Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent

thatprivacyguy.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

261–270 of 1001 posts

Re: Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent

#261

Post by oriettaxx »

socalgal2 wrote: post #242
oriettaxx wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the subject has been faced many years ago an super well applied in EU privacy regulations: Google knows it very well, and in super details and I have no doubt they will be fined for this despite all reduction of it thanks to their lobbying (and corruptions, too, in my super personal opinion): this fact well explain EU fines based on company's income.

why would they be fined for this? In fact a local LLM is exactly the opposite direction of a privacy concern. The local LLM gives an answer generated locally and never uploaded to a server.

[dead]

Re: Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent

#262

Post by robin_reala »

yard2010 wrote: post #236
sevenzero wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What browsers would you recommend? I use Brave but it's still Chromium under the hood. It's the only one that I never had trouble with adblock though. Also lets me play youtube on mobile when my screen is locked.

Vivaldi - built in ad blocker, the creator is a nice guy, transparent business model. It might be rough around the edges, but it's much better from every alternative imho.

…and Chromium under the hood.

Re: Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent

#263

Post by flanked-evergl »

mft_ wrote: post #103
flanked-evergl wrote: post #19

This is a bit disingenuous. If you install Chrome, you install Chrome and all it's parts. They don't ask your consent for individual parts because that would be absurd. If you don't want Chrome and all its parts, don't use it.

If I install Chrome, I expect it to take a few hundred MBs and then only take up additional space in a controlled and transparent manner - for its cache, for example. For me, secretly adding 4GB after installation is a bit too much. If you're okay with 4GB being added, where would you draw a line? What if it downloaded a 40GB file? 400GB?

Personally I draw the line where Chrome becomes worse than alternatives, and then I switch.

Lately Firefox has been getting better, but I still prefer Chrome for almost all my needs, so I stick to it. This barely even makes a difference to me. If it was 400GB however it would make a difference to me, and I would make more of an effort to switch to something else.

Re: Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent

#264

Post by bell-cot »

jacquesm wrote: post #17
fsflover wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly how it works on Debian. Can recommend.

Guess what runs my PC. Tech companies just don't understand consent.

> ... don't understand consent.

The word you're looking for is "respect". They understand consent, the same as JBS* understands animal rights.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JBS_N.V.

Re: Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent

#265

Post by theandrewbailey »

dickeeT wrote: post #250
chinathrow wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefox.

is it as greedy as chrome for the ram?

Yes: https://www.phoronix.com/review/firefox-chrome-2026/4

> Chrome also came in at slightly lower memory consumption across all the benchmarks with total memory usage on average at 4.67GB to Firefox at 4.83GB.

Re: Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent

#266

Post by dspillett »

jacquesm wrote: post #17
fsflover wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly how it works on Debian. Can recommend.

Guess what runs my PC. Tech companies just don't understand consent.

It is almost the standard:

    Q: Does  understand consent?
    A: No / Maybe Later
but the Google version is:

    Q: Does  understand consent?
    A: No / Maybe Later / we did it anyway, you'll need to search to find out how to turn it off, maybe ask the new AI model we've just back-door installed?

Re: Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent

#267

Post by data-ottawa »

wolvoleo wrote: post #255
toyg wrote: post #234

How hard would have been to add a simple message, warning people about it and offering to opt out? Most would have clicked OK without reading anyway, and Google could pretend they give a shit about users. Unless they expected blowback, and that kind of message is the "compromise" they want to eventually land on.

They don't want you to opt out. Then they can't brag to the shareholders about Chrome being "AI Powered" You're not even the customer when it comes to Google.

I was not happy when they added Gemini to the top bar, in its own place that nothing else gets to use.

Re: Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent

#268

Post by shmeeed »

pjc50 wrote: post #213
newtonsmethod wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to tell you something: there is consumer demand for AI.

We'll never know, since companies seem determined to make it non-optional.

I for one would love to see someone try and shove hamburgers down everybody's throats in order to increase consumer demand.
Post reply on HN