Re:Senators introduce bipartisan antitrust bill to promote a...
by rektide on Wednesday August 11, 2021 @06:20PM
(#28148580)
> We don’t notice this on the web, because Mozilla and Google (!) enforce terms for us (and most desktops don’t have GPS receivers).
I still tend to think the technical steering committees, operating out in the open, have done an unbelievably fantastic job of sticking to mission, of growing a user-centric pro-user web. They've abided by fantastically high standards, been unwaveringly unwilling to accept privacy or security compromises. Microsoft and Safari also exist here, and there are countless interested other small parties trying to enhance the web, to make it stronger, to make it more secure, and because this is happening in public, it is very very hard for even the product owners to take advantage.
The web is also Google's home: they exist because of the web, they existed for a decade having virtually no other presence than the web. The rest of public-facing computing remains locked up, truly & genuinely controlled by corporate titans. Their advantage is to grow a healthy competitor, one that is still diverse & ever more competitive, one that is ever more appealing to the user.
Look at the current fights. Current fights about specs are about a seemingly wild & wacky federalized learning algorithm (most hated by the ad industry above all & media outlets second), and then Apple and Mozilla who wage a campaign decrying how horribly bloody awful it is that there are Ambient Light and Web MIDI specifications, and boo hoo look how terrible & bad things are. There is enormous Fear Uncertainty & Doubt, extreme reactionary-ism happening against the web. But to me: the web appears very well protected; it's interests & citizens are extremely vigilant & vocal about what happens to their cherished public internet medium, and change is slow, well planned, & deliberate (ok so the recent cross-frame alert() getting dropped is an unfortunate but perhaps moderately understanding counterexample of that process & deliberation).
Sunshine really has been an incredible disinfectant.
I still tend to think the technical steering committees, operating out in the open, have done an unbelievably fantastic job of sticking to mission, of growing a user-centric pro-user web. They've abided by fantastically high standards, been unwaveringly unwilling to accept privacy or security compromises. Microsoft and Safari also exist here, and there are countless interested other small parties trying to enhance the web, to make it stronger, to make it more secure, and because this is happening in public, it is very very hard for even the product owners to take advantage.
The web is also Google's home: they exist because of the web, they existed for a decade having virtually no other presence than the web. The rest of public-facing computing remains locked up, truly & genuinely controlled by corporate titans. Their advantage is to grow a healthy competitor, one that is still diverse & ever more competitive, one that is ever more appealing to the user.
Look at the current fights. Current fights about specs are about a seemingly wild & wacky federalized learning algorithm (most hated by the ad industry above all & media outlets second), and then Apple and Mozilla who wage a campaign decrying how horribly bloody awful it is that there are Ambient Light and Web MIDI specifications, and boo hoo look how terrible & bad things are. There is enormous Fear Uncertainty & Doubt, extreme reactionary-ism happening against the web. But to me: the web appears very well protected; it's interests & citizens are extremely vigilant & vocal about what happens to their cherished public internet medium, and change is slow, well planned, & deliberate (ok so the recent cross-frame alert() getting dropped is an unfortunate but perhaps moderately understanding counterexample of that process & deliberation).
Sunshine really has been an incredible disinfectant.