It’s an older interview, but I like to bring this up whenever Kaspersky comes up as a topic:
If you had the power to change up to three things in the world today that are related to IT security, what would they be?
Internet design–that’s enough.
That’s it? What’s wrong with the design of the Internet?
There’s anonymity. Everyone should and must have an identification, or Internet passport. The Internet was designed not for public use, but for American scientists and the U.S. military. That was just a limited group of people–hundreds, or maybe thousands. Then it was introduced to the public and it was wrong…to introduce it in the same way.
Yeah, I sure as shit wouldn’t use the internet if it wasn’t anonymous, seems like a weird thing to want when people are more concerned for their privacy then ever before.
Honestly a good change. Defaults should be handled by the OS. If a software wants to be your default, it should ask the OS to present the selection screen and allow the user to choose the option.
As long as that applies to all browsers equally. I don’t know the current state of things but if I remember correctly, Firefox already circumvented the earlier default protection method, because Microsoft made it so that their own Edge browser didn’t require those extra steps that were forced upon all other browsers.
After reading the article it seems likely this is still the case. They said operating system links still open in edge even when you have another browser configured, so Microsoft is still putting Edge in a privileged position. I guess we just have to wait and see how privileged it ends up being.
From what I hear Edge is so privileged you can’t remove it… well, you kinda just can’t remove it… but even if you can circumvent that the system starts fucking up because it needs it for those OS links.
Yeah, this is a ragebait headline (and I'll admit that it caught me). This is actually in line with what you see on Android and most Linux distros. It's also likely that Microsoft doesn't want you to easily change from Edge, but still. This is better than allowing an application to silently change which applications open things on your computer.
Unless the OS screen adds tons of clicks and popups to click though to change the default. Not to mention its kind of funny how easy it is to switch back to Edge. This is a anti competitive feature pretending to be a security feature.
man i remember doing that once. it basically tells the user: we can force you to waste your time. keep that in mind next time you want to exert free choice. end of story: told my boss i demand using Linux, he said ok. I’m happy now fellow pingus 🐧
Here the funny part, google knew this shit would happen. How you ask? Well, see google has had this problem for a long time.
When google first came out, there was all sorts of techniques you could use to boost your PageRank. Google had to tweak and tweak and tweak to fix it so that nazi sites would not come up when you looked up Jewish holocaust memorial museums for example.
Seems they’ve learned nothing. And yet they’re still one of the biggest tech companies in the world.
The 90's mentality of "Everyone on an Internet is a predator out to rob you or worse" left a mark on me-
I always use a fake name and innocuous, random profile pic if possible.
These daus you're still screwed if someone's that determined, but at least screw the corporations like this.
I never liked the normalization of sharing real names online. I always received weird looks for not doing this. The furthest I could do was using an initial.
Yeah, but $10 a month is a lot. And the $5 plan for only 300 searches a month goes by really fast if you have to do any kind of research for anything. Even for trying to figure out what brand of something to buy, you blow through those searches super quick.
maybe $1. That’s way more than the ad revenue search engines get
And where did you come up with this info? Source? Do you really think that search engine ad revenue (for the engine itself, not what one measly advertiser gets back) tops out at “way below” $1 per person?
That “search and other” figure includes revenue generated on Google’s search properties, along with ads on other Google-owned properties like Gmail, Maps and the Google Play app store.
As you said, it’s hard to calculate an exact number. But if you think your search results are only worth $1/month, that’s up to you to determine. I know if I was an ad-broker or profiler, I’d pay more than $1/month/person as that’s valuable information, in my opinion. And Kagi is worth much more than that to me. Proton theorizes:
If Google Search market share is also 90% in the US, that’s over 274 million people using Google, and the company earns $393 per year from each of them.
They’ve said that it costs them 1.5 cents to answer a search query, so that dollar a month wouldn’t go very far. I probably incidentally run 40-50 searches a day between my devices… $10 is a value that works for me.
I’ve been using Kagi as my default since June, and don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.
