those communiques for physical attacks on police stations/projects etc on anarchist websites posted over and over with nobody ever caught.

[yump]

For what it's worth: if you are signed into anything that is tied to Google or are visiting a site that is funded using Google ads, it doesn't matter if you're using FF with local translation: they're still tracking you.

With Ublock Origin in "moderate" mode, it is fairly simple to block connections to Google on a large fraction of non-Google domains. There are exceptions that require it, like Youtube embeds, but most pages don't have those.

your livelihood isn't threatened: they just want to target you with ads you may find relevant; you're nothing more than just a source of cash to them. Unless you have something to hide, I genuinely don't understand why people care so much. If you do have something to hide then shame on you: I hope you get caught.

Effective ad targeting is a threat to everyone's livelihood. We should be trying to hide as much as possible to stop bad actors like Google, Amazon, and Oracle from misdirecting our cash to low-value products.

If you work in adtech, I hope that when you are old and your mind starts to deteriorate, you are conned out of most of your life savings by a "medicare supplement insurance" provider.

[yump]

Never assume the government can find you no matter what your security precautions: if THAT was true, all the posters of arson communiques over the Cop City project in Atlanta would have been caught. Instead, NONE have been caught and nobody has ever (as of 9-1-2023) been charged for one of the fires or for posting one of the communiques. Whatever you think of this project or of the resistance to it, what this proves is that serious computer counter-forensics can defeat a high priority, determined investigation with police and FBI involvement.

Er, wait 4 days?

[Luke]

Er, wait 4 days?

Wrong: the website PUBLISHING the communiques is under attack. The charges in question are equivalent to prosecuting Youtube because someone posted a video there boasting about one of the fires. Some countries do that, but the US is not supposed to be one of them.

The grand jury is fishing with grenades for something that cannot be caught on hook and line.

[schmidtbag]

With Ublock Origin in "moderate" mode, it is fairly simple to block connections to Google on a large fraction of non-Google domains. There are exceptions that require it, like Youtube embeds, but most pages don't have those.

That implies you're not logged into anything. I'm curious how much you think you can get done (or would be willing to do) without signing into anything.

Effective ad targeting is a threat to everyone's livelihood. We should be trying to hide as much as possible to stop bad actors like Google, Amazon, and Oracle from misdirecting our cash to low-value products.

If the "threat" (strong word there) is advertising a sub-par product then you deserve what you get for buying impulsively and not doing your research.

If you work in adtech, I hope that when you are old and your mind starts to deteriorate, you are conned out of most of your life savings by a "medicare supplement insurance" provider.

I don't, but I understand people need to make a living, and ads aren't inherently evil. It isn't realistic for companies like Google or Amazon to triage the legitimacy of the ads they produce, to an extent anyway. There are all sorts of methods to work around such things.

[Luke]

That implies you're not logged into anything. I'm curious how much you think you can get done (or would be willing to do) without signing into anything.

If the "threat" (strong word there) is advertising a sub-par product then you deserve what you get for buying impulsively and not doing your research.

I don't, but I understand people need to make a living, and ads aren't inherently evil. It isn't realistic for companies like Google or Amazon to triage the legitimacy of the ads they produce, to an extent anyway. There are all sorts of methods to work around such things.

You can do a hell of a lot not only without being logged into anything, but without having a Google, Amazon, or Facebook account at all. If you do have those, you should clear all history before logging into one, do what you need to do while doing nothing else, log out, and clear all history again before doing anything else. Also, Firefox offers containers that can be used to isolate sites like Google and especially Facebook. Note that if you isolate these you cannot of course use them to log into anything else, but that is a bad practice anyway due both to tracking and the consequences of a hijacked account.