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Temptations of an open-source Chrome extension developer (2021)

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Re: Temptations of an open-source Chrome extension developer (2021)

#221

Post by comex »

traverseda wrote: post #202
AlbertRosen wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but it doesn't record anything. It calculates a hash locally and sends that hash to their servers, where it is then identified.

Couldn't you do the same with tv shows and ads?

At least on iOS, not without hacking the operating system. Siri’s ability to listen for a wakeword without an microphone indicator requires privileges that normal apps don’t get. On Android, as far as I can tell, the same is true, except that some phones ship with preinstalled third-party apps which can then get extra privileges.

Re: Temptations of an open-source Chrome extension developer (2021)

#222

Post by [deleted] »

extesy wrote: post #76

Maintainer here. My extension is pretty much unmonetizable so any offer I receive would require some degree of a moral sacrifice. The least intrusive offer I've seen so far is to put a reciprocal link to somebody else's extension inside of mine, kind of like DarkReader is doing on their website. Even though it won't compromise any of my users data, the reason I'm not doing this is because it indirectly endorses that…

[deleted]

Re: Temptations of an open-source Chrome extension developer (2021)

#223

Post by sfink »

c7DJTLrn wrote: post #93
GeekyBear wrote: post #61

Things have gotten bad enough that I've stopped using extensions that haven't been through a code vetting process. > Recommended extensions differ from other extensions that are regularly reviewed by Firefox staff in that they are curated extensions that meet the highest standards of security, functionality, and user experience. Firefox staff thoroughly evaluate each extension before it receives Recommended status. h…

What does that mean in reality? Pretty sure Chrome Web Store extensions are reviewed, but since they're all minified and obfuscated garbage, I wonder how easily malicious code could slip through. I'm surprised there hasn't been a mass cookie stealing attack yet.

That's why AMO requires extensions to be uploaded with their source code and disallows obfuscation.

They do allow minification for compression, and I don't know what stops someone from uploading different source code from the shipped addon.

Re: Temptations of an open-source Chrome extension developer (2021)

#224

Post by Pxtl »

Aeolun wrote: post #210
ehsankia wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

8 major versions, that is surely less than 5% of the Android population. I'm sure the security flaws in those non-updated phones is far more serious than the lack of microphone indicator.

Ice Cream Sandwich was the best android, and nobody can tell me otherwise.

Agreed. Android 4 was peak Android. Most of my favorite Android games are from that era and very few of them run anymore. I wish Google either make a sandboxed emulation layer for those old abandoned games.

Re: Temptations of an open-source Chrome extension developer (2021)

#225

Post by gerdesj »

cal85 wrote: post #108
Y_Y wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What size cash offers? Not that I want some of it, but then I do think there could be an industry re-scamming these people and want to know how much we're talking about.

Convincing offers to buy it for $10-40K. One offer said $250K but I doubt that one was serious, more likely just a straight up scam. I have often emailed them back feigning interest to see if I can get them to state what they plan to do with it, since I cannot see anything that could possibly be ethical, but they always just start talking mumbo jumbo about their innovative monetisation strategy. Recently I’ve had a s…

You are doing some pretty decent market research here too. I think you said your app had ~2M users so that's 0.4c per user.

What is the ad for? If it is a US equivalent to Great Ormand Street Hospital or some other worthy thing, then why not! I suspect it isn't and you will be offered quite a lot more vapid dollars because your user demographic is ... nerdy and installs addons 8) That is worth a lot more than 0.4c per head.

It may be that the ad offers are not as unpleasant as we might make them out to be but you do need to live - up to you. However I suspect they are just as genuine as the crap that lands in my Inbox, sometimes.

I recommend not describing your users as brats - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Ratner

Re: Temptations of an open-source Chrome extension developer (2021)

#226

Post by antoniojtorres »

1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #219
ericd wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most galling offer we saw on the mobile app side was something that would turn on the user's microphone, and listen for ads on tvs around them to track what they'd been exposed to offline. Adtech is such a thoroughly gross field.

"Adtech is such a thoroughly gross field." Someone else on HN called it "elegant" last week. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36975056

I work in ad tech and elegant is not a word I’d use. It’s very, very loosely coupled and has a grave transparency problem.

Re: Temptations of an open-source Chrome extension developer (2021)

#227

Post by c23gooey »

gremlinunderway wrote: post #218
sublinear wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do realize all forms of media embed advertising directly into the content going right back to the beginning, right? There's nothing modern about it. Showing you a product when you actually want to see it is the most effective way to induce demand. All your favorite shows, movies, youtube personalities, etc. still do this.

This isn't true. Originally advertising was designed around the premise of explicitly highlighting utility and functionality of goods/content. It wasn't until Bernays came along and adapted his uncle Sigmund Freud's theories into practice by designing advertising to manipulate people into believing that they actually need the product. Modern advertising is not just "showing a product to induce demand". Car adverts do…

The documentary "Century of Self" by Adam Curtis [0] certainly opened my eyes to the damage that Bernays has inflicted on society in general.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJ3RzGoQC4s

Re: Temptations of an open-source Chrome extension developer (2021)

#228

Post by sandinmyjoints »

alooPotato wrote: post #207
cal85 wrote: post #94

FWIW, and since a few of you probably use it… I own the JSON Formatter extension [0], which I created and open-sourced 12 years ago and have maintained [1] ever since, with 2 million users today. And I solemnly swear that I will never add any code that sends any data anywhere, nor let it fall into the hands of anyone else who would. I’ve been emailed several tempting cash offers from shady people who presumably want…

This seems so weird to me. You're clearly providing value to the world, and according to my moral view, should be entitled to capturing some of that value without resorting to something shady. I'm the founder of Streak where we directly monetize our extension (as do others like Grammarly). Have you tried directly asking your users for $ given the effort you put in?

Thank you for InboxSDK! Have had a pleasant experience using it.

Re: Temptations of an open-source Chrome extension developer (2021)

#229

Post by vkou »

consumer451 wrote: post #89
vkou wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fly-by-night ad networks might engage in this. Ad networks that are in the sights of regulators, and can be slapped with $X billion fines, that may well exceed the marginal revenue produced by improved tracking[1] are going to be a bit antsier around doing that sort of thing. [1] How much more money will a $100B ad business make if they improved tracking accuracy by %1? It's some positive number, but significantly le…

Would a top tier ad network be exposed to any liability if the fly-by-night did the sketchy work, then the top tier bought that “anonymized” data?

Probably not direct legal risk[1] if they weren't the ones collecting the data, but integrating with all that shit has the incredible risk that your counterparty might just go up in smoke next week, while leaving you with a busted product, and all the reputational damage fallout.

It's picking up pennies in front of a steamroller. You'd have to be a truly desperate PM to consider it.

[1] Still all the legal risks of holding that data, but they are easier to mitigate.

Re: Temptations of an open-source Chrome extension developer (2021)

#230

Post by chaxor »

AlbertRosen wrote: post #197
roetlich wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That still requires the microphone to be active, right?

Yes, but it doesn't record anything. It calculates a hash locally and sends that hash to their servers, where it is then identified.

This seems very similar in principle to the perceptual neural hash that Apple created and uses to check every file on any Apple device. I recall that some people had an issue with that, because there is no guarantee what hashes will be added to the database, and no real way to know what file they will map. So, the hash could be anything, and could send anything, which is entirely up to the whins of whatever company or entity that deploys such a product. Effectively, this just means that you can in fact check nearly anything happening on an input, if it maps to some perceptual hash that is similar enough to one the server has in its db.
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