Department of Justice A judge this week ordered Google to break up. Chrome? It’s off sale. Android? The same. Paying other companies to default to Google search? Cut that out.
If the DOJ gets what it wants, the entire tech industry will tilt to its axis. The Internet, as we know it, will change.
Which got me thinking: There are so many Google services that are hard to give up, especially Google’s ubiquitous search and, if you’re not an iPhone person, Android phones as your default option. But chrome? It’s historically bad at privacy, and it’s hardly the best browser.
So why wait for a judge to decide, when you can quit Chrome now and reduce Google’s stranglehold on your digital life?
Many other browsers, including Apple’s Safari and Mozilla’s Firefox, work similarly to Chrome and Do not collect A huge amount of your data in the process. At the very least, you should think about why you’re using Chrome and whether it has anything to do with it Google’s illegal monopoly over the search industry.
It will take years to know the outcome of Google’s major antitrust case. (Yes, there are two: this one is about Google’s illegal search monopoly, and the other is about Google’s alleged monopoly in the online advertising industry) Google may not have to sell Chrome and Android. Indeed, Google said so on Thursday It doesn’t want to. But there’s a very good chance Google will be forced to stop paying for the exclusive right to be the default search engine in browsers like Firefox and Safari, two legal experts told me.
Regardless of the outcome, you have a choice about how you access the web. Try closing Chrome. If it doesn’t work, you can always come back — Chrome, in some form, isn’t going away. It might even be better if Google is eventually forced to sell it.
The case against Google is briefly explained
If you’re a Chrome user, the first thing you’ll probably do when you open a tab is type a question into the box at the top of the browser. It starts a Google search that returns a bunch of blue links, and before you know it, you’re learning everything you wanted to know about fennec foxes or whatever.
Honestly, if you’re a Safari or Firefox user, the experience is probably similar. Google currently About 90 percent are owned US search engine market. There are many reasons why this is true, and according to the DOJ and a long list of state attorneys general, the way Google maintains its dominance is also illegal. they are sued Google in 2020First during the Trump administration, and argued that the company violated federal antitrust laws by maintaining a monopoly over the search and search advertising markets. (This followed a separate 2023 lawsuit that alleged Google used Competitive behavior to maintain monopoly rights On online advertising technology. That case ongoing.)
In August, Justice Amit P Mehta did not mince words In his judgment in the Search Engine case: “Google is a monopolist, and it has worked to maintain its monopoly.”
He ruled that by paying companies to make Google the default browser in their browsers, Google illegally asserted its dominance over its competitors. The ruling also stated that, thanks to its huge market share, Google had raised rates for search ads. Google owns both the most popular web browser, Chrome, and the mobile operating system, Android, strengthening its ability to drive more users to its search monopoly.
Think about it: For many people, Chrome is their main gateway to Google’s empire And their gateway to the entire Internet is Google. This is good for Google, because when you’re searching for things and browsing the web, it’s collecting data about you, which it then uses to sell targeted ads, a business that generated $237.9 billion For Google in 2023.
“Having a monopoly is not illegal,” said Mitch Stoltz, director of IP litigation at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “But it is illegal to take advantage of one’s monopoly power to maintain that monopoly power, essentially monopolizing other than the best product.”
As good as its search engine is, and despite recent efforts by companies like Microsoft and OpenAI to make AI-powered search an innovative option, there’s little reason to believe Google will stop being synonymous with search anytime soon. Google’s mobile operating system is on nearly half the phones in the US, and 2 in 3 people use Chrome to access the web
So it’s not terribly surprising that the Justice Department wants Mehta to break up Google. While we don’t know what Mehta will do, we do know that it won’t be resolved anytime soon. Although Google will probably have to kill its beloved deal with Apple, that’s worth it Like $20 billionit seems It is unlikely that Google will be sold Chrome and Android. If the issue is that Google could use those products to suppress rival search engines, the judge can simply order Google not to do so. Eric HovenkampA professor at Cornell Law School.
“If Google adheres to this, it can keep Chrome and Android,” Hovenkamp said. “A judge may not want to strike down a large company that makes a very popular product if he thinks there is a less intrusive remedy that will eliminate bad behavior.”
And again, Google doesn’t really want to sell Chrome and Android. Google said in a blog post In October, “splitting Chrome or Android would break them — and a lot of other things” and “drive up device prices.”
