Google and France agree on ad-tech interop

Not the kind of competition we want.

It’s (mostly) great that Big Tech monopolies are finally facing regulation.

There are two bad things about monopolies:

I. They cheat their customers and suppliers because they know they’re the only game in town, and

II. They use their money to legalize harmful practices.

Here’s a Type I example of how Google uses its monopoly power to cheat: Google controls the ad-tech market they rig it in their favor — they represent both buyers and sellers, and they compete with them, and they advantage themselves.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/11/20/sovkitsch/#adtech

But Google’s ad-tech stack also has a Type II monopoly abuse: the ad-targeting systems Google sells are extraordinarily, harmfully invasive. They get away with this privacy abuse because they convert the money they get from rigging the market to lobby against privacy laws.

There’s a real danger that competition authorities seeking to blunt Google’s monopoly will get Type I and Type II abuses mixed up. It’s great to force Google to run a clean ad marketplace, preferably by forcing it to divest of the units that compete with its own customers.