🎙️ E24: Rethinking the Browser Wars: Big Tech, Privacy, and the Future of Browsing

Are browsers the internet’s last battleground or its next revolution?

In this episode, Aparna and Harinda unpack the browser wars of 2025 and explore why browsers—once sleepy defaults—are now central to everything from global surveillance to antitrust crackdowns to AI’s future user interface.

Listen for:

• Why Google’s cookie phase-out changes the internet’s business model
• The geopolitics of data: digital borders, European regulation & tech sovereignty
• How OpenAI’s new browser ambitions could redefine search, advertising & discovery
• What DOJ v. Google tells us about Big Tech’s antitrust future
• Ethical fault lines: ad tracking, AI hallucinations & who shapes your online world 

🕒 Chapters
00:00 The Browser Landscape: A New Era
02:16 Understanding Browsers: The Gateway to the Internet
09:25 Cookies and Data Privacy: The Hidden Threat
11:34 Geopolitical Implications: Data Ownership and Sovereignty
14:21 OpenAI’s Business Model: The Future of Browsers
14:27 The Antitrust Landscape and Big Tech’s Future
16:27 The Role of Venture Capital in Tech Regulation
19:11 Business Models: Browsers and Advertising
29:31 Ethical Implications of Generative AI
35:25 The Importance of Browsers in the Digital Age Connect &

👥 Connect & Deepen Your Insight

• Aparna Bhushan — LinkedIn
• Harinda Katugaha — LinkedIn
• Full transcripts, sources & visuals → https://rethinktech.substack.com/ 

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