If true, that still doesn't negate the other half that is not harmless.
More importantly, how about I get to choose what I consider harmless, rather than having a Silicon Valley advertising agency do that for me?
Also, there's no way of knowing what Google shoves into the "other" category. Sunlight disinfects, even in Mountain View.
But beware, Chrome's lead on render speed is most likely thanks to the performance data they collect. Any other browser you may choose might not collect that data, but don't be surprised if it halves your battery life and takes twice the time to render stuff (such as Firefox in macOS about 6 months ago, don't know how it performs now).
There are reasons for data collection, and I don't think everything is used for malitious intent, which is DDG's point.
Clearly the fix is collecting even more performance data! :)
That is not DDG's point at all. Their point is right in the linked tweet - "Spying on users has nothing to do with building a great web browser or search engine."
This is literally what Chrome does on a MacBook, the battery drain is insane