The app automatically installs Bing Visual Search and includes code to decrypt cookies saved in other browsers, Rivera said, and it also brings a “free” geolocation web API to the system.

The developer discovered “many” nasty tricks Microsoft integrated in Bing Wallpapers, which include trying to change the browser’s settings and set Edge as the default system browser. If the default browser isn’t Edge, the app will open the default browser after some time asking to enable the previously installed Microsoft Bing Search for Chrome extension.

    • T00l_shed@lemmy.world
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      15 hours ago

      Best time was a decade ago. Second best time is now. Same with Google, and Apple, auto companies and grocery companies. And…and…and. it’s almost as the free market DOESN’T solve issues it creates them.

      • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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        13 hours ago

        Oh, free markets can solve these problems, but we don’t have a free market. These big companies don’t win because they’re the best, they win because they buy the marketshare bribe companies to only support their platforms.

        ISPs are a fantastic example here. Starting a new ISP is prohibitively expensive, not because of the physical materials you need, but the permits (which the ISPs lobbied for) and lawsuits w/ existing ISPs. In a proper free market, we’d have a lot more selection than we do.

        What you call “free market” I call “crony-capitalism.” In a free market, monopolies only stay monopolies if they continue to be better than the alternatives. In a crony-capitalist market, monopolies continue if they can make enough barriers to prevent competition.

        • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
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          2 hours ago

          These big companies don’t win because they’re the best, they win because they buy the marketshare bribe companies to only support their platforms.

          You’re just describing free market capitalism.

          The companies are free to do what they want without government telling them they can’t do XYZ.

          In a free market, monopolies only stay monopolies if they continue to be better than the alternatives.

          I disagree, because like you say, they can just use their position to harm competitors.

          In a crony-capitalist market, monopolies continue if they can make enough barriers to prevent competition.

          A crony-capitalist market is just the natural end result of free market capitalism.

          Only by regulating the market and not having companies be free to do whatever they want can you have healthy competition and companies that benefit people.

        • T00l_shed@lemmy.world
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          8 hours ago

          I disagree. Monopolies are the end state of free market capitalism, and yes the economic system we experience in north America isn’t true capitalism either.

          • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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            5 hours ago

            I really disagree, but we haven’t seen anything approaching a truly free market for 100 years or so, so it’s really hard to say.

            That said, one of the core functions of government is to break up monopolies to keep the market free.