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Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium

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Re: Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium

#21
post #12
post #4

Can somebody explain what are the practical implications of this?

You'll need an "approved" browser and potentially "approved" hardware to access the web. Since Cloudflare is on this too, most of the web will be locked for anyone who doesn't use mainstream hardware.

But why do they care so much about this? Is it only for DRM on media playback?

Re: Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium

#22

Is adding a feature-flag really the same as pushing the feature into the browser immediately? It can easily just be part of a SWE needing the flag in place in order to continue work without impacting anything else, even if that thing never ever launches. In general Google engineers don't tend to work on branches, especially long-running ones. Incremental small code reviews are the expectation. The general process wou…

When was the last time you heard Google or anything Google-related backing down from getting their paws in deeper? It's no longer a fallacy when there's a sign next to the slippery slope.

Re: Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium

#23

Is adding a feature-flag really the same as pushing the feature into the browser immediately? It can easily just be part of a SWE needing the flag in place in order to continue work without impacting anything else, even if that thing never ever launches. In general Google engineers don't tend to work on branches, especially long-running ones. Incremental small code reviews are the expectation. The general process wou…

> Is adding a feature-flag really the same as pushing the feature into the browser immediately? It can easily just be part of a SWE needing the flag in place in order to continue work without impacting anything else, even if that thing never ever launches.

Yes, because that's a such anti-consumer issue. It shouldn't exist in the first place, it should never be merged to master. There's no reason to not keep it on a separate branch if you don't intend to use it.

Re: Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium

#24
post #9
post #4

Can somebody explain what are the practical implications of this?

If adopted by publishers, the web will be closed to everyone but allowed browsers on allowed OSes on allowed hardware. No ad blockers, no extensions, no customizations beyond what the few chosen browsers allow explicitly.

I have a website so I guess that makes me a publisher. Say I wanted to block Chrome on Windows and Firefox on Debian? How would I use this?

Re: Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium

#25
post #5

I feel like I have to repeat this, since so much is at stake here, where it is about the preservation of the web as we know it today, at the peril of having it turned into yet another walled garden: The only way around the dystopia this will lead to is to constantly and relentlessly shame and even harass all those involved in helping create it. The scolding in the issue tracker of that wretched "project" shall flow l…

Is https://github.com/RupertBenWiser/Web-Environment-Integrity/... the best place to shame?

Re: Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium

#26
If this isn't the straw that breaks the camel's back, there is never going to be one.

Google needs to be broken up.

They own the browser market. They own the web (through Adwords). They own Search. They own mobile. They own most of the video sharing market with 2.5 billion monthly annual users. They own a good chunk of email with 1.2 billion monthly annual users.

They have amassed an incomprehensible amount of power and influence over humanity and they have proven repeatedly that they are willing to use that power to the detriment of humanity and to entrench themselves further.

Google needs to be broken up.

Re: Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium

#27

Is adding a feature-flag really the same as pushing the feature into the browser immediately? It can easily just be part of a SWE needing the flag in place in order to continue work without impacting anything else, even if that thing never ever launches. In general Google engineers don't tend to work on branches, especially long-running ones. Incremental small code reviews are the expectation. The general process wou…

Companies don't usually make a habit of having their employees work on something they don't intend to pursue.

Re: Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium

#28

Is adding a feature-flag really the same as pushing the feature into the browser immediately? It can easily just be part of a SWE needing the flag in place in order to continue work without impacting anything else, even if that thing never ever launches. In general Google engineers don't tend to work on branches, especially long-running ones. Incremental small code reviews are the expectation. The general process wou…

[flagged]

Re: Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium

#29
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'll need an "approved" browser and potentially "approved" hardware to access the web. Since Cloudflare is on this too, most of the web will be locked for anyone who doesn't use mainstream hardware.

But why do they care so much about this? Is it only for DRM on media playback?

No, this is for DRM on web pages. End game is probably to force ads down your throat.

Re: Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium

#30
post #4

Can somebody explain what are the practical implications of this?

Nothing will happen. People have been making the same complaints about every new crypto standard for decades, and yet here we are. TPMs are a thing, EME has been around for over a decade now, DRM on the web is as pervasive as it's ever going to get, and yet no one's user experience is any worse than it was before these technologies existed.
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