Ctrl+Alt+Choose: The Fight for Your Browser Choice
For years, choosing your default browser on Windows has meant fighting through pop-ups, dark patterns, and quiet nudges designed to keep you exactly where Microsoft wants you: on Edge. This talk pulls back the curtain on the tactics shaping browser competition today, why real consumer choice matters more than ever, and how competition drives innovation. Plus, what the Browser Choice Alliance is doing to push regulators towards a fairer, more open web, one default setting at a time.
Gerardo Proaño
Meet Gerardo Proaño — Brussels’ resident antitrust whisperer, competition-policy maestro, and the guy corporations call when regulators start circling. Part economist, part international law nerd, and full-time reputation strategist, Gerardo has built a career at the intersection of law, politics and PR, advising law firms and Fortune 500 giants alike through their highest-stakes regulatory battles. He is the representative for the Browser Choice Alliance, which champions competition in the Windows desktop browser market — the very 2020s cause of consumers’ freedom to pick their own darn web browser instead of getting nagged and dark-patterned into Edge.