11 votes

Differential privacy code removed from Chromium

In a discussion on Hacker News, Jonathan Mayer pointed out that the differential privacy code was removed from Chromium. It looks like they finished doing this in February.

I haven't seen any announcement, discussion, or explanation of this based on a brief web search, so I figured I'd note it here.

At about the time this process finished, there was a Google blog post about how they're still using it in other products.

We first deployed our world-class differential privacy anonymization technology in Chrome nearly seven years ago and are continually expanding its use across our products including Google Maps and the Assistant.

(If you read this quickly, you might think it's still used in Chrome.)

Reading between the lines, I suspect that some folks at Google are still advocating for more usage of differential privacy, but they lost an important customer. Why that happened is a mystery.

4 comments

  1. [4]
    sron
    Link
    Perhaps they're removing it from Chromium to make it a proprietary Chrome part? I thought most open licenses prevented revoking it after granting it though?

    Perhaps they're removing it from Chromium to make it a proprietary Chrome part? I thought most open licenses prevented revoking it after granting it though?

    3 votes
    1. [3]
      vord
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      A lot of forks happen because of license changes for all future releases (Subsonic/Airsonic, Emby/Jellyfin). If I recall correctly (somebody correct me), the original creator often has the option...

      A lot of forks happen because of license changes for all future releases (Subsonic/Airsonic, Emby/Jellyfin). If I recall correctly (somebody correct me), the original creator often has the option of selling a differently-licensed version of the same program, as they own the copywrite. It can get more complicated depending on user patch submissions.

      Google giveth, Google taketh away. Even if they do re-implement in proprietary Chrome, how can we be sure it's not just 'privacy enforced for everyone but Google'?

      3 votes
      1. [2]
        sron
        Link Parent
        I was thinking (speculating without evidence) that maybe they are removing it from Chromium so browsers based on it can't use it, and Google keep full control over how it's used. Maybe they feel...

        I was thinking (speculating without evidence) that maybe they are removing it from Chromium so browsers based on it can't use it, and Google keep full control over how it's used. Maybe they feel Edge is a threat now?

        3 votes
        1. skybrian
          Link Parent
          Google open sourced its differential privacy code, which would be an odd thing to do if you don’t want other people using it. Also, anyone using the Chromium code base can remove whatever tracking...

          Google open sourced its differential privacy code, which would be an odd thing to do if you don’t want other people using it.

          Also, anyone using the Chromium code base can remove whatever tracking they don’t like (as Brave does) or change where the metrics are sent (which I assume Microsoft does).

          Not to mention that even in Chrome, which metrics get reported by the browser itself is controlled by a user setting.

          Web applications all have their own reporting and metrics though, which are harder to deal with.

          1 vote