Google Draws House Antitrust Scrutiny of Encrypted DNS | Hacker News Reader

Google Draws House Antitrust Scrutiny of Encrypted DNS

wsj.com

I am more concerned that they are using the idea that this "would give the internet giant an unfair advantage by denying access to users' data" as a pretext for "We will no longer be able to spy and spoof efficiently on our customers".

In my opinion, the telecoms and government give us a lot more reasons for concern than google. Its not in googles best interest to become known for censorship, customers will just use another browser and search engine (some already have), but you don't have the same degree of recourse with government and telecom control.

I agree with you - The goverments do not care about our privacy. Again and again this has been demonstrated through the laws passed and practices of these big spy organisations.

What can we do? It feels like the drip is tightening and everyone is asleep.

What you can do is try to prevent legislation that puts arbitrary barriers to entry for competition. If privacy is as big a concern as we think it is, over the long term products which offer privacy built in will outperform in the market. Meaning Apple and google will build in privacy into its products or risk losing market share.

The only way that will be prevented is if a law(s) are passed which prohibit google from making changes that would make it harder for telecoms and government(s) to spy on you.

People say: "I'll just block it in my hosts file"

With DNS over HTTPS you can't. You can't even intercept DNS and reroute it to your own DNS server.

Suppose a device, let's say a RoKu (or many other) wants to use a DNS that you cannot block, it could use Google's DNS over HTTPS to a private name server of its choosing. Your DNS, and your hosts file doesn't matter. This makes it significantly harder to block anything (probably ads, but not necessarily only ads).

You could try to intercept these requests, but how do you know an HTTPS request is for DNS? And for what name it is being requested?

Taken further, a device, say an Apple TV, hypothetically, could even use a proprietary DNS protocol to talk to its own mother ship.

The companies which consumers generally have no choice about (landline ISPs) complaining about antitrust with a company that I'm one click away from abandoning for a competitor. This is rich.

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