Google is pissed that the DOJ may make it sell off Chrome
You'll all pay for this, just you wait and see, says a petulant Google as the US Department of Justice is rumored to make it sell off its Chrome browser.
#3 in Utilities category. Surrounded by battery and connectivity icons." height="731" />Google Chrome on an iPhone
Chrome is the darling of the technology industry because technical people love its customizability. But that does come with the price of your battery life, plus what Google may or may not do with your data.
Consequently, it's common when you have a problem with a website to be told to switch to Chrome. For example, our own content management system works slightly better under Chrome than it does with Safari.
Anyways, Google is not the only corporation facing off against the DOJ. Where Apple is filing motions and otherwise not saying a word today that isn't vetted by lawyers, Google is practically shouting.
"The government putting its thumb on the scale in these ways would harm consumers, developers and American technological leadership at precisely the moment it is most needed," said Google executive Lee-Anne Mulholland in a statement seen by BBC News.
"The DOJ continues to push a radical agenda that goes far beyond the legal issues in this case," she added.
Google maintains that selling off Chrome to a third-party would make it much harder to keep the browser secure. That ship sailed years ago, though, with Chrome winning the trophy for the most vulnerable browser in 2022.
It also implies that Google is currently protecting us from outside threats, which hopefully is true, but could definitely be a distraction. Since in 2023 it was revealed that Google Chrome was intentionally defeating Apple's privacy features.
Consequently, selling off the browser would potentially leave Chrome users less sure of where their data is being taken and held. There's also the question of who would buy it, and whether they would have anything approaching Google's resources to keep developing it.
The potential forced sale of Chrome comes after the US agreed with the DOJ that Google is a search and advertising monopoly. One other thing that came out of the DOJ v Google trial was that the firm pays Apple up to $20 billion annually to keep it the default search engine on the iPhone.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
No one, including the article author, should celebrate such intervention by Big Brother.
Just because some nuts here choose to dislike Google and want them harmed, doesn't mean that harm by Big Brother won't come back to haunt your beloved company some day. And what do you know! Apple is in the crosshairs of Big Brother too! That remains true regardless of the fact they are "otherwise not saying a word today that isn't vetted by lawyers." That statement in the article is downright stupid because all it does is seek to take an unnecessary pot shot at Google while showing how Apple is better in comparison.
Hey, I like Apple better than Google. But sicking your attack dog on Google or any other company you choose to dislike is a really dumb idea. We need to use the iron fist of government less, not more.
It used to be that the comments on AI used to be mostly relevant, civil-ish, and reasonably informative. But now .. honestly I give up. Comments have become, on the whole, garbage. I’m out.
Contributions to HARRIS:
https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/?data_type=processed&committee_id=C00694455&committee_id=C00703975&two_year_transaction_period=2024
Contributions to TRUMP:
https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/?committee_id=C00828541&committee_id=C00867275&two_year_transaction_period=2024&data_type=processed
But none of that matters.
Less government doesn't mean no government or chaos in society. When done right, it means greater efficiency and more power to the individual. That is truth regardless of who gives what to Harris or Trump.
Toward that end, we as voting Americans need to end support for the anti-trust witch hunts that only serve to make our lives more troublesome in the end. Protect our home-grown success stories, be that Google or Apple or Amazon or Microsoft or any of the manner others who in some way or another really have made life a little better for you and for me.
They can decide to change the government recommendations, stay hard-nosed, become even more hard-nosed, or drop it altogether. I would hope they keep true to their words and reduce government regulation of the marketplace, in this case and in others going forward, including Apple's. Stop aggressive attacks on successful US companies, and put to rest the ones in progress.
With control of all three branches of government and a friendly SCOTUS it's all in their hands.
But you don't pay attention to reality, so that tracks.