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Tech giants are hijacking the internet

dw.com

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Re: Tech giants are hijacking the internet

#91

Post by anononaut »

happytiger wrote: post #89
nologic01 wrote: post #23

Well DW could do something about it by at least adding the fediverse on their abominable "follow us on X, Y, Z". DW does not even have an RSS feed for chris sake. The press is complicit in the hijacking of the internet. They made a Faustian pact. Now they are crying foul.

So mainstream press finally starts covering the egregious behavior of big tech companies and the response is to attack them as complicit co-conspirators? Might sound smart but perhaps not the wisest of criticism. Let’s encourage dissent so we can preserve democracies.

Is this satire?

Re: Tech giants are hijacking the internet

#92

Post by doublerabbit »

labcomputer wrote: post #80
doublerabbit wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your missing the point. In that browsers insist that you now -must- have HTTPS. And that if you wish to serve an static HTTP website over HTTP you can not without a glaring "This site is unsafe" thrown in your face.

That's because it is unsafe. Without HTTPS, an attacker can inject arbitrary malicious javascript into the page. The only context in which plain HTTP is ok on today's internet is when you a loading a page from your own server on the same LAN, behind a firewall, when you are reasonably sure that nobody else is in you network.

> That's because it is unsafe. Without HTTPS, an attacker can inject arbitrary malicious javascript into the page.

No they can't. If they can inject malicious content then you should fix the exploits on your platform. HTTPS isn't going to save you. If exploitable under HTTP hey can do the same under HTTPS.

So, How is a static webpage of "hello world" unsafe?

hello world sigh

Replace hello world with whatever information. My father stores his studies in HTML, no GETs, POST requests. Just a href to the next page.

Unless you have actual access to the html file.. You tell me, why should I require cert for that following syntax? You don't.

Re: Tech giants are hijacking the internet

#93

Post by precommunicator »

doublerabbit wrote: post #92
labcomputer wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's because it is unsafe. Without HTTPS, an attacker can inject arbitrary malicious javascript into the page. The only context in which plain HTTP is ok on today's internet is when you a loading a page from your own server on the same LAN, behind a firewall, when you are reasonably sure that nobody else is in you network.

> That's because it is unsafe. Without HTTPS, an attacker can inject arbitrary malicious javascript into the page. No they can't. If they can inject malicious content then you should fix the exploits on your platform. HTTPS isn't going to save you. If exploitable under HTTP hey can do the same under HTTPS. So, How is a static webpage of "hello world" unsafe? hello world sigh Replace hello world with whatever informat…

Now try connecting to public wifi with that. Doing a MiTM and replacing anything with anything else is super easy. Just put a router with some Linux distro acting as extender (or mobile connection AP) with the same name and you can change traffic on any non-HTTPS website.

Or not even a public wifi. Someone can put a device somewhere between your home and ISP and MiTM attack you the same way as above.

Oh, and I will just show you fake e.g. Google login page, not just replace the context. And you are tired and just want to use the web... You won't notice the unsecured connection.

Re: Tech giants are hijacking the internet

#95

Post by charcircuit »

Const-me wrote: post #22
charcircuit wrote: post #7

Big tech is big because they built sustainable products that appeal to billions of people. There was no hijacking. Anyone can still make their own site and become popular. TikTok was able to become the number one site despite not being from big tech.

> built sustainable products Google is spending many millions of dollars per year developing and maintaining free software like Chrome and Android. If the government will miraculously enforce the current anti-competition laws and break the company like they did with Bell Systems in 1982, these Google’s products will suddenly become unsustainable.

Chrome protects Google from any existential threats of being locked out of the web or the web losing to other platforms. Google search earns them billions of dollars.

Google has to play store on Android which earns them billions of dollars.

Re: Tech giants are hijacking the internet

#96

Post by charcircuit »

PierreProstata wrote: post #81
nologic01 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These "products" are built on deceit. They are only sustainable due to regulatory capture. There has never been so much wealth and power amassed (legally) by exploiting the cracks of governance.

Exactly my thoughts, all those tech companies were famously unsustainable, then had to find ways to become sustainable (and profitable) and got way less attractive to users in the process.

>way less attractive to users

They are still attractive enough to keep billions of users using their services.

Re: Tech giants are hijacking the internet

#97

Post by charcircuit »

throwawaaarrgh wrote: post #51
charcircuit wrote: post #7

Big tech is big because they built sustainable products that appeal to billions of people. There was no hijacking. Anyone can still make their own site and become popular. TikTok was able to become the number one site despite not being from big tech.

How will anyone find your site in order for it to become popular, if Internet giants gatekeep the only methods that people use to find or access things? Internet giants control your browser, your smartphone, your search engine, your digital assistant, your DNS, most of the traffic going through CDNs, advertising, online shopping, app purchases, news, etc. Most of the internet is only accessible through the giants. Mo…

Internet giants don't gatekeep the methods that people use to find and access things. The simplist way is to do a bunch of advertising for your site.

Re: Tech giants are hijacking the internet

#98

Post by robertlagrant »

josephcsible wrote: post #90
robertlagrant wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you speak plainly? I don't think that is literally what it is. That might be a side-effect, but I'd need to see some evidence of that being the case.

WEI is a way to cryptographically prove to a remote website that you're really browsing it with an unmodified build of Chrome. Google hasn't said out loud yet that it's going to be used to block other browsers, but what else is there to use it for?

I don't think that's what it does. Where did you read that?

Re: Tech giants are hijacking the internet

#99

Post by josephcsible »

robertlagrant wrote: post #98
josephcsible wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WEI is a way to cryptographically prove to a remote website that you're really browsing it with an unmodified build of Chrome. Google hasn't said out loud yet that it's going to be used to block other browsers, but what else is there to use it for?

I don't think that's what it does. Where did you read that?

https://vivaldi.com/blog/googles-new-dangerous-web-environme... says:

> It would provide websites with an API telling them whether the browser and the platform it is running on that is currently in use is trusted by an authoritative third party (called an attester).

And https://www.xda-developers.com/google-web-environment-integr... says:

> The proposal threatens the free and open internet in a number of ways, but one of the biggest revolves around the fact that should there be a central server that attests to whether a browser can be trusted or not, it means that anything non-standard will not be trusted. In other words, new browsers would not be trusted, and legacy software would no longer be able to access much of the internet after a certain length of time. Given that it verifies the integrity of the browser, it could also technically block certain extensions (such as Adblock) if Google were to go down that route.

Re: Tech giants are hijacking the internet

#100

Post by kobalsky »

robertlagrant wrote: post #98
josephcsible wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WEI is a way to cryptographically prove to a remote website that you're really browsing it with an unmodified build of Chrome. Google hasn't said out loud yet that it's going to be used to block other browsers, but what else is there to use it for?

I don't think that's what it does. Where did you read that?

I'm curious, what do you think it does?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Environment_Integrity

The use it to validate if the browser you are using is one of their signed binaries.

Of course the original intention was to detect fraudulent ad clicks, but the reality will that you will be met by captchas every step of the way if you dare to compile your own binary.

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