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.
Use Shizuku and Canta to uninstall any uninstallable app. Or if you don’t want to bother, just disabling works fine too as long as you are not worried about the storage.
Learned about this the other day and gave it a whirl, worked great, felt reminiscent of old school iPod jailbreaking shenanigans, but I had no issues. Easier (in a way) than adb!
Can you even uninstall chrome on an android phone? I only get the option to disable.
You can use adb on a computer to remove chrome.
https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/188524/how-can-i-uninstall-google-chrome-on-my-android-and-recommend-a-suitable-replace#231279
this is very helpful info, thank you, didn’t realize this was possible.
Use Shizuku and Canta to uninstall any uninstallable app. Or if you don’t want to bother, just disabling works fine too as long as you are not worried about the storage.
Learned about this the other day and gave it a whirl, worked great, felt reminiscent of old school iPod jailbreaking shenanigans, but I had no issues. Easier (in a way) than adb!
That depends on the ROM you are using.
The one i am using (https://iode.tech/) is using a firefox based browser that you can actually uninstall.
Probably not stock Android. I’m on GrapheneOS and it doesn’t come with Chrome at all. But I don’t think the article is claiming it happens on Android.
Vanadium is Chrome derived; but I’m sure Graphene de-enshittifies it to the maximum possible extent.
Technically speaking, it is chromium derived which does make the difference in this instance.
Is this happening on android, too?
I don’t think so… yet… So not as disconcerting tbf, but curious to if it will come out of nowhere at some point, just like this.