U.S. DOJ and Congress skeptical over Google’s plan to encrypt DNS

Google’s intentions to implement DNS over TLS in its Chrome browsing platform has apparently become a subject of scrutiny among American regulatory authorities.

It has come to the fore through credible sources that the House Judiciary Committee is reportedly investigating Google’s plans to encrypt domain name requests, while the Justice Department (DOJ) has recently said it received complaints regarding the practice.

Google claims it intends to use the technology to counter spoofing and spying, but House investigators are concerned this would offer the tech giant an unfair competitive edge by denying access to users’ data.

Sources familiar with the development reported that the House sent a letter to Google on September 13, 2019 enquiring if the brand would use the data acquired through the process for commercial purposes.

The Mountain View, California-headquartered company evidently claimed that its Chrome update would provide users control over who shares their information. Google also mentioned that it won’t force users to switch to encrypted DNS. However, it seems highly unlikely that it would alleviate telecoms’ concerns.

Internet service providers are concerned that the move may shut them out of the data, and they won’t know as much about their users’ traffic patterns. This would foreclose competition in advertising and other businesses, mentioned an alliance of ISPs in letter addressed to Congress on September 19, 2019. 

Earlier this month, Google had reportedly disclosed its plans to test DNS-over-HTTPS protocol in Chrome starting with v78, scheduled for release in October.

Mozilla also reportedly intends to secure DNS in Firefox

California-based Mozilla recently said it wants to use DNS over TLS in Firefox. Mozilla’s Marshall Erwin commented that antitrust complaints are fundamentally misleading, and ISPs are focused to undermine the standard because they want continuous access to users’ data.

Unencrypted DNS enables them to target ads by tracking users’ web habits and use patterns, and it is trickier to obstruct DNS tracking than cookies and other mainstream approaches, Erwin stated.

ACCC had lashed out at Google, Facebook 

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) in July had handed a 623-page report suggesting 23 recommendations relating to competitive behavior as well as market prominence of tech majors, including Google and Facebook, in the country.

Source credit: Engadget- Google-faces-scrutiny-from-Congress-DOJ-over-plans-to-encrypt-DNS