That sounds unlikely… But they’re a small search provider with a small customer base, so costs will be high maintaining all the infrastructure needed.
As I linked elsewhere, Bing makes ~$10 per user per year. That’s really close to my $1/month figure. And that’s revenue, which doesn’t count advertiser acquisition costs and whatnot.
I’m unwilling to pay $5/month for limited searches, but I’m willing to pay for search if it’s reasonable.
That doesn’t mean the price has to be the same as a fucking Netflix subscription.
Which service uses more computation? Streaming HQ video to millions of people, or running a search engine. Keep in mind, search engines have existed since basically before the internet in some form or another…
Well, it costs Kagi about 1.5 cents to answer a search query. Consider how many searches you use in a month to determine how much they’re making off you at $10/mo.
I’m lucky enough to be in a position to be able to pay for products that I use, instead of relying on freemium, or ad-supported, or data-mined, or pirated products. That hasn’t always been the case for me, so I don’t judge anyone for making a different choice.
If they’re taking in less than 1000 searches of money for 3000 searches, the numbers still aren’t adding up. Someone is misinformed or the product still.
DDG queries can’t really be written the same way you’d write one in Google if you’re after effective results. It’ll take some time to get used to it, tbh I was using DDG alongside Google until I fully switched.
They probably mean grammar, since most Google operators do work. If there’s a specific difference in search syntax (other than bangs) though, I’d love to know what I’ve been missing.
I’ve never used questions to search, I use keywords, even with Google. So if I want info on the Russia-Ukraine war, I’ll search “Russia-Ukraine War”. If I want casualty numbers, I’ll add “casualties” there, probably at the start if I want to emphasize it. Searching “how many people have died in the ukraine war” has never been something I do.
That said, natural language search may be more useful with AI tools though, but for regular search, I’ve always used keyword-dense queries, roughly ordered by priority in the query (important terms first).
I keep reading that Google’s search results are supposedly much better than DDG’s when my experience is the exact opposite. I don’t even live in an English speaking country and the results I get are a vast improvement over Google’s. It has been this way for me since at least last year, but in my experience DDG had caught up to Google in 2022 already. It could also be that Google has just deteriorated a lot in the last two years (which it definitely has, judging by all the bad publicity they’ve been getting for it), so I’d urge you to give DDG/Brave Search/Bing/Kagi/SearxNG another chance.
I’d also recommend setting an alternative of your choice as the default everywhere and to use it exclusively for like a week before making up your mind about that specific product!
If you believe Google is the most reliable, you can still use it in a private way via :
Startpage
Startpage is a private search engine known for serving Google and Bing search results. One of Startpage’s unique features is the Anonymous View, which puts forth efforts to standardize user activity to make it more difficult to be uniquely identified. The feature can be useful for hiding some network and browser properties.
Get Google search results, but without any ads, JavaScript, AMP links, cookies, or IP address tracking. Easily deployable in one click as a Docker app, and customizable with a single config file.
They do, but it’s still separated from that business. At worse, it’s more an ethical issue of using something that an Ad company own, exactly like using Google with or without proxies services.web.archive.org/web/…/relisting-startpage/
I use mainly Andisearch, also has AI but relay on reliable sources (and one of the most privat search out there), Startpage and Whoogle use the old Google search engine, Mojeek also is fine, Groot search has a own search index, Etools a Suiss made Metasearch engine and some more. In the Vivaldi Forum you’ll find the, maybe, most complete list of search engines you can try.
The author of th Thread is German, he icluded because of this also searches in German media sites or dictionaries. But if you want a German search engine, you can use MetaGer, not bad at all. Good privacy but freemium, in the free version there are ads, (context, anonymous) and limited on 2 search engines.
Hah! I in fact have been using metager for a couple of months now as my defult search engine, since I saw it recommended in Lemmy those 2 months ago. Works great. Tried kagi before but I just don’t search that much and paying per search makes much more sense to me.
