I think Google’s biggest argument against it being a monopoly is that the tech is open source. You can download Chromium and your ad data will be manipulated and abused the same way as if you downloaded Chrome itself.
Open source is not a synonym for good, unfortunately. It’s usually a good indicator of it, but never a guarantee.
In the case of Chromium sucking, it’s because Google is the exclusive gatekeeper for what code actually gets added to the browser.
carl_dungeon@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Chromium is open source but isn’t chrome a closed source down stream project? Kinda like how Google’s RCS is in no way open despite all their BS ads bitching about iMessage?
LWD@lemm.ee 8 months ago
You’re completely correct. Chromium includes the badly named “Privacy Sandbox”, and much more proprietary Google stuff. It’s a bit of a chore for independent developers to strip out the Google code from Chromium.
Chrome itself is built atop Chromium and throws in even more closed-source stuff.
I hope regulators start paying attention to Google, but Chrome has been the dominant web browser for a while now and Google has basically had free play with web standards up until this point, so I’m not holding my breath.
raldone01@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Privacy Sandbox so the privacy doesn’t get out. 😃