The article Loren wrote in first post has a great detailed method to remove all of the Chrome/Keystone stain.
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I will consider Chrome a malware from now on..
- Thread starter matrix07
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Chrome needs bluetooth access to support 2FA keys as well as streaming to Chromecast devices. I mean, they could be using it for all kinds of things as well, but those are the main things I know of. Safari doesn't need bluetooth access because it's Safari.
Not trying to say the concern isn't warranted, but they do have legit reasons to request that access.
Not trying to say the concern isn't warranted, but they do have legit reasons to request that access.
Chrome is a browser pushed by an advertising company.
Advertising is crap you don't want that consumes resources and (these days) scrapes at much info as it legally (or otherwise) can about you.
If you need/want a chrome based browser, try Brave. It's basically Chrome with all that crap stripped out (compatible with Chrome plugins), a built in ad-blocker and built in Tor browser.
Advertising is crap you don't want that consumes resources and (these days) scrapes at much info as it legally (or otherwise) can about you.
If you need/want a chrome based browser, try Brave. It's basically Chrome with all that crap stripped out (compatible with Chrome plugins), a built in ad-blocker and built in Tor browser.
I just dropped Chrome on my Mac and I had to go into my startup folder and library folder to remove the junk left behind. I use Edge which runs all Chrome extensions.
What I mean is Apple vet the apps in the App Store to not have sneaky behavior like this, or it will be pulled out if they find it does.
And when you uninstall it from Mac App Store you actually uninstall it. It doesn't simply delete the app from Application folder. Am I wrong in this?
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I used to install it when it's first developed. I'm a PC user then and I uninstalled it almost immediately as well because I found some processes still running even when I closed Chrome. I thought 10+ years after thing will be better. It's simply the same.
Day 2. Battery's still great. Lost only 1% sleeping 8 hours.
Seems I got my Air back.
Seems I got my Air back.
It does. The tweet in my original post talked about his Intel Mac.
I could not surf anymore without my Pi Hole.I advocate installing a network-level ad blocker to cover all your devices, if you have reasonable knowledge of networking.
Pi-hole – Network-wide Ad Blocking
pi-hole.net
Can be had for the price of a Raspberry Pi
The next step up to a VPN to your home network so you get ad-blocking on the cell network. I use a Ubiquiti USG for that.
Apps on the Mac App Store have to be 100% contained within the .app bundle. So in that case, deleting the app is enough to completely remove it.
There at least were some apps that required you to install a helper app from the developer's website to unlock certain functionality because of that limitation. It's gotten better over time.
EDIT: All that said, it's pretty common that Apps that don't use a sandbox will write all over ~/Library, and can use considerable amounts of disk space, depending on what they do. Apps that do use a sandbox can still write to their containers in ~/Library/Containers or "~/Library/Group Containers", leaving a bunch of crud behind after an uninstall.
A good example is Outlook in my case eating GBs of space within the sandbox.
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I did it. Chrome user for the last several years, migrated my bookmarks and deleted Chrome and all associated folders and files. Safari's gonna take some getting used to, but you all convinced me.
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I, literally, only used Chrome to watch 4K videos in YT. Now that 4K videos are available in Safari, ✌🏼 Chrome.
Rene Ritchie has a good breakdown of Keystone and how it actually works:
Google could end this controversy pretty easily. Open Source Keystone. They like to pretend they are an Open Source company. This would be a good time to show it.
So happy for you
Also did uninstall Chrome from my MacBook Pro 2014 and it became WAAY snappier. And on my brand new M1 MacBook Air the battery life is phenomenal.The problem is Google themselves is forcing Chrome into unsuspecting users' throats by putting banners all over their websites that how the user will get better "experience" with Chrome, even on Chromium based browsers. Chrome basically has become a household name, akin to the old IE. It's made worse with many web devs are using Chrome for their tests.
The big problem in ditching Chrome, is if you do frontend development and your code editor of choice is VS Code, it uses Chrome as a debugger. Of course I'm more of a desktop guy, so the battery thingy isn't really a problem for me.
But would it be possible to create a script or utility that totally kill the remaining background process once an app is closed? This could take care of Chrome orphans draining the battery.
But would it be possible to create a script or utility that totally kill the remaining background process once an app is closed? This could take care of Chrome orphans draining the battery.
After deleting Chrome and all the associated files, as called out on the ChromeIsBad website, do you think there's any benefit to doing a clean install of Big Sur 11.1? I'm not seeing any issues, but my OCD is telling me to do it. It's so new without any data files transferred to it yet, so it wouldn't be a huge hassle.
Despite the subject title, Chrome isn't malware. If you've deleted the Chrome app from /Applications and the Keystone files in /Library/LaunchAgents, /Library/LaunchDaemons and ~/Library/LaunchAgents it is completely gone. It isn't hiding anywhere else.
Thanks. Yeah, I know it's not malware, but I didn't want any associated file running in the background, like Keystone, using up any resources unnecessarily.
If you deleted all the files, there is no real need to do a clean install of Big Sur.
Good on you for removing Chrome from your Mac.
Brave isn't any better. There is still the crypto mining/rewards thing with Brave.
One solution is to run your Browser in a locked down VM/sandbox if you want to be more secure.
Because if they made the amount of data collection Chrome does public people would throw a fit. I don't know why anyone would be shocked that software made by an advertising company is collecting data but people can be naive. I remember when people used to download silly toolbars and weather apps that would spy on them. Now it's integrated into the browser 😂