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Our Chrome Extension Is Safe

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Re: Our Chrome Extension Is Safe

#81

Post by woofie11 »

archon810 wrote: post #43
RHSeeger wrote: post #7

> All of that attention resulted in our issue being resolved. This is good for us. It is not yet clear if the attention will help other developers that are struggling with similar vague rejections. I think it's been made abundantly clear that Google will not, in fact, improve anything from experiences like this. They happen over and over and every single time it's the same; if it gets publicity, someone helps resolve…

Have a look at this https://twitter.com/ArtemR/status/1261159338170658816 and the surrounding discussion. This is basically the only person at Google who can make things happen if there's a problem with Chrome extensions.

And he says with current events, meaning a massive number of recently-laid-off-developers Google could have cheap, things will continue to move slowly.

Re: Our Chrome Extension Is Safe

#82

Post by oefrha »

jiveturkey wrote: post #71
oefrha wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I understand that the Chrome extension store is free Pretty sure it’s not free, I had to pay a nominal $5 fee ages ago, and looks like that hasn’t changed. https://developer.chrome.com/webstore/publish#pay-the-develo... Even found a recent news article reporting that now you need to pay the fee immediately on signup as opposed to when you publish the first extension/app. https://9to5google.com/2020/03/12/chrome-web…

If you don't have $5, how do you have the resources to develop an extension?

No first hand experience, but I’ve heard stories of African kids doing impressive tech stuff using very limited resources. Presumably quite a few have access to school computers these days? Developing extensions is free as long as you have access to a computer. Anyway, not having access to a credit card (also need to be capable of international payment, which is not a given) is a much bigger issue than not having $5.

Re: Our Chrome Extension Is Safe

#83

Post by graham_paul »

jakozaur wrote: post #75

The current internet giants got huge monopolistic like power that many dictators of many countries would envy. The set their rules, execute them, and judge them. I believe once you become a platform there should be an independent nano-courthouse where you can appeal. Today being rejected by Apple, Amazon, or Google platform is equivalent to the economical death penalty for many individuals. It should be possible to p…

Imagine being banned by ALL of them. You are cut out from a large chunk of the Internet. the only thing saving you from being unable to access common internet services are those that dared to defy that monopoly (DDG, Mozilla and all those nameless folks working nights and weekends on projects you don't even know that exist until you become an internet pariah)

Re: Our Chrome Extension Is Safe

#84

Post by woofie11 »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #41
_fat_santa wrote: post #25

You know this wouldn't be so much of an issue if Chrome didn't disable the ability to install extensions outside of the web store. As an extension developer its absolutely infuriating to realize that: 1. There is no way to install extensions outside the web store 2. Google won't approve anything to the web store. 3. The vast majority of people use Chrome vs other browsers. ------ I get it, Chrome is Google's browser…

It's worth noting that the Chrome Web Store is currently full of malware and most malware I see on PCs was installed via the Chrome Web Store. By design, HTTPS does not protect your privacy at all if you have extensions that violate it, since they see what you see after TLS termination. So this is a huge deal, Google is already bad at it, but I can't fault them for heavily restricting extension install: Currently the…

You're confusing two things:

  laxness  strictness scale

  carefulness/competence  carelessness / incompetence scale
Google tries to do this with automated processes and minimum wage drones, which results in both million dollar extensions being bump AND widespread malware being let through.

Re: Our Chrome Extension Is Safe

#85

Post by wintermutestwin »

graham_paul wrote: post #70
_fat_santa wrote: post #25

You know this wouldn't be so much of an issue if Chrome didn't disable the ability to install extensions outside of the web store. As an extension developer its absolutely infuriating to realize that: 1. There is no way to install extensions outside the web store 2. Google won't approve anything to the web store. 3. The vast majority of people use Chrome vs other browsers. ------ I get it, Chrome is Google's browser…

Maybe just maybe, you will consider Firefox. 1. Same or better performance 2. Open source for real not just (pretending to be) Open Source 3. More transparent process 4. No business conflicts Support Firefox if you care about the open web

I use firefox as my primary browser, but I have recently ran into issues with several sites that I need to use. Whenever I contact support, they tell me their site requires Chrome.

As it is, I have a Winblows box for gaming only that I put Chrome on, but one day, I am going to be remote and needing Chrome. I don't want google's tentacles on my work laptop, but am starting to worry that I have no choice...

