Submitted 6 months ago by Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de to technology@lemmy.world
https://9to5google.com/2023/11/02/google-chrome-web-integrity-api/
The Chrome team says they’re not going to pursue Web Integrity but…
it is piloting a new Android WebView Media Integrity API that’s “narrowly scoped, and only targets WebViews embedded in apps.”
They say its because the team “heard your feedback.” I’m sure that’s true, and I can wildly speculate that all the current anti-trust attention was a factor too.
They’re just starting it smaller scale. Within a year it’ll be pushed out to everyone broadly.
This is literally going to be what they did for FLoC. Basically release it as topics.
Google absolutely cannot stop tracking everyone at this point. I'm pretty sure they've put the entire house on the bet to track people more and do everything to ensure that Google Chrome tracks every aspect of your web browsing experience.
So while WEI is dead, I think Google's boat is so far out to sea now that it's either try this again a bit more gently or watch the ship sink. Everyone said FLoC was dead and they absolutely put it into the web browser with Topics. Nothing convinces me this is any different, they are absolutely going to, and I dare say have an existential need to, put this shit in everyone's browser.
They get the permissions for the little thing that is worded vaguely enough to them funnel people into the larger thing
I’d like to believe that enough of us actually stopped using chrome and switched to Firefox the day they made that announcement that swayed them… But in reality I’m sure it was just the bad press and they’re going to try to find a different more sneaky way to do the same shit.
I’ve been using Firefox since it was Mozilla.
I strayed away over IE6, then Chrome v1.0 for a short period, but then came back to my senses.
Chrome market share actually has been declining on desktops since this spring. Could be a factor
From now on, the only browser I’m installing is Firefox.
Can you actually stop using chrome on android? Because every link I click it opens in their webview app which is chrome
Dunno if this is what you mean, but you can definitely set another browser as default. Any context menus will change too: “Open with Firefox”, or w/e you’re using.
I’ve been using Firefox for a couple months now, no issues.
Yeah there is a setting and now when I click links it opens in Firefox. But if you use the Google search widget it still opens in chrome, which is to be expected I guess.
Actually right now Congress is writing new laws for the Internet, and the EU is looking pretty hard as well, so they might be backing off just so they can get the new laws being written minimized.
To be fair I still think Google services, Microsoft, etc and all that jazz is great, I’m no corporate shill or some free software nutter, but the issue however is the consistent anticompetitive strategies and vendor lock-in used to compensate for a lack of innovation.
Imagine if you could, for about a month, up to a year long period, where you just use a de-googled phone, a live USB and a portable hard drive, you’ll actually have a different perspective and appreciation for what works with computers, printers, etc and our use of technology as a whole
Not proceeding for now.
Yes, something tells me that they will just switch to attempting to introduce this piecemeal so that fewer people will notice what’s going on.
‘Heard your feedback’ is becoming the death flag for future fuckery these last few years
more like they realised that the Irish data protection officer looked like they were gonna side with privacy advocates over anti-adblock, which is a precursor (and main usecase of) this API
Irish data protection office
I had to look this one up.
Bet they’ll just rename it later, like what they did with FLoC to Ad Topics.
What’s funny is how these companies refer to ads as if it’s something we should be excited about.
“Good news! We’re implementing a new ad delivery feature for your enjoyment! You can now choose what ads to watch, yay!”
Some people actually like personalized ads!
I have no idea why, it feels counter productive to want them to influence you to buy shit you don’t need.
I like my ads to be as unrelated to me as possible, because I wouldn’t spend money on those things anyways.
I have to admit that it can be funny with personalized ads when you google something extremely expensive and get ads for it for months after. Many years ago I searched for a high speed camera (like the one the Slow Mo Guys use) and while I very much want one, I could never afford to spend 0,5 to 1,5 million Euro (or whatever the price was) on one camera. So it was amusing to see all the ads urging me (a then teenager) to buy one.
That usually means they will have something worse at a later time.
The most likely option is that they will rebrand and we will have to push back against a “completely new, completely different functionality” in a few months.
They have to figure out how to apply DRM to YouTube first.
I mean, Widevine is present in all browsers and actively used by Netflix for example. YouTube also uses this when you’re watching movies on YouTube Movies.
