Google Chrome is downloading a 4 GB Gemini Nano model onto users' machines without consent, with no opt-in, no opt-out short of enterprise tooling, and an automatic re-download every time the user deletes it. The pattern is identical to the Anthropic Claude Desktop case I wrote about last month, but the scale is between two and three orders of magnitude larger. This article does the legal analysis and, for the first time, the environmental analysis. The numbers are not small.
My mom never used iTunes on her phone, meaning she never once put any music on her phone, and so she was completely confused/angry when she’d get in her car and suddenly it would pair and start playing this U2 album. She didn’t know how to stop it, so it would play over and over (she’d just drop the volume). It also didn’t help that the cover art is among the gayest things to ever appear on her phone screen. I’d come home to visit and get in her car and she’d just start hollering “this stupid thing, where did this come from?!?”
Remember when people used to go insane in newsgroups screaming bloat if a program update was 80 KB bigger than the previous version and now people do not notice an extra 4 GB.
Do you mean that time they installed a rootkit on people’s PCs when they went to play (what was supposed to be) a music CD, or the time they retroactively and remotely sabotaged Linux on people’s Playstations?
Just wondering which massive felony that should’ve landed the entire C-suite in prison you’re referring to, since there was more than one.
Idk about that, you can’t uninstall any of the ai bs they put on phones and computers, from microsoft to android. You can’t uninstall edge on a newer computer either, not without being an IT specialist or whatever.
Remember how few years ago there was a massive outcry when U2s album was downloaded to devices without permission?
I remember when Sony installed rootkits on our home computers when we played CDs with music we bought.
I have not bought a single Sony device or product since.
Never forget.
My mom never used iTunes on her phone, meaning she never once put any music on her phone, and so she was completely confused/angry when she’d get in her car and suddenly it would pair and start playing this U2 album. She didn’t know how to stop it, so it would play over and over (she’d just drop the volume). It also didn’t help that the cover art is among the gayest things to ever appear on her phone screen. I’d come home to visit and get in her car and she’d just start hollering “this stupid thing, where did this come from?!?”
Two decades. We’re old
As I said, few years ago.
It was last year. /s
I believe they did it a second time more recently.
Remember how pissed off everyone was when Sony added software to people’s computers?
Remember when people used to go insane in newsgroups screaming bloat if a program update was 80 KB bigger than the previous version and now people do not notice an extra 4 GB.
Do you mean that time they installed a rootkit on people’s PCs when they went to play (what was supposed to be) a music CD, or the time they retroactively and remotely sabotaged Linux on people’s Playstations?
Just wondering which massive felony that should’ve landed the entire C-suite in prison you’re referring to, since there was more than one.
I may be a forgetful curmudgeon, but I sure remember those!
*shakes cane at things*
Hey come on now, there’s no need to lie. We all know that when the C-suite does it it’s not a crime in America. It’s illegal to hold them accountable!
/wrist :(
The sad thing is that Sony is multinational, and they weren’t prosecuted in Japan or anywhere else, either.
I think the rootkit was only on CD’s sold in North America. I could be wrong though.
Nope Europe too
…did you mean to say Korea?
What do you mean? I don’t follow.
Free music was awesome.
No they took payment
If it was actually good people may not have cared so much.
Even if it was good - and it’s not - it’s still an incredibly unethical thing to do.
The big deal about that was that it was added to people’s libraries and couldn’t be removed.
This isn’t pushed in your face, and you can easily uninstall Chrome.
Idk about that, you can’t uninstall any of the ai bs they put on phones and computers, from microsoft to android. You can’t uninstall edge on a newer computer either, not without being an IT specialist or whatever.
Well, and it was U2.