Then again, if a judge were to force Google to sell Chrome and Android, the company could be forced to improve its search engine to cut off competition in the search engine business. But guessing can be a fool’s errand. What we do know is that Chrome, for at least another year, is a gateway to the Google ecosystem, so much so that you might forget that Google is watching everything you do when you’re using its browser.
Case for chrome ditching
If you’ve been using Chrome because it came as the default browser on your phone, you might want to try something new. If you’ve been using Chrome for 15 years that’s because it was Innovative when it was launchedThis is no longer the case, and you should definitely try something new.
There’s a big reason for this: Google Chrome isn’t the most Privacy-friendly browser Because that’s how the company wants it. This may seem obvious, based on the established fact that Google benefits from knowing more about its users’ online activities. Critics have long debated Chrome It doesn’t give many tools to its users Competing browsers like Safari and Firefox to protect their privacy. Google is dealing with a running Class-action lawsuit from Chrome users Those who say the company collected their information without permission. This is in addition to a lawsuit Google settled in April, when it agreed to delete the privacy browsing history of millions of people.
Then there are cookies. In August, Google broke its promise Stop using third-party cookies That promise in Chrome is around 2020 When Safari and Firefox started blocking third-party cookies because of the potential harm they track users across the web, but Google kept delaying its plans To phase out third-party cookies as it worked to develop an alternative that would not harm the advertising industry. Third-party cookies help deliver personalized ads, which are good for businesses. Google has finally created something called Privacy sandbox This can help deliver personalized ads to Chrome without using third-party cookies But just for good measure, Google still allows third-party cookies in Chrome.
However, you could argue that there is no escaping online tracking anymore, especially when it comes to Google.
“That’s the problem: it’s insidious,” said Sacha Haworth, its executive director Tech Oversight Project. “We don’t ask to scrape and compile our data and sell it to the highest bidder.”
Google itself Tracks users across the web using its suite of analytical tools. 86 percent of the top 75,000 websites online run Google Tracker. Google knows what you watch on YouTube and even though The contents of your messages are no longer read To provide you with personalized ads, Google does Track your behavior in Gmail. Google too Tracks your location and storing it in the cloud — it’s historically been so good at tracking phones that it’s become “A dragnet for the police“- although the company says so It will stop doing that.
If you’re concerned about your privacy, there are better browsers than Chrome Actually, based on quite a few collection of the browser ReviewAlmost every browser is better than Chrome when it comes to privacy. And they are all free.
you heard Safariwhich is the browser that comes with all Apple operating systems. Safari comes with a long list of privacy features that are enabled by default and You can even turn it on in the settings. There is also Firefoxwhich comes from an open source browser developed by Mozilla With its own suite Advanced privacy settings.
But there are a few browsers you may not have heard of that are worth checking out dakdakgoSo does a privacy-focused search engine. there is bravewhich promises to block ads and load webpages faster and have edgeMicrosoft’s successor to Internet Explorer, which uses Bing as a search engine and Copilot as AI assistant.
There are actually a bunch of new, innovative web browsers that have been developed over the past few years. A company called, appropriately enough, The Browser Company has now revealed Ark For both Windows and Mac. It is known to be Change the way you think about web browsing Works like an operating system that lets you tweak and remix content. Vivaldiwhich is only available for Mac, comes with a Built-in email client. SigmaOSAnother Mac-only option, calling itself “the new home for your Internet.”
In the 90s, Microsoft ran into trouble because it bundled Internet Explorer with every copy of Windows. So if Windows was your operating system – and it was For more than 90 percent Americans at the time — you probably used Internet Explorer. The big difference between then and now, when Google Chrome has more than 60 percent of the market, is that Chrome alternatives are free and easy to find. You can literally double click your mouse on this webpage and download a Chrome replacement.
“You know, I think it’s popular,” Stoltz of the Electronic Frontier Foundation said of Chrome. “But people are also very deeply engaged in their habits, so we see a lot of, ‘Hey, leave me alone to use Google.'”
A federal judge has already ruled that Google’s monopoly in the search industry is invalid. It’s worth acknowledging that the company has somewhat forced you to use Google. And at least as far as browsers are concerned, it’s not hard to turn it off.
What will that judge decide next? We will have to wait and see. Again, it will be years before we know the final outcome of Google’s antitrust cases, after the upcoming decisions are inevitably appealed. Some say it would be a shame for the government to waste an opportunity to crack down now.
“If we’re going to be serious about tackling Google’s monopoly and abuse,” said Howarth of the Tech Oversight Project. “We have to take more extreme measures.”