Nobody will tell you, but keep the best for the last I guess – Yandex. Russian, results reminiscent of old 2005 open internet, has no regard for US DMCA laws or western Atlantic Council censorship laws. Undisputed and incomparable for web results, reverse image search, videos, anything. Preferably use a VPN though to get more search results variety and for extra privacy. Its privacy is better than Google/Bing, but worse than DDG, but DDG has high censorship.
Probably but I have seen Yandex Disk being one of the main choices among pirate uploaders and game level creators, among other kinds of unusual people. You can use Yandex searching without an account, so I doubt it matters. And Yandex does not go around trying to track you outside of few Russian internet websites, from my observations, and its tracking is mostly limited to ad clicks and basic website counter.
You can use Yandex with any VPN and enjoy its fruits with zero consequences.
So I absolutely wouldn’t trust it for anything related to politics or Russian interests. Maybe it’s okay from a privacy and non-Russian interest perspective though, idk, but by default I don’t trust it because Russia is so repressive against media in its country.
That said, it seems as if it’s just reducing the search ranking for Russian “disinformation,” not removing results. That’s annoying, but not as troublesome as Yandex or Google. BTW, I found all of those links through DDG, so it’s not like they’re trying to hide anything.
You posted content from RSF, which is a CIA propaganda outlet.
The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) supports RSF’s reporting of media freedom violations throughout the world and especially in Asia.
Yandex altered results to trash Navalny](
Navalny was trashed by about 70% of Russian citizens in a mayor election. His approval rate was absymal, and he was only propped up by western countries to create infighting in Russia. This has been NATO’s motive ever since it was formed.
So I absolutely wouldn’t trust it for anything related to politics or Russian interests. Maybe it’s okay from a privacy and non-Russian interest perspective though, idk, but by default I don’t trust it because Russia is so repressive against media in its country.
You trust Google a lot, looking at your trust in Graphene and other stuff. Are you a western liberal by any chance? Because there is zero reason to trust western media that loves Zionism and genocide. On the other hand, west keeps lying about Russia and China doing genocides.
Also, if you are posting western propaganda outlets like NYT, The Verge et al, I should also be able to post Russian sources on western propaganda. But you will claim it is “Kremlin” stuff and claim it is invalid, like you are saying about Yandex.
That said, it seems as if it’s just reducing the search ranking for Russian “disinformation,” not removing results.
DDG uses Bing’s index and shows western propaganda results.
You are trying to poke the bear, and seem more suited to Reddit than Lemmy.
I don’t see how that has anything to do with Yandex altering search results.
You trust Google a lot
Not sure what you mean…
I trust Google’s security at least as much as other phone manufacturers in the space, I don’t trust their data collection. They’re an ad company, so they stand to gain by having people trust their security, provided that doesn’t interfere with their data collection.
Are you a western liberal by any chance?
Depends on your definition of liberal. I do live in the west, and I do ascribe in Liberalism, but not in what most people today call “liberal.”
zero reason to trust western media that loves Zionism and genocide
That’s pretty charged language.
For your information, I try to get my news from a variety of sources. Some of my favorites are:
Al Jazeera - especially on world events, not so much on middle-east events (esp. the Israel-Palestine war)
The Guardian
Reuters
Reason
NPR
BBC
Wall Street Journal
I’m not a fan of Zionism, but I also dislike Hamas. I’d like to see Israel get sanctioned for war crimes, but also Hamas eliminated as a terrorist organization.
I should also be able to post Russian sources on western propaganda
Sure, by all means, as long as their source their claims. However, there is lots of documentation of Russia interfering with its media that I’m going to be a bit more skeptical vs a more peer-reviewed publication, especially while Russia is involved in an unpopular war.
I’m not saying other countries don’t interfere with their media as well, and things like wikileaks are important to help keep all governments honest.
You are trying to poke the bear
Are you essentially saying you’re a Russian shill? I just think that’s an interesting choice of words, considering the context.
I’m not sure what you’re trying to insinuate with Reddit vs Lemmy, please elaborate.
