Web browsers are the automobiles of the information superhighway—and they’re gaining ever more power in the way they mediate people’s interaction with the digital world.
“Web browsers” is, of course, a euphemism for Google’s competition-crushing Chrome. The software claims two-thirds of global market share—and two upcoming updates to the system are poised to reinforce and heighten its privileged position while also bolstering Google’s ad business.
The first change involves Internet encryption. The second concerns the elimination of third-party ad tracking by 2022.
On the former point, Google plans to follow Mozilla Firefox’s lead in encrypting people’s website lookup queries by default. The new policy, called DNS over HTTPS, a letter-jumble that refers to arcane Internet infrastructure, is designed to improve people’s security and privacy.
In practice, this means when someone browses online, Internet service providers like AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon, and other snoopers will be unable to tell which websites a person is visiting. These companies could use this information to build detailed profiles of users for discrimination, affecting their service, or for advertising.
It’s easy to see how Google benefits from the move. In a world stripped of “net neutrality” protections, which the U.S. Federal Communications Commission voted to repeal at the end of 2017, Google adopting DNS over HTTPS dents possible advertising competition from Big Cable.
The second change—what has been dubbed the “cookie apocalypse“—will eliminate cross-website ad trackers, a move already pushed by Apple and others. The sweep-out only affects third-party trackers, not first-party ones, however. This means that popular services, such as Google’s, can keep on keeping tabs on you (and your Chrome tabs).
Self-interest isn’t the only motivation here. These changes do boost privacy and security. With respect to DNS over HTTPS, establishing securer website connections helps prevent hackers from intercepting and spoofing people’s Internet traffic, a “man-in-the-middle” threat that is especially pronounced on public Wi-Fi networks. Safer browsing benefits everyone.
Though both changes are for the better, they further bejewel Google’s crown.
Robert Hackett
Twitter: @rhhackett
Email: robert.hackett@fortune.com
THREATS
You don't NSAy? A newly declassified study found that a controversial surveillance program used by the NSA to analyze Americans' call records produced only two leads over the course of its operation between 2015 and 2019. Only one lead was significant, spurring an FBI investigation, according to the government's Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, which authored the report. The since-shuttered Freedom Act program was put in place by the Obama administration to replace a warrantless bulk collection program, codenamed StellarWind, started by the Bush administration.
Kowtow showdown. Apple investors are set to vote on a proposal that would force the company to disclose details of Chinese censorship requests today. The motion was backed by two major corporate governance groups that advise big institutional investors, ISS and Glass Lewis, after it was pushed by SumOfUs, a nonprofit advocacy group that aims to check corporate power. Apple's board is opposed. Meanwhile, Warren Buffett's stake in Apple has doubled to $78.5 billion—14% of Berkshire Hathaway's market capitalization—since he began buying in 2016.
My name is Vlad and I approve this message. The U.S. intelligence community warned Bernie Sanders' campaign in recent months that Russian agents appear to be attempting to boost his bid for the Democratic presidential candidacy in an effort to interfere in the 2020 election. Facebook recently investigated reports of suspicious pro-Sanders content, although the findings were supposedly inconclusive, reports the Wall Street Journal. Meanwhile, Facebook is clamping down on ads related to the coronavirus outbreak.
The Governators. World governments are cracking down on citizens' Internet access with increasing frequency, warns the Wall Street Journal. According to the nonprofit Internet advocacy group Access Now, Internet shutdowns took place 213 times in 33 countries—India, Iran, Pakistan, etc.—last year, the most ever recorded. As if that were not bad enough, the Columbia Journalism Review raises alarms that governments are ramping up their spying on journalists too.
"Dr. Drunkenstein's reign of terror"
ACCESS GRANTED
What makes people susceptible to scams? Reporter Bruce Grierson consults psychiatrists, cognitive scientists, fraud experts, and others to better understand our psychological foibles. He should know. He recently got conned out of $300, which he sent as iTunes gift cards to one lucky conman with a bogus sob story. In his piece for The Walrus, a Canadian magazine, Grierson alerts us to the mind's most common pitfalls.
Scammers exploit thinking errors in the same way those surprise-ending storytellers do. We are “cognitive misers,” says University of Toronto psychologist Keith Stanovich, taking mental shortcuts and jumping to conclusions wherever possible. That’s why Stanovich insists that gullibility isn’t a sign of low intelligence. It’s a sign of “low rationality,” which is different. The front brain never has a chance; the horse has already left the barn with that first snap judgment. And now, all that’s left is rationalization.
FORTUNE RECON
In an abrupt move, Disney CEO Bob Iger departs after 15 years by Michal Lev-Ram
China deploys a favorite weapon in the coronavirus crisis: A crackdown on VPNs by Grady McGregor
Salesforce co-CEO Keith Block steps down, leaving Marc Benioff in charge by Jonathan Vanian
Uber Eats boss steps down effective immediately, as the company focuses on profitability by Danielle Abril
Apple pushes deeper into health research with Johnson & Johnson heart study by Don Reisinger
Katherine Johnson, one of NASA’s Black ‘human computers,’ has died by Ellen McGirt
No, A.I. isn’t deciding which movies to green-light by Dan Reilly
Warren Buffett finally swapped his flip phone for an iPhone by Chris Morris
Amazon opens its first cashierless supermarket in Seattle by Joseph Pisani
ONE MORE THING
How do you protect your home? I'm sure plenty of Data Sheet readers have installed Google Nest or Amazon Ring cameras on their premises. But I'm willing to wager exceedingly few possess the craftwork of the artisanal lock-makers of Dindigul. The locks are lovely and lustrous. (I'm partial to the voluptuous mango lock.) Secure yourself in style, folks.
