Why three rival browsers just agreed on one privacy standard
Fierce competitors found common ground on the one thing their users all want — and regulators were watching.
Browser makers agree on almost nothing. So when three of the biggest jointly backed a single privacy standard this week, it was worth asking why.
The answer is partly user pressure and partly the shadow of regulation: a shared standard is easier to defend, and far easier to comply with, than three incompatible ones.
Competing everywhere else
None of this makes the companies friends. They will keep fighting over speed, features and defaults.
But on the narrow question of how cross-site tracking should be limited, they have decided a common floor serves everyone — including, conveniently, themselves.
