Changes

===Opposing industry standards===

===Opposing industry standards===

In addition to their political activities, Google has caused some controversy within its own industry by refusing to comply with industry standards.  Since they own the most popular web browser and the most popular search engine (at least withing the US), they have decided that they can bring about changes they believe are needed despite what the rest of the industry has decided.<br />

In addition to their political activities, Google has caused some controversy within its own industry by refusing to comply with industry standards.  Since they own the most popular web browser and the most popular search engine (at least within the US), they have decided that they can bring about changes they believe are needed despite what the rest of the industry has decided.<br />

For example, the norm is that users are only logged into a service when they request it, and when they attempt to delete the cookies in their browser, the browser does so.  However, Google decided in 2018 to automatically log users into their google accounts, and protect the google cookies own cookies from deletion, so that Google's cookies could not be deleted by the user (through the browser).<ref>https://www.wired.com/story/google-chrome-login-privacy/</ref><ref>https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/24/17895536/google-chrome-69-log-in-sync-password-user-data-privacy</ref><br />

For example, the norm is that users are only logged into a service when they request it, and when they attempt to delete the cookies in their browser, the browser does so.  However, Google decided in 2018 to automatically log users into their google accounts, and protect the google cookies own cookies from deletion, so that Google's cookies could not be deleted by the user (through the browser).<ref>https://www.wired.com/story/google-chrome-login-privacy/</ref><ref>https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/24/17895536/google-chrome-69-log-in-sync-password-user-data-privacy</ref><br />

As another example, Google search was changed in 2018 to hide certain subdomains, including the "www" which many websites use. Users only would see the domain name and the [[TLD]], while the rest was masked.  Further, the search engine would link users to sites which were using the "www" subdomain without that subdomain, so the site would need to redirect users to the proper location.  Google knew this was not what the sites wanted, but chose to make this change anyway.<ref>https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/google-security-risk-hiding-subdomains/</ref><ref>https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/google/google-testing-removal-of-www-subdomain-from-search-results/</ref><ref>https://technocodex.com/google-removed-www-and-m-subdomains-in-chrome-69-how-to-disable-it/</ref> Not only is this inconvenient, but masking parts of URLs in inherently dangerous, since attackers can abuse such features to trick users into trusting a fraudulent site or page. The industry standard is, therefore, to show users the entire link which they have used to connect.<br />

As another example, Google search was changed in 2018 to hide certain subdomains, including the "www" which many websites use. Users only would see the domain name and the [[TLD]], while the rest was masked.  Further, the search engine would link users to sites which were using the "www" subdomain without that subdomain, so the site would need to redirect users to the proper location.  Google knew this was not what the sites wanted, but chose to make this change anyway.<ref>https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/google-security-risk-hiding-subdomains/</ref><ref>https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/google/google-testing-removal-of-www-subdomain-from-search-results/</ref><ref>https://technocodex.com/google-removed-www-and-m-subdomains-in-chrome-69-how-to-disable-it/</ref> Not only is this inconvenient, but masking parts of URLs in inherently dangerous, since attackers can abuse such features to trick users into trusting a fraudulent site or page. The industry standard is, therefore, to show users the entire link which they have used to connect.<br />