Actually there is a custom filter for uBlock Origin for that:

https://github.com/DandelionSprout/adfilt/blob/master/LegitimateURLShortener.txt

You add this as a custom filter to uBlock, and it does all the URL cleaning without needing an extra extension.

Aye aye.

Patrick Stewart and Jason Statham, among my favorites, show you can look gorgeous with a nice trimmed dome.

No, I can assure you of my good faith. I wish I could assume the same.

Your playing semantics. Both sandboxed google play and micro g are ways to get around Google Play services but only GOS implementation actually solves the main privacy issue.

You wrote security wrong. Your phone will be leaking more data, but reduce the attack surface and have better compatibility. Which is an OK choice.

The reason I mentioned aurora is because a lot of user install micro g so they can use the play store as it requires play services or a substitution. This was obvious in context.

It was really not obvious, mainly because it’s an entirely nonsensical thing to do, so why would I assume that? As far as I can tell this is also materially not possible in /e/OS or CalyxOS. Maybe it’s possible in Lineage, but why would anyone do that?

Plugins and extensions are not the same thing.

There about a gazillion background services in your phone right now having privileged access. Have you taken a look at those? Do you know what they do?

MicroG does not give you access to the play store. Like, not at all. If you think Aurora store is a replacement for microG or Google Play Services you have no idea what you’re talking about.

The reason why Google Play Services is such a privacy nightmare is that it’s malicious, and it’s privileged.

The recent revelation of how Yandex/Facebook were tracking us through anonymous sessions shows just how much damage can be done with unprivileged apps.

Unlike Play Services, MicroG will do only what it has to (or nothing, if you decide to forgo using all google services). While doing so, it will still minimize the data sent, and spoof what it can to reduce fingerprinting.

As far as I can tell, MicroG seems to be reasonably well trusted. All objections I could find to MicroG are either based on principle, like yours, or on FUD. I have yet to find any mention of actual issues with MicroG.

Yes, it’s privileged, and if you reduce the issue of running privileged code an issue of trust, either microG is about as trustworthy as your android ROM (which runs a lot of privileged code on your device). You ROM, minus a few patches, come 99% from Google after all, but you place a lot of trust in the GOS team to sanitize and patch that up. It’s OK, I don’t disagree.

So once we establish that MicroG is not malicious, running it privileged may be less than optimal, but it’s only an issue in terms of attack surface.

Which is not nothing.

With all this being said, I expect that the threat model that regard as an obvious advantage running know malicious code, though unprivileged, over non-malicious privileged code, are going to be few and far between.

Claiming that literally installing Google Play, though sandboxed, gives massively better privacy than MicroG is a pretty wild claim.

What? Your phone came with Facebook in the system image?

They call it “affluenza”

You could argue both ways.

On the one hand, it is of course a very good thing to use all parts of the animal you killed to the largest possible extent.

I mean, imagine killing an animal for food and then even only using the tastiest bits and throwing away the rest?

On the other hand, of course, having a market for these “waste products” potentially acts as a subsidy for the meat itself, encouraging its consumption.

They would put their granny’s home address and SSN in the headers if it made a page load 10ms faster.

Have they ever considered that pages would load faster if they didn’t include 20MB of JavaScript?

Banking app: “Oh no, your device does not conform to Google’s latest whim, terribly insecure, can’t let you make a SEPA.”

Baking website: “Opera on an outdated, pirated copy of Windows? Looks a-ok to me!”

Unironically, 7zip is the best. It’s widely available, open source, and… Multithreaded. Really helps when I need to compress a few hundred gigs of experimental data at the 24 core workstation.

Yes, they help make my terminal prettier.

I’m 14 and this is deep.

Overall though, people obey them and roads are safer as a result.

Ooh boy, you clearly have never driven in Italy.

Oh, sweet summer child…

Of course you can introduce all kinds of serialization and parts pairing just like you do on any other device. Below is a fairly mild example, but just look at all the bullshit John Deere is pulling on their tractor repair or the BMW where the car will intentionally malfunction if you don’t replace your battery at a dealership.

https://carnewschina.com/2024/08/08/xiaomi-su7-cannot-do-ota-due-to-changed-lights-and-owners-worry-about-flooding-their-frunk/

Magic Earth has traffic data.

HereWeGo has traffic data and even has public transport and restaurant reviews (from TripAdvisor). It does collect some data but (1) at least it’s not Google and (2) it’s Dutch so they have to go by the GDPR.

Yeah, but in many kinds of applications you simply can’t easily build a file that seamlessly combines documentation and content.

When it’s possible, it’s truly the most awesome way to implement a tutorial.

The Inkscape tutorials are included in Inkscape’s standard help menu and particularly cool… Because they’re actually all Inkscape documents.

So when the tutorial can just tell you to click and rotate the rectangle just below and you can just do that.

That’s pretty neat, and it’s a pity that it just isn’t possible or as easy in other kinds of programs.