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Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent — That Privacy Guy! (www.thatprivacyguy.com)
submitted 4 months ago by to c/technology@beehaw.org
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[–] 13 points 4 months ago (2 children)

The problem, mostly, is that it is installed without informing the user or asking for content and it reinstalls even if you delete it, which is what a malware does. I may not want a local AI work on my laptop on battery while I am working and browsing the internet.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    To me this seems arbitrary—Chrome contains countless other binary blobs which you have no insight to and cannot consent to. They are part of the application. Chrome contains other machine learning algorithms and features and has for years, but these have been baked-in. You have likely been using "local AI" or machine learning on your laptop battery for quite some time without being explicitly aware of it.

    If people don't like these features that's fine, there are lots of alternatives to choose from (personally, I use Helium). But to be upset about this specific instance seems arbitrary to me. And to claim that it's somehow nefarious (i.e. the consent part) seems disingenuous. Consent is granted when the user downloads and begins using Chrome—why would Chrome need additional consent to download/update one of many external components?

    Again, I don't use Chrome and I'm not interested in this feature, I just don't see how it's necessarily bad or evil all things considered.

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  • [–] 10 points 4 months ago

    You have likely been using "local AI" or machine learning on your laptop battery for quite some time without being explicitly aware of it.

    But to be upset about this specific instance seems arbitrary to me.

    I am upset because I am aware of this one. How can I be upset about something I am not even aware of?

    why would Chrome need additional consent to download/update one of many external components?

    The user should be informed about what they are getting. By that logic Chrome csn also install and run a crypto miner.

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