Not running DRM on the majority of YouTube content is also likely due to the added cost of running such encryption (the encryption is usually on a per-customer level, not one key fits all) and the added bandwidth and computer cycles required. Not to mention that this might be a legal struggle with the content creators.
Yeah, it makes me worried about what they have planned to replace it.
The Advert People are easily startled, but they’ll soon be back, and in greater numbers.
This is your wake up to stop using Chrome and Chromium based browsers (e.g. Brave, Vivaldi, etc). Switch to Firefox if you haven’t already.
the problem will be when websites start blocking unverified browsers
My biggest problem is the security and sandboxing around Firefox. I use both, but I feel my passwords are safer in Chrome tbh
I use Firefox on Mobile with the bitwarden addon. Works well for me. Plus you export all your saved Google passwords into bitwarden. I need to make the switch on my PC now.
Tbf, I have tried but on Android the performance is dogshit. There is a few seconds difference between Firefox loading pages and Chrome loading unfortunately.
If there was a third option I’d gladly take it, but for now Firefox just doesn’t have the functionality and I’m willing to put up with the current state of Google shit. If it gets much worse I may just have to suck it up though.
I use Fennec (fork of Firefox)
…yet.
Yeah gotta wait for the heat on this antitrust probe to die down before doing the dirty.
They had some of those changes already checked into their code base. It’ll be interesting to see how much of that code comes back out.
My money is on zero. They’ll comment it out and then turn it back on when no one is looking.
Comment out? Nah, they’ll just put it behind a feature flag so it keeps passing the tests.
This should never be left up to Chrome. We need antitrust laws.
Moving it to WebView just makes it a Trojan horse for the rest of the web.
Isn’t Webview just a proprietary Android thingy? I still don’t like it, but that sounds pretty isolated to me.
I think Android WebView is open source as part of AOSP, but yes, it is Android only.
The “don’t be evil” motto was replaced with “don’t be evil, but greedy and posessive is okay”
And then later edited to
“
don’t be evil, butgreedy and posessive is okay”
Soon after it changes to it’s final form:
“
don’t be evil, butgreedy and posessive is okay”
“don’t be evil, but greedy and posessive is okay”
FTFY
I don’t care what Chrome does to fuck every single users possible, provided that it doesn’t affect FF.
This integrity thing was one of the worst thing they could’ve ever come up with that would’ve definitely affect me.
Fuck them. Fuck with your own users. I ain’t one.
That’s the problem. They could have made it a requirement for a site to work in Chrome. And since Chrome has such a majority sites would have to comply. Then the other browsers would have to fall in line or just stop working with most websites. Google’s monopoly is complete enough that they can dictate how the web works. You need to both care what chrome does and care that other people are still using it.
Please, people, stop using Chromium-based browsers and handing Google a near-monopoly. Firefox is awesome and has even more privacy-oriented derivates.
Yeah, the current management is so horny to have Chrome be the next Internet Explorer like that. So sad Google has fallen so far.
the web has been getting so shitty lately i’ve actually gotten into drawing and reading and vinyl and film, which i highly recommend as a backup plan; just the idea of this feels like the atomic bomb for the internet
“We’ve decided not to pursue Web Integrity API.”
“Oh great! But what’s that giant thing under the tarp behind you”
“Oh don’t worry…”
Floc returned as something else, we will see this come back I am certain
One small victory to fend off the cancer that is current year google.
You did it everyone! Good job!
I am not asking for much. Just break up Google and throw both the big shareholders as well as the executives in jail for the rest of their lifes. If you go as far and decide to take all their money and spend it on social services, healthcare and education for the general public, I wouldn’t be mad.
Unpopular opinion here: I kind of hoped they’d go through with it, as that would completely kill Chrome and Chromium. The fact that they backtracked means that they too saw that people would be massively flocking to Firefox.
Ah, let me guess, now Google’s gonna get everyone and their sister to move all their content to apps…
While this “battle” may be won for now, I’ve no doubt Google will simply try to implement this in a different way with less backlash.
Good! Now we just need to degoogle everything else on the internet.
Rriiiiiiiigghhhhtt.
I’ll just be standing over here, watching them not do that.
I have not followed this stuff very closely. Here’s a question. This article says:
People took issue with how the Web Integrity API would bring DRM to the open web.
Has there not been DRM on the web for many years by now for videos?
NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world 6 months ago
K, I’m still not using Google search engine anymore. And once I find a replacement for any other Google services and devices I have, it’s out with those as well.
