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Google has a secret browser hidden inside the settings

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Re: Google has a secret browser hidden inside the settings

#121

Side point: When you rent a Tesla, please do not sign into youtube. Subsequent renters can see your whole Google account (including family members, phone numbers etc). Or at least sign out before you return the car!

What makes this Tesla specific? This seems like pretty standard behavior on public computers or TVs in hotels.

Re: Google has a secret browser hidden inside the settings

#122
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Making arbitrary rules unbreakable has always seemed iffy to me... It creates better hackers.

IMO, it creates less hackers.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bTeVgfPM0Xw&t=5m29s

Life, uh, finds a way.

Re: Google has a secret browser hidden inside the settings

#124
post #10

Google's increasingly cavalier attitude towards security is concerning: 1) Kids WILL use this to bypass parental / school controls as soon as they learn about it 2) In some contexts (especially as high-stakes test settings, but also some military/prison/finance/medical/legal/etc. settings) this IS a direct security risk 3) Given the embedded browser is not secure, if a lot of kids do this, it WILL lead to someone exp…

The prevailing take on HN and most other geeky sites is that measures meant to prevent users from fully using their devices - DRM, secure boot, etc - are harmful at worst and pointless at best. We usually don't get upset about iPhone or Playstation jailbreaks - we celebrate users regaining control of their devices. This is even though you can think of a malicious use or two.

What's different about this issue? That it gives us an opportunity to bash Google? And to make broad inferences about the company's supposed demise from a single anecdotal data point? Essentially every other company that attempts these kinds of controls will sooner or later find it bypassed, usually many times over...

Re: Google has a secret browser hidden inside the settings

#125

TIL mobile JavaScript console https://eruda.liriliri.io/

Is it just me or does this completely not work? When I paste the Javascript snippet into the address bar, nothing happens. And in Nightly it just performs a Google search with that string.

Re: Google has a secret browser hidden inside the settings

#126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was a kid we managed to hack into my school's lab's computers to install Doom and Warcraft II. Good times.

> Doom and Warcraft II If that's all today's kids had access to, I wouldn't be worried about it either. I work with "average" kids today that have access to far more developmentally-damaging media, and I want the few kids that have parents that care enough to set up controls, to have a fighting chance.

Oh, I am absolutely sure of that.

I didn't mean my silly recollections there to be a way to handwave the concerns of people with parental controls nowadays. Those are important.

I just miss those simpler times. The most risque thing we got our hands on back then were low resolution porn clips. Perhaps some odd hentai AVI with mangled translation.

People used to be up in arms about something silly as Carmageddon being damaging to kid's mental health while truly awful stuff such as social media was brewing on the horizon.

Re: Google has a secret browser hidden inside the settings

#127
post #72

This guy's experience reporting a bug to Google reminds me of mine: Me: Here's a bug in Google Sheets that exposes deleted content to third parties. Google: Not a bug. Working as expected, closing issue. Me: Really? I was personally harmed by this bug while using the application. Google: Actually, it is a bug but it's a longtime known issue, therefore you are not eligible for bug bounty. Closing issue.

Sounds like ChatGPT..

Re: Google has a secret browser hidden inside the settings

#128
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you visit arbitrary websites using such webviews? I never managed to. And IIRC it's rather difficult to set up a webview that allows multiple domains or URLs (but I'm no android dev, and the last time I had to fiddle with this, was years ago)

It's possible. I remember one app that opened a webview to their terms of use page, which somewhere had a link to a Google page, which I could use to go to Google search. So, no direct URL input, but you could go to any website indexed.

Or find a website like the mobile JS console people mentioned in this thread to link yourself anywhere, indexed or not

Re: Google has a secret browser hidden inside the settings

#129
post #121

Side point: When you rent a Tesla, please do not sign into youtube. Subsequent renters can see your whole Google account (including family members, phone numbers etc). Or at least sign out before you return the car!

What makes this Tesla specific? This seems like pretty standard behavior on public computers or TVs in hotels.

Yeah that really sketches me out because people log in to Youtube but that's their main gmail (or worse, google apps) account usually. I know Google probably requires re-auth if somebody tried to use that session token again from a different device .... probably.

Re: Google has a secret browser hidden inside the settings

#130
post #10

Google's increasingly cavalier attitude towards security is concerning: 1) Kids WILL use this to bypass parental / school controls as soon as they learn about it 2) In some contexts (especially as high-stakes test settings, but also some military/prison/finance/medical/legal/etc. settings) this IS a direct security risk 3) Given the embedded browser is not secure, if a lot of kids do this, it WILL lead to someone exp…

Kids bypassing a default web browser is not a security issue, but a parenting issue.
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