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Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium

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Re: Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium

#81

Post by shmde »

foobarbecue wrote: post #25
c0l0 wrote: post #5

I 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…

Is https://github.com/RupertBenWiser/Web-Environment-Integrity/... the best place to shame?

https://github.com/chromium/chromium/commit/6f47a22906b28994...

Here.

Re: Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium

#82

Post by rpdillon »

leesalminen wrote: post #21
csomar wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'll need an "approved" browser and potentially "approved" hardware to access the web. Since Cloudflare is on this too, most of the web will be locked for anyone who doesn't use mainstream hardware.

But why do they care so much about this? Is it only for DRM on media playback?

I think there are a lot of parallels with what Reddit did.

Reddit wanted to control how users consumed content on their site. To control the experience (i.e. monetize with ads), they had to shut down third-party clients, since those could remove ads.

Google appears to be doing the same thing, but for the entire web. WEI is a way for sites that want to monetize with Google ads to prevent folks from accessing their site unless they can cryptographically assure that the user's browser will follow all the rules Google sets. We don't yet know exactly what all those rules will be, but it isn't hard to guess that they'll be along the lines of whatever makes Google the most money.

This applies to desktop browsers, but also affects automated tools like wget and curl. It could kill web scraping altogether.

Re: Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium

#87

Post by amelius »

scarface_74 wrote: post #59
mozball wrote: post #26

If 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…

[flagged]

And yet, you are probably somewhere in Google's databases.

Re: Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium

#89

Post by itissid »

I am a bit confused. This sounds a bit stupid. If this is DRM for web content, then what would non chrome browsers like FF for web pages that ask for such authentication? Refusing to work with other browsers than chrome seems like a lawsuit waiting to happen.

[1]https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/07/googles-web-integrit...

Re: Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium

#90

Post by JimDabell »

doliveira wrote: post #54

I was watching a video about nesting in CSS and how it's just in Chrome and comments were all about how cool it is and how they can't wait to use it, and so on, and so forth. I think it's quite a representative example: we can do that much better with SASS today, but I guess Google needs to keep features pushing at full speed so no one else can keep up. We developers are so gullible. Just give us some shiny things an…

> I was watching a video about nesting in CSS and how it's just in Chrome

Nested CSS is supported in the latest version of all major browsers.

https://caniuse.com/css-nesting

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