TheEighthDoctor@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Both leaving reddit and leaving google s.e. were two things that I thought would be harder than they were.
TimeSquirrel@kbin.social 6 months ago
Just need to install Linux as your primary OS and your transition to software freedom will be complete.
spudwart@spudwart.com 6 months ago
Leaving google isn’t hard.
Leaving YouTube specifically, however… Well, it’s been getting easier as content seems to be less and less frequent or quality.
Serinus@lemmy.world 6 months ago
I still worry that leaving Reddit is going to make it tilt to the right. I spent a decade posting there in the hopes that it would nudge people towards sanity.
MisterFrog@lemmy.world 6 months ago
The hard part is the cost difference (I haven’t looked terribly deeply yet) Family Proton (3TB) is 395 AUD (when you sign up for 2 years)
2 TB, 125 AUD per year for google drive, and it’s per year.
Pro-rata that’s literally twice as expensive, and you have to sign up for 2 years to get that rate, which makes moving my stuff a hard pill to swallow :(
Is there a plug and play service that’s as good as proton without the hefty premium?
foggy@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Ahem, will edit this in a moment…
xrtxn@lemmy.sdf.org 6 months ago
I replaced gmail with protonmail and everything else with nextcloud. Couldn’t go back.
Crisis@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Hosting your own nextcloud I’m guessing?
If so how did you install it?
kzhe@lemm.ee 6 months ago
After a lot of privacy switching I finally did try NextCloud, but I couldn’t get port forwarding to work on my Internet and gave up… For now
netchami@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
Based
dohpaz42@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Question: can email from gmail be imported into proton mail?
Swarfega@lemm.ee 6 months ago
Honestly. Off the back of this debacle I switched to Firefox and duckduckgo. Previously I used to use the shit out of incognito because I hated that when I searched for something once that I then get that thing popping up everywhere else. Since the switch I no longer get the feeling of being stalked.
squiblet@kbin.social 6 months ago
NoScript helps a lot, too. I suppose other extensions also. It’s horrifying how many sites embed Google and Facebook tracking, including ones that really shouldn’t like medical sites and banks.
squiblet@kbin.social 6 months ago
My concern is saving my email and photos before my account is randomly banned one day with no customer service and no recourse. God only knows what data they already harvested from when I used to back up my photos with their service.
Open_Mike@artemis.camp 6 months ago
Just grab a copy using Google Takeout, then after that use Syncrify, FolderSync, Resilio Sync or something else to automatically copy your phone media to your computer.
onlinepersona@programming.dev 6 months ago
ecosia.org as a search engine :) Uses bing in the background (and newly also google), but your data isn’t sold (AFAIK).
Or duckduckgo.com
If you want opensource there’s YaCy
kzhe@lemm.ee 6 months ago
I’m on Kagi but I did the one time payment and am unsure about whether I’ll extend. Results are good but 10 dollars a month isn’t insignificant (cheap plan is orders of magnitude less than what I need in searches)
railsdev@programming.dev 6 months ago
I use SearXNG. Google’s search results aren’t even good anymore so there’s really no excuse not to switch at this point. For awhile I couldn’t break the habit but recently Google has gotten considerably worse.
netchami@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
I used Ecosia for a long time (almost 5 years) but the search results are pretty bad. Often I had to use another search engine to actually find what I was looking for. DuckDuckGo is pretty good, Brave Search is OK as well but SearXNG is my personal favorite.
railsdev@programming.dev 6 months ago
Hardcore Mode on IVPN is insane (it blocks Google). Sadly it’ll break a lot of stuff though, but fuck Google.
netchami@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
I adjusted my entire digital life so I can do everything without ever connecting to Google services. I block them in my self-hosted Pi-Hole, on NextDNS and in my OPNsense Firewall.
dinckelman@lemmy.world 6 months ago
On the topic of this, what is the best alternative out there? A few years ago I’ve tried a couple options, out of curiosity, but the search quality was super poor for anything that’s not in English, and the accuracy of found content wasn’t always there
fiddlestix@lemmy.world 6 months ago
I reckon Kagi is the best start engine out there. It’s paid though. Second I’d have Qwant followed by DDG.
Paradox@lemdro.id 6 months ago
Best? Kagi. Best free? Probably bing