Can someone please explain what this actually is. Without the poetry.
Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium
171–180 of 876 posts
Re: Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium
#172If 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…
> Google needs to be broken up. To make it explicit: the only way this happens is by Americans voting for it. The FTC has been more active on anti-trust issues in the past two years than at any time in the past 30. That's a direct result of the 2020 election. Elections matter.
Citation? FTC against Google doesn't produce much results on Google (kind of an irony :))
Have seen FTC going against Amazon because the FTC chair had published prior work against Amazon's practices. Not defending Amazon but FB/Google are a much bigger threat than Amazon.
Re: Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium
#173Are there forks or earlier versions of Chromium browsers that can be maintained separately without folding in these changes?
Re: Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium
#174Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is the bait to make it sound reasonable. Of course this hold-back feature will be quietly disabled at some point in the future. The whole proposal is full of weaselly half truths and misrepresentation about their real plans
> this hold-back feature will be quietly disabled at some point in the future. Will it though? Googles main reason for WEI I assume is to combat ad-fraud. Ie. to prevent someone making a bot farm to click ads to earn money from advertising or exhaust competitors ad budgets or manipulate search engine user ranking signals. With WEI, all ad clicks without WEI could just be ignored (ie. not billed to advertisers, ignore…
As the middle man Google benefits from ad-fraud and has few incentives to really stop it. Ad-blocking is a real problem for them however, and they have huge incentives to prevent that. Ignore what they say - that's what WEI is actually about.
Re: Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium
#175I realise all the negative effects if this starts becoming a thing, but could someone explain how is it they propose to technically enforce this "signed browser binary" requirement? What's stopping me from writing my browser to submit false info? Any encryption keys or hashes present in the "certified" binaries can be extracted (the binary after all needs access to it to use it, right?).
The only way this has a slightest chance of working is in connection with trusted hardware. Microsoft has been trying hard to push tpm on everyone and failed. What makes them think they'll succeed?
Re: Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium
#176Is 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…
What you think they push the flag without the intention to make it happen?
Re: Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
https://killedbygoogle.com/
That’s backing down from responsibility not from doing the wrong thing.
We can add www to the list.
Re: Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium
#178I 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…
Has anyone compiled a list of those pushing forward and/or working on WEI?
Re: Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium
#179Can someone please explain what this actually is. Without the poetry.
This is about WEI, Web environment integrity. The article below sums it up pretty good.
"The proposal suggests that websites should be able to request an attestation from the browser about its “integrity”. Such attestations are to be provided by external agents, which – presumably – examine the browser and its plugins, and issue an approval only if those checks pass.
The attestation is sent back to the website, which can now decide to deny service if the agent did not give approval." [1]
1. https://interpeer.io/blog/2023/07/google-vs-the-open-web
In other words, websites can now force you to comply with their shitty behaviour in order to allow you access, otherwise you get denided access.
Re: Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium
#180Disappointing to see such a 180 on 'don't be evil'. I'm recommending Mozilla Firefox to all friends and family.
Unfortunately Firefox doesn't have a good UI/UX after all. The last time I checked, multiple profiles support is somehow half-baked.
Multiple profiles is fully supported. It's just hidden behind a clunky UX.
Also check out firefox containers which is to profiles what docker is to virtual machines.