[wideminded]

All browsers send some data back to headquarters to identify the cause of crashes, etc. Google is definitely developing profiles of people through Chrome and with all their other applications. The question is what is the motivation of the people providing these types of free software and how much can you trust them. With google it is probably mostly about money. With the Chinese, maybe some other things too.

That said, just yesterday I was looking at buying a new router when I noticed a prior owner complaining that his router had been sending a lot of encrypted data to somewhere in Asia.

[John Robinson]

Google, Microsoft, etc, are almost certainly sending legit dump files, at user discretion, for the purpose of debugging. The browser in this article has no business sending that type of data, it is spyware.

[Utilizer]

I use Opera, or occasionally Firefox. Both browsers display a pop-up window when they crash (Opera rarely, Firefox repeatedly) and notify you that an error has occurred then ask if you wish to send info about it back to the designers.

Rarely do I click on “Yes”.

The browser noted above appears to be sending info on a continual basis and unrelated to crashes. Thus the concern.