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Why has Chrome changes?<\/span><\/p>\n Jaap Arriens\/NurPhoto<\/small><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n Google Chrome dominates the global browser market on desktop and mobile \u2014 only Apple\u2019s Safari makes a dent. That\u2019s why the silent installation of a 4GB AI file on every user\u2019s device suddenly created<\/a> such a furor. And it\u2019s why a quiet change to the settings for billions of Chrome users now threatens to do the same.<\/p>\n The 4GB AI download<\/a> was spotted by privacy advocate Alexander Hanff. The weights.bin file is used to power on-device Gemini Nano, but \u201cChrome did not ask. Chrome does not surface it. If the user deletes it, Chrome re-downloads it.\u201d<\/p>\n Forbes<\/span>\u2018Increasingly Urgent\u2019\u2014Microsoft Issues Password And 2FA Warning<\/span>By Zak Doffman<\/span><\/small><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Hanff has now flagged another issue<\/a> first disclosed on Reddit<\/a>. Until now, Chrome\u2019s on-device AI toggle \u201clived inside the System block and carried the following description: \u2018Without sending your data to Google servers.\u2019\u201d That has now changed.<\/p>\n \u201cThe assurance is gone. The sentence promising that the model runs locally without sending user data to Google\u2019s servers has been deleted from the Settings UI.” Hanff warns the implications are dire.” I want to be blunt. There are only three plausible reasons for a billion-user vendor to remove a specific privacy claim from a product surface, and each of them is a serious problem.”<\/p>\n Google’s Chrome Update<\/span><\/p>\n Reddit<\/small><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n \u201cWas the previous text inaccurate?” Hanff asks. \u201cHas the architecture changed? Was the wording withdrawn on legal advice.\u201d These are questions for regulators.<\/p>\n Hanff also notes that “the toggle has been moved out of the System block and given a dedicated section, which has the secondary effect of visually decoupling it from the surrounding device controls and reducing the chance that an ordinary user notices the change at all.\u201d Thus the secretive nature of the change.<\/p>\n Forbes<\/span>\u2018A Big Deal\u2019\u2014Google\u2019s Gmail Upgrade Is Now Going Live<\/span>By Zak Doffman<\/span><\/small><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Google has now responded, per The Register<\/em><\/a>, to say nothing material has changed. “The edit to the “On-device AI” message occurred in early April. According to Google, Gemini Nano in Chrome processes all data on-device.” <\/p>\n In other words, nothing to see here. Google also responded to Hanff\u2019s viral 4GB AI file report, a response that Hanff has dismissed as gaslighting<\/a>. We await to see if\/how he responds to Google this time around. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n