this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2024
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Privacy

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I already know that it's spyware but in the case that I need to use it for work and school on my Linux laptop, do I need to worry about configuring something so that it won't have access to my whole system like it does on Windows? I'm on ZorinOS/Ubuntu. Thanks in advance

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Try Flathub for some isolation, but I would suggest using chromium.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

Ok thanks. Are flatpaks better for isolation than snaps? I see many people avoid snaps.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

IIRC the flapak packaging system is completely open source while snap does not release the server code.

Also, snaps were forced to the users, had terrible performance at the start, thus, making them unpopular.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Neither isolates everything. Both have some isolation features. The features enabled by default vary from package to package, so you would have to look at the permissions on each package to find out.

For a bit more isolation than a flatpak/snap, I suggest creating a separate user account for running chromium (or any other moderately nosy software). Note that linux lets you log in to two accounts at the same time, each with its own desktop, and switch between them. Check out your desktop environment's "switch user" function.

For even more isolation, you could run chromium in a hypervisor-based virtual machine.