Submitted 1 year ago by dukethorion@lemmy.one to privacyguides@lemmy.one
With Google’s proposed DRM / Web Environment Integrity project looming, will there be any change to PG’s recommended browsers?
I’m sure it’s on everyone’s radar, but this seems like the absolute antithesis of privacy. There will be nothing private about anything chromium-based if this goes through…
Is it a privacy issue tho? It’s dangerous to the freedom of the internet and an ethical dilemma. But how does it increase tracking potential?
It will stop you from using tools like ublock origin which help mitigate tracking.
The project would only allow “verified” web browsers. This means that the only web browsers you can use are the ones that Google has allowed: owned by big companies. It would prevent smaller, privacy friendly web browsers from being a part of the internet.
Not only browsers, but operating system as well. Using GrapheneOS, eOS, or whatever?
Denied. Stock OS only on OUR internet, sorry.
The idea of it is as simple as it is dangerous. It would provide websites with an API telling them whether the browser and the platform it is running on that is currently in use is trusted by an authoritative third party (called an attester). The details are nebulous, but the goal seems to be to prevent “fake” interactions with websites of all kinds. While this seems like a noble motivation, and the use cases listed seem very reasonable, the solution proposed is absolutely terrible and has already been equated with DRM for websites, with all that it implies.
It’s all a bit nebulous at the moment, but at least initially it seems to me like your browser’s “attester” would have a lot of insights into your browsing habits. It also has the potential of killing 3rd party browsers like FF who could lose access to websites unless they jump onboard, and who may still lose access if websites decide not to trust their (hopefully more private) attestation service.
There’s still a lot of whatifs floating around because Google just surprise pulled this project out of their ass days ago after working on it in secret for at least a year.
Not unless websites require certain features to be visible, that’s the major concern.
Here’s another large discussion:
Anyone got a good explaination on what’s happening? Kinda OOTL here
CriticalMiss@lemmy.world 1 year ago
If you use any Chromium based browser you’re already not respecting your privacy. By allowing Google to grow its market share, you basically allow them introduce shit like WEI without any pushback. If they owe only 1/3 of the market and the other 2/3 doesnt support it, their implementation will die.
All Chromium users are what will bring the death to the open web.