Well, on the other side I have Steam and most of the games there are closed source… Yes they run in user mode and (usually) don’t have kernel level access.
Open source will never compete with Kaspersky in security field. Security field requires extreme levels of meritocracy and a disposal of capital infrastructure as and when needed. The latter is beyond lacking in open source ecosystem, and will always be lacking. The former is also far from the level field at which Kaspersky plays.
If you do not understand this, you have failed digital security already. Lying to yourself is never going to solve problems.
Apparently this is done to block browsers like opera to change the default browser without user consent, but I think this just makes it more complicated to change the default browser. Maybe they’ll add a pop up if an application tries to change it, allowing users to accept, but I don’t think that’s likely
You don’t need to be a lawyer to say something is illegal. In this instance I’m talking about the antitrust case in the 90s against Microsoft which declared that restricting features of desktop OSes to certain apps to be illegal.
From Kenya here. When you fail to pay Okash loan on time they will call random contacts on your contact list and tell them to tell you to pay your loan back
I remember when Google was the cool new kid on the block. How far they’ve fallen. But that’s what unrestrained, unregulated capitalism gets you. It’s all a race to the bottom.
Can we please stop pretending “regulation” is all that effective. It’s been tried, and has resulted in corrupt bureaucracy or given way to neoliberalism (and corporate bureaucracy).
What we need is a radically different system where the power truly is in the hands of the people, and not just nominally like in representative democracy (and which is completely lacking anyways in most workplaces). And what this requires is the construction of fundamentally different modes of production and human interrelation that will not resemble what we’ve got now, neither economically nor politically nor socially. Regulating capitalism won’t get us there.
There’s an issue at play here that I think we’re not confronting enough. America has been on a steady march of deregulating in the name of corporate greed. Some of the most functional countries in the world are also the ones with the strongest regulatory bodies (granted they’re also largely petrochemical profiteers, I do have criticisms even of countries that I think are doing better than the US) because there’s a presumption built into the system that if left unchecked, the forces of greed will violate the liberties of the populace. Its not a coincidence that the only countries that faced major Y2K bug issues were the UK and the US. Germany, Nordic countries, and Benelux countries all ALSO faced this bug, but in those countries the consequences for fucking up banking data was fines. In the US and UK, the consequences were someone might sue in civil court. Much less scary for banking institutions so they continuously acted like the problem was someone else’s problem until the last minute.
My point is this: regulations work. We have case studies in other countries that they work. We don’t implement them not because they don’t work but because they require long view systems change and the political system we live in doesn’t encourage thinking long term. Political funding efforts encourage thinking of policy in 2-6 year terms instead of the actual 30 year time frames it requires to plan them. Its much easier to pull a quick grift with political power weakening the overall system than it is to FIX the system. It incentivizes corruption. THAT is the issue that needs addressing and one we should really be trying to assess what the Benelux countries are doing so well
Capitalism with its unrelenting drive to maximum profits at all costs will always eventually erode regulations, or capture the regulatory bodies. We had more regulations, more unions, and higher taxes before. They were put in place in response to the excesses of capitalism in the early 1900s, and capitalists eventually found ways to undo a lot of them. We need different systems with different incentives, or keep repeating this cycle.
The deregulation march you’re talking about is neoliberalism, and it hasn’t just affected USA. And in a sense neoliberalism is capitalism’s response to regulation.
It’s not that regulation doesn’t work per se, it’s that the (political) hierarchy through which it functions is susceptible to being taken advantage of, and inevitably it will be (*has been) taken advantage of by the capitalist class to protect their economic hierarchy.
For democracy to truly represent the people it’d need to be federated from the ground up through free association. Large scale organisation and cooperation would be ephemeral, existing when/if the need arises and dissolving as soon as projects are concluded (or cancelled). But within the rigidity of the current system(s), where power is consolidated at the ‘top’ through processes we’re lead to believe are necessary for ‘order’ (when their real purpose is of course control), horizontal forms of social organisation seem impossible (I like how Anark calls this - “hierarchical realism”).
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