Re: Our Chrome Extension Is Safe

#86

Post by coffeefirst »

gnicholas wrote: post #33
_fat_santa wrote: post #25

You know this wouldn't be so much of an issue if Chrome didn't disable the ability to install extensions outside of the web store. As an extension developer its absolutely infuriating to realize that: 1. There is no way to install extensions outside the web store 2. Google won't approve anything to the web store. 3. The vast majority of people use Chrome vs other browsers. ------ I get it, Chrome is Google's browser…

At least it’s possible to side load extensions in Chrome. I’ve been more disappointed in Firefox, which doesn’t allow this at all, even in the developer release. The only thing similar to side loading that is allowed is a temporary debug process, which loads an addon but only until the browser is restarted.

You can! It's far more annoying, but I've been running a few that I've made for myself

In `about:config`, set `xpinstall.signatures.required` to false, and then you can an unsigned bundled extension locally and they'll persist like normal extensions.

Re: Our Chrome Extension Is Safe

#87

Post by danShumway »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #41
_fat_santa wrote: post #25

You know this wouldn't be so much of an issue if Chrome didn't disable the ability to install extensions outside of the web store. As an extension developer its absolutely infuriating to realize that: 1. There is no way to install extensions outside the web store 2. Google won't approve anything to the web store. 3. The vast majority of people use Chrome vs other browsers. ------ I get it, Chrome is Google's browser…

It's worth noting that the Chrome Web Store is currently full of malware and most malware I see on PCs was installed via the Chrome Web Store. By design, HTTPS does not protect your privacy at all if you have extensions that violate it, since they see what you see after TLS termination. So this is a huge deal, Google is already bad at it, but I can't fault them for heavily restricting extension install: Currently the…

This is still something of a problem of Chrome's own creation though.

The reason Chrome can't be much, much more restrictive about what extensions get placed in the store is because there is no alternative. The less important your store is, the more exclusive (and safer) it can be.

Look at Linux with package managers like AUR. If a package isn't included in the official Arch repos, I generally don't mind. I can go install it if I've vetted it myself. What that means is that Arch can be a lot more restrictive about what they include. They don't really need to provide a bunch of justifications, they can just say they had a bad feeling or haven't gotten around to looking at it.

If the goal is to have safe spaces where users can be certain that they won't ever run into malware, the space maintainers need the freedom to be very restrictive. Google doesn't have that freedom with the Chrome Web Store specifically because getting banned from the Chrome Web Store is a massive deal -- they can't just decide to prioritize safety over everything else.

Small, optional safe spaces that people can opt into will always be better filtered, better moderated, and overall safer than a giant space that's forced to balance between freedom and safety for every single user at the same time. Moderation doesn't scale.

Re: Our Chrome Extension Is Safe

#88

Post by driverdan »

wintermutestwin wrote: post #85
graham_paul wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe just maybe, you will consider Firefox. 1. Same or better performance 2. Open source for real not just (pretending to be) Open Source 3. More transparent process 4. No business conflicts Support Firefox if you care about the open web

I use firefox as my primary browser, but I have recently ran into issues with several sites that I need to use. Whenever I contact support, they tell me their site requires Chrome. As it is, I have a Winblows box for gaming only that I put Chrome on, but one day, I am going to be remote and needing Chrome. I don't want google's tentacles on my work laptop, but am starting to worry that I have no choice...

Which sites? Name and shame.

If you absolutely must use Chromium you can use Brave instead. It doesn't solve the extensions issue discussed here but at least it cuts out most of the Google garbage.

Re: Our Chrome Extension Is Safe

#89

Post by wintermutestwin »

driverdan wrote: post #88
wintermutestwin wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use firefox as my primary browser, but I have recently ran into issues with several sites that I need to use. Whenever I contact support, they tell me their site requires Chrome. As it is, I have a Winblows box for gaming only that I put Chrome on, but one day, I am going to be remote and needing Chrome. I don't want google's tentacles on my work laptop, but am starting to worry that I have no choice...

Which sites? Name and shame. If you absolutely must use Chromium you can use Brave instead. It doesn't solve the extensions issue discussed here but at least it cuts out most of the Google garbage.

I don't remember them all, but coveredca is one.

I thought Brave was yet another scammy project that was showing ads (albeit selectively)

Re: Our Chrome Extension Is Safe

#90

Post by sudosysgen »

jiveturkey wrote: post #71
oefrha wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I understand that the Chrome extension store is free Pretty sure it’s not free, I had to pay a nominal $5 fee ages ago, and looks like that hasn’t changed. https://developer.chrome.com/webstore/publish#pay-the-develo... Even found a recent news article reporting that now you need to pay the fee immediately on signup as opposed to when you publish the first extension/app. https://9to5google.com/2020/03/12/chrome-web…

If you don't have $5, how do you have the resources to develop an extension?

The issue is a credit card that can pay US Dollars. These are heavily restricted in a lot of developing countries, for good reasons.
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