https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/nov/19/us-doj-sell-chrome-browser-ai-android
US justice department plans to push Google to sell off Chrome browser
[...] The DoJ will reportedly push for Google, which is owned by Alphabet, to sell the browser and also ask a judge to require new measures related to artificial intelligence as well as its Android smartphone operating system, according to Bloomberg.
Competition officials, along with a number of US states that have joined the case against the Silicon Valley company, also plan to recommend that the federal judge Amit Mehta imposes data licensing requirements.
Google has said it will challenge any case by the DoJ and said the proposals marked an "overreach" by the government that would harm consumers.
It didn't go their way a few decades ago when they wanted to split or force Microsoft to split or part with some aspects of the company. Any reason to think they'll do better this time around?
According to Bloomberg they are tossing around the value of $20 billion. Who has that to spare for Chrome? That isn't already more or less a monopoly in and by themselves? One evil is as good/bad as the next evil.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 22, @05:54AM (2 children)
They sell chrome, and the new purchaser, having to justify the price, will sell all the juicy telemetry data. Especially to Goggle. (Apple, too. NSA. Advertising houses. FBI. The highest bidder. Every bidder.)
They'll host the telemetry-collection servers on GCloud. For stability reasons.
A net positive for "competition" - where what they're competing for is everything about you. It'll be a privacy scandal, including every single website you ever visit, when, for how long, when you're home, when you're using the internet, when you're on your phone, employers will be able to buy data on when you're surfing the web on your personal phone vs working, etc.
(Score: 2) by epitaxial on Saturday November 23, @05:27PM (1 child)
google already does that now.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday November 25, @05:23PM
Yes, but right now Google owns Chrome, and once google no longer owns Chrome, it will be perfectly okay to do this where right now it is a horrible thing that Google is doing.
The age of men is over. The time of the Orc has come.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 22, @06:27AM
Now get them to divest Android, all their special spy sauce in it, and the App store as well.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by pTamok on Friday November 22, @08:28AM
Without reading any of the documentation, I have to assume that the DoJ have used expert opinion to determine that this is the best remedy they they are able to ask for that cures the transgressions that they are responsible for policing.
What this means that if you are talking about behaviours exhibited by Alphabet that are not within the DoJ's purview, and especially not this investigation's scope, then this remedy is not for you.
This case is about Alphabet/Google's domination of Internet Search, and payments to other organisations (such as Apple, and Mozilla) to place Google Search as the default search engine.
This case is NOT directly about advertising - that is a separate case.
One result could well be that Alphabet/Google can no longer make payments to Mozilla to place Google's search as the default search in Firefox - removing over 80% of Mozilla's revenue.
Any new owner of Chrome would look for ways to generate revenue from it, and selling user information is one of them, with no requirement to send any money to Mozilla.
I think Firefox is in for a bumpy ride, and the end result could well be a duopoly between Webkit and Chrome. Which may be true, not matter what happens with this case, as Firefox usage compared to other browsers is below the level that people routinely check that their websites work with it.
(Score: 3, Informative) by shrewdsheep on Friday November 22, @09:35AM (2 children)
IIRC it was our friend George W Bush who reverted the order when coming into office (not having a clue whatsoever as being a puppet but being ordered by his superiors who probably received large donations). The situation is now different in that Trump will sell to the highest bidder. Maybe Apple/Facebook are willing to put more on the table.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by RedGreen on Friday November 22, @02:14PM
"The situation is now different in that Trump will sell to the highest bidder. Maybe Apple/Facebook are willing to put more on the table."
Not that much different he is still part of the parasite corporate culture. Then count in Google has ALL of his meta data for a long period of time, I would think there are some interesting tidbits in there for leverage for a decision going their way. In short as the French say, plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose, the more things change the more they stay the same...
"I modded down, down, down, and the flames went higher." -- Sven Olsen
(Score: 2) by Tork on Friday November 22, @02:44PM
Ugh on both counts.
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Adam on Friday November 22, @06:25PM (1 child)
It's hard to make a case for Chrome being worth much when Chromium is open source and widely forked. Google themselves, barring some injunction, could probably rebuild a new Vanadium browser within a couple of weeks from Chromium. Who's going to buy the brand name? If anything, the DOJ should follow Europe (in Android) in making search engine a mandatory or random choice within Chrome.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday November 25, @05:26PM
Slightly related, Google plans to replace Chrome OS (think Chromebooks) with Android. Yep, really.
The age of men is over. The time of the Orc has come.
(Score: 2) by dx3bydt3 on Saturday November 23, @01:26AM (1 child)
With Google funding Mozilla to keep making Firefox, I wonder how this will play out if they divest Chrome. Surely the spun off chrome wouldn't be a big enough entity to be split further, so why would they fund the competition then?
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday November 25, @05:28PM
Google could sell Chrome to cure the evils that would be solved by selling Chrome.
Then Google could buy Mozilla which incidentally includes FireFox. [wikipedia.org] Then everything would be okay.
The age of men is over. The time of the Orc has come.