The U.S. Department of Justice may force Google to sell Google Chrome
It is commonplace for Google to be subject to antitrust investigations. Previously, the European Union determined that Android had a monopoly and eventually forced Google to change.
However, there will be a larger antitrust investigation waiting for Google, and the US Department of Justice is considering forcing the split of Google to prevent Google from hindering competition.
There is no news on how to split it, but there is news that the US Department of Justice and the US Attorney General’s Office will consider forcing Google to sell Google Chrome.
The judiciary believes that Google Chrome and Google’s advertising business have a very high market share, and Google may take advantage of the browser to collect user information and sell advertisements.
The US Department of Justice is preparing to initiate a separate antitrust lawsuit against Google’s abuse of control over the online search market, that is, Google’s search business.
Google sells advertisements through search engines and earns huge profits, and Google Chrome has become an integral part of boosting Google’s search market share.
At the same time, the company will also use Google Chrome to collect user privacy information and then push targeted advertising, and these advantages are not available to Google’s competitors.
How to control Google’s control over the online advertising market is still being discussed, and the U.S. judiciary is conducting confidential discussions in the form of anonymous speeches.
The U.S. Attorney General’s Office requires advertising technology experts, industry competitors, and media publishers to participate in discussions and plan countermeasures that can weaken Google’s control.
Google launched the Google Chrome browser in 2008. This browser currently has a very high market share in the US and global markets.
Competitors accuse Google of using browsers to collect user information to push targeted advertisements, which is a great blow to competitors in Google’s advertising business.
After being criticized, Google Chrome began to strengthen privacy controls, such as restricting third-party cookies to avoid ad networks and media publishers from tracking users privately.
Google said that after testing this privacy control strategy will reduce the revenue of media publishers by up to 62%, so it will hit the advertising network industry very hard.
But other browsers such as Apple’s Safari and Firefox browsers have adopted stricter restrictions to protect user privacy and prevent users from being tracked continuously.
The US House of Representatives Antitrust Committee pointed out in the report that Google has been able to effectively formulate industry standards with its market advantages, which will affect the development of the entire industry.
Although Google Chrome began to restrict tracking by other ad networks, Google itself may still be able to collect and track user interests through Google Chrome.
The discussion in the US judiciary includes the forced sale of Google Chrome. Of course, these are only discussions that are currently under consideration and evaluation by the US Attorney General’s Office.
Google competitors and industry experts who participated in the discussion said that the U.S. Attorney General’s Office has solicited opinions from the industry and issued industry views on which businesses to sell.
The US Attorney General’s Office even discussed whether Google’s competitors now have the right to become potential buyers if Google is forced to sell certain businesses.
If Google is forced to sell Google Chrome, it will inevitably cause shocks to the entire industry and the entire Internet, so this will also require more time to discuss.
Via: Politico
