Comment by freeone3000

6 days ago

It’s horizontal tying.

If Chrome was not owned by an ad company, the owners of chrome would push for instead of against privacy protections (see: firefox, safari).

The browser monopoly, which Chrome sells at a loss, enables the ad company. This is the problem.

Chromium does not get features Chrome does not need from Google. So anything against ads does not get upstreamed to Chromium.

Chrome also is a major browser vendor, whereas kiwibrowser and opera are not, which means the standards boards listen to them more. If those seats were not owned by an ad company, standards would likely be different.

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freeone3000

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lxgr  6 days ago

As much as I find Chrome’s ownership and market share problematic, that doesn’t seem fair.

What exactly do things like WebUSB and Web Bluetooth contribute to Google’s ad business?

(Except if you mean that any new and initially exclusive feature bolsters Chrome’s dominance further, in which case I’d somewhat agree.)

  • JimDabell  6 days ago

    > What exactly do things like WebUSB and Web Bluetooth contribute to Google’s ad business?

    Google keeps proposing specifications like Web USB, Web Bluetooth, Web MIDI, Web Serial, etc., and both Mozilla and Apple keep shooting them down on privacy and security grounds. Meanwhile Google ignores the problems and builds them into Chrome anyway, and guess what happens? They start getting used to fingerprint and track people.

    Who knows, maybe it’s just a coincidence that all of these technologies that advertisers can use to fingerprint and track people keep making their way into the browser owned by one of the world’s largest ad companies.

    • lxgr  6 days ago

      How would you use WebUSB or Web Bluetooth for device fingerprinting?

      HID, mass storage devices etc. are required to be filtered by implementations, and why would I grant a random news or social media site access to my MiniDisc player, Arduino board, Bluetooth thermometer/hygrometer etc. when it asks for it?

      The prompts are pretty scary/disruptive, and I've never seen any website actually try (unlike for e.g. web push notifications, which are fairly private but can be super annoying).

      1 reply →

    • Scion9066  6 days ago

      Or things like Web USB start getting used to provide useful features without needing to install whole apps, like mouse/keyboard dongle pairing, phone OS flashing, etc.

      As far as fingerprinting/tracking goes, I have never seen a random site prompt for these features, only apps where it makes sense.

      1 reply →