Another tame article in The Register: https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/25/google_web_environmen... Despite the spec's half-baked state, the blowback last week was swift – in the form of a flood of largely critical comments posted to the WEI GitHub repository, and abuse directed at the authors of the proposal. The Google devs' response was to limit comment posting to those who had previously contributed to the repo…
Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium
481–490 of 876 posts
Re: Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium
#482Earlier quoted context omitted.
Who has been mismanaged for at least a decade and depends on Google to pay their bills.. I'm a FF user since the early 00's and Firefox will mostly not go away because Google has an interest in using it against monopoly accusations but the reality is bleak.. And the reality is these people ( Google in this case ) are so far removed from any moral compass about the Web ( at least what most people here think of "the We…
I hear Firefox is mismanaged all the time, but it seems to be a perfectly fine browser for the most part. I hear all about sites that won’t render in comments on this website, but they must all be internal tools or something because I never encounter them.
Re: Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium
#483Since this is basically just obfuscation shouldn't it be possible to break it? Heck it's not even DRM so it doesn't fall under the protection of the DMCA.
Re: Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium
#484There are many arguments against this but not many brought the implications for search engines. If websites implement this, it will effectively make building a web search engine impossible for new entrants. The current players can whitelist/attest their own clients while categorizing every other scraping clients as bots. If not for other reasons, I can't see how Google a search company can be allowed to push somethin…
> If not for other reasons, I can't see how Google a search company can be allowed to push something that can kill competition using its market dominance in other areas like browsers. Because antitrust has been dead for a while. Chrome is a tool to drive people to Google and Google ads and nothing more. I will say, I did appreciate Microsoft having a browser engine with IE and Edge, even if the former was notoriously…
Re: Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium
#485I 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…
All they'll have to do is make a pronouncement of support for some trendy social issue and everything will be forgiven and forgotten. Virtue signaling has turned into the most effective corporate tool for manipulating society into allowing corporations to do almost anything they want. And the public's addiction is so strong that even when this is pointed out and agreed that it is happening, the addiction still must b…
Re: Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium
#486Earlier quoted context omitted.
[flagged]
Which executive orders, federal appointments, and other executive branch actions, would you attribute to Eric Schmidt?
"At the same time, Schmidt has been appointed to numerous White House advisory positions, giving him privileged insight into the administration’s policies in technology, science and military defense, as well as unusual access to top policymakers."
https://www.techtransparencyproject.org/articles/eric-schmid...
A quick Google of "eric schmidt obama" brings up a lot of articles discussing their close political relationship.
Re: Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium
#487There are many arguments against this but not many brought the implications for search engines. If websites implement this, it will effectively make building a web search engine impossible for new entrants. The current players can whitelist/attest their own clients while categorizing every other scraping clients as bots. If not for other reasons, I can't see how Google a search company can be allowed to push somethin…
Is it possible for them to implement this API in such a way that it will fail 5% of the time or so, making it impossible for websites to deny individuals based on failing attestation? https://github.com/RupertBenWiser/Web-Environment-Integrity/...
Re: Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium
#488Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a change to the browser that gives site-owners the ability to require a positive attestation of non-modification before running. The stated goal of this change is to make it more difficult for end-users to block ads. As the spec states, blocking ads violates the deal you make with content creators to use your attention to ads as a form of payment. In practice, this will make it harder, but not impossible, to run…
This has been litigated to hell on HN, but no, there is no implicit contract when loading a webpage that your user agent will display ads or any other content as envisioned by the publisher. A user agent has always been intended to be something that displays content according to the wishes of the user. Even this "modest proposal" phrases itself in terms of user desires (albeit completely disingenuously). Ads have bec…
Your second paragraph, about chain of trust, gets a little more wobbly, but this is a matter of fact, not opinion. Will this change require a chain of trust from hardware up? That's startling. Do you have a link? I read the proposal but don't recall seeing that.
The third paragraph seems to articulate the worry that systems will now be closed with centralized gate keepers determining what we can do with our systems. Or at least, that will be the default unless you can get grandpa's old TPM-free linux laptop working again. And even if you do, you won't be able to connect it to the future internet to do anything real. That's not a good future. It's one which makes individuals passive and controlled by central authority - and even if you don't object to this morally, you must admit that an ignorant and disabled population is weak and susceptible to attack.
Re: Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium
#489Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe so, but asking somebody to not go to shows of their favorite bands anymore as a form of protest against Ticketmaster and/or Google is a bit much. Unfortunately, some venues seem to be Ticketmaster only at this point. Sometimes you’ve got to choose your battles.
I never used ticketmaster and it is not a monopoly. Choose the right company to sell you tickets.
Re: Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium
#490Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it’s kind of naive to think a company that gets 80% of its funding from Google is going to go out of its way to protect you from the same company or that it won’t implement the same proposed DRM standard when it already implemented the older one.
But if firefox is full of tech to prevent privacy leaks? They incorporated a vpn, strict mode, containers, third party cookie block, dnt, etc.. what the fucking hell are you talking about?
If you think that Firefox won’t include DRM because of “freedum”, there is an existence proof that they will - they support WideVine.
How can Firefox be “independent” of Google when 80% of their funding comes from Google?