[rchaud]

Chrome is the biggest browser by market share and is maintained by a company whose entire business model revolves around tracking users to feed them ads. They have zero incentive to remove cookies. Same goes for Safari and Edge, even though they're not as dependent on ad revenue.

This is a textbook example of negative externalities that can't be solved by market forces. That's where regulators should be stepping in.

[naasking]

> Chrome is the biggest browser by market share and is maintained by a company whose entire business model revolves around tracking users to feed them ads. They have zero incentive to remove cookies.

Not true. If they don't do something, legislators are going to impose hamfisted regulation like GDPR which does impact their bottom line and hampers their business.

So Google's incentives overlap somewhat with users here. It's possible there's a middle ground in this overlap where the browser includes features specifically for ad-driven content rather than relying on general data load/store mechanisms like cookies which can be easily abused for more nefarious purposes.

Although regulation specifically targeting browser vendors to develop such features would also do the job. It's a mistake to try and push this on websites though.

[rchaud]

GDPR may affect Google's bottom line in EU markets (we are still awaiting proof as it's too early too tell). But seeing how the FCC dealt with the issue of net neutrality, I have serious doubts that they'd get anywhere near a consumer-first policy regarding Internet privacy.

[r00fus]

The previous Democratic administration FCC rule was pro-NN.

The GOP FCC has undone all that. Vote for Democratic congresscriiters this year and begin to undo the damage.

Vote Trump and his FCC out of office in 2020 and a GDPR may be possible.