Jul 18 2019 10:33 PM
I'm seeing a lot of people who don't see it as a negative and it concerns me. I don't want to use anything that's tied into their services by default or that wouldn't prompt me before letting Google access something.
To me, Edge not being tied into Google accounts or syncing data with them by default is a good thing, and I've seen it described as a bug rather than a feature. In general, I really don't want extensions to be accessing Google services, or at the very least to give a warning that they do require them. I think the use of such things really ought to be discouraged because the practice only helps Google and hurts their competitors.
Would it be possible to make sure that, if it has to be implemented, there's a way to turn that feature off or make it prompt for permission rather than just have things silently work with Google services?
Jul 18 2019 11:55 PM
@athenian200 I totally agree. Unfortunately, I had to install some of googles extensions to keep up with my everyday surf. eventually, the developers will write for both once dev is released I hope.
Mitch
Jul 19 2019 08:05 AM
Jul 19 2019 08:18 AM
Edge doesn't use Google services; they ripped most if not all of them out. As for third party extensions, that's not something the Edge team can control one way or the other.
Jul 19 2019 08:51 AM
Jul 19 2019 10:44 AM
Jul 19 2019 11:48 AM
I didn't say they had to totally block the extensions, but some of the "issues" people are complaining about could only be solved by letting people sign in with a Google Account on Edge itself, because some of the extensions rely on a Google Account to sign in or sync data. I think there is a line between openness and totally bending the knee to Google to such an extent that Edge can't protect their users from Google at all because they're entirely dependent on Google's cooperation to keep everything working smoothly.
I'm saying if an extension does use Google services, maybe there could at least be a unique warning about that each time you install such an extension and you have to explicitly give it permission. And there could be an option to toggle as to whether those services should be trusted or not. I really don't want to see Google's services treated as "trusted" by default like they are on Chrome. Maybe the user doesn't know whether the third-party extension they just installed sends data to Google or not (some don't and some do, regardless of origin), and I think it's something they have a right to be warned about if they're not using Chrome.
A lot of people who would use Edge, Firefox, or any alternative browser are avoiding Chrome for a reason, and playing too nicely with Google would take a big part of that reason away.