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

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

#801

Post by CamperBob2 »

itemize123 wrote: post #793
CamperBob2 wrote: post #588

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It ends at the usual place, the shrink-wrap agreement. What did the license agreement say?

agreements don't always hold up to legal scrutiny. In cases where it is unreasonable, it won't be able to stand up in court. And in any case, this is not a legal matter but a user experience / public opinion one

You're right, it's not a legal matter. You and I will readily agree that bundling a 4 GB language model with a Web browser is unreasonable, but how do you envision making that case in court?

My guess is that maybe one in 1000 Chrome users will even notice it.

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

#802

Post by forgetfreeman »

k33n wrote: post #764
Razengan wrote: post #749

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's additional software that many users didn't ask for, don't want and will not be aware of > You just described 95% of the parts of all software, especially in this era. And think of the Web - how many gigabytes of terrible adtech and tracking code does the average user download in a month of web browsing without an adblocker? Remember, each one probably packages in a couple hundred NPM dependencies into its bund…

> just shut up and sit down and accept it? I mean, that's absolutely your only option other than simply choosing another browser. This will be a non-issue for 99% of Chrome users.

quietly uninstalls Chrome

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

#803

Post by jchw »

dylan604 wrote: post #647
jchw wrote: post #623

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does that change anything? It doesn't matter if you categorize it as software or not, unwanted is unwanted. And frankly I just flatly disagree, you could certainly make the case that model weights are a form of software.

If they downloaded a 4GiB media file of some Irish band that nobody asked for, people would be upset as well. It doesn't matter what the 4GiB contains. If it is not going to be used by the user and the user didn't ask for it, that's just idiotic to think people would not be upset about it.

I think we are agreeing.

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

#804

Post by iammattmurphy »

munk-a wrote: post #696
crazygringo wrote: post #560

Framing this as needing "consent" is deeply misguided. It's as silly as claiming that Microsoft Word installed an English language spellcheck dictionary without your consent. It's just part of the software. You consented to installing the software and having it autoupdate. That covers it. Now we can argue whether or not it's an appropriate amount of disk space or bandwidth to use, but that's just a reasonable practic…

If Rockstar games can be criticized for Hot Coffee then Chrome can absolutely be criticized for such bloat ware.

TIL, what a nutty situation.

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

#805

Post by zelon88 »

crazygringo wrote: post #560

Framing this as needing "consent" is deeply misguided. It's as silly as claiming that Microsoft Word installed an English language spellcheck dictionary without your consent. It's just part of the software. You consented to installing the software and having it autoupdate. That covers it. Now we can argue whether or not it's an appropriate amount of disk space or bandwidth to use, but that's just a reasonable practic…

> It's just part of the software. You consented to installing the software and having it autoupdate. That covers it.

So where is the line we draw where bait-and-switch goes from being acceptable to unacceptable?

MA Chapter 93A for example clearly says that businesses are prohibited from "unfair or deceptive practices" including misrepresentation or concealing defects. Where do you think the line should be?

If you market a product as a Browser and it's codebase is 10% browser related and 90% some other program... Should Google have to correctly represent that product?

Related; If you didn't like when Apple forced you to use Siri on your phone, why did you purchase a Mac? Did you not expect them to continue disrespecting your sovereignty after you let them get away with it the first couple dozen times?

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

#806

Post by laserbeam »

crazygringo wrote: post #560

Framing this as needing "consent" is deeply misguided. It's as silly as claiming that Microsoft Word installed an English language spellcheck dictionary without your consent. It's just part of the software. You consented to installing the software and having it autoupdate. That covers it. Now we can argue whether or not it's an appropriate amount of disk space or bandwidth to use, but that's just a reasonable practic…

That's like saying users have no right to push against certain features. It's like saying Windows Recall was always ok and there was never any reason to demand it not be installed. The only difference is one can choose to use a different browser easier than they can choose a different OS.

You're right in the sense that practicality and consent are orthogonal issues. There are probably stronger arguments to complain about a feature than the disk use.

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

#807

Post by pamcake »

sevenzero wrote: post #21
dotcoma wrote: post #10

Why use a browser from Google or Microsoft in 2026? Why in the world?

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.

Konform Browser

Mullvad Browser

Tor Browser for those occasions

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

#808

Post by andai »

jchw wrote: post #585
crazygringo wrote: post #560

Framing this as needing "consent" is deeply misguided. It's as silly as claiming that Microsoft Word installed an English language spellcheck dictionary without your consent. It's just part of the software. You consented to installing the software and having it autoupdate. That covers it. Now we can argue whether or not it's an appropriate amount of disk space or bandwidth to use, but that's just a reasonable practic…

It's additional software that many users didn't ask for, don't want and will not be aware of. Reminds me a bit of back when installing software was a minefield due to all of the integrated "promotions" for things like toolbars, only now they've vertically integrated the unwanted software, cutting out the middleman. Honestly, for most features you could justifiably say its fine. I mean honestly, how large is an Englis…

> Reminds me a bit of back when installing software was a minefield due to all of the integrated "promotions" for things like toolbars, only now they've vertically integrated the unwanted software, cutting out the middleman.

You know, I never thought about it like that, but it is true. The bloat and spyware is a core part of the OS now.

It's just more efficient that way!

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

#809

Post by [deleted] »

crazygringo wrote: post #560

Framing this as needing "consent" is deeply misguided. It's as silly as claiming that Microsoft Word installed an English language spellcheck dictionary without your consent. It's just part of the software. You consented to installing the software and having it autoupdate. That covers it. Now we can argue whether or not it's an appropriate amount of disk space or bandwidth to use, but that's just a reasonable practic…

[deleted]
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