Request for Mozilla Position on an Emerging Web Specification Specification Title: Web Environment Integrity API Specification or proposal URL (if available): https://rupertbenwiser.github.io/Web-E...
The fact that this is even remotely controversial is stunning. Like does google not understand its not just home users that use adblock, but also businesses as well? Because google is so fucking bad they don’t understand there are viruses in their fucking ads. If this shit goes through, you think anyone’s dumb enough to believe google will be on top of the virus shit? Fuck off google
People's willingness to seize every opportunity and monetize everything that was once free and open is truly shocking. Every day when I read about another dogshit attempt to make the internet as a whole a worse place, I'm not even supprised anymore
Also slightly related, but I'd absolutely hate if I were an employee having to work on this project and having my name attached to this. Quite embarrassing for all those involved.
As a Linux user this has got me very worried. Chromium has so much market share that this change will certainly go through, and I feel like Safari won't care as it benefits them and their ecosystem to have device checks. I feel like Firefox and non standard OSes will almost certainly be blocked on a large range of websites with little impact on total users, not to mention completely blocking ad block and anti-tracking clients.
I think eventually regulators in the US will file an antitrust lawsuit and break chromium off of Google if this actually happens, but until then Fediverse/FOSS and personal websites are going to be the only places untouched by this.
Google already rolled out AMP which is overtly hostile to an open internet and faced zero repercussions from it. The same will be true for this. The average person has no idea what this means, doesn't care, and won't be bothered by it. Politicians always side with big business.
I don't think OP had any nefarious purpose in it, but this title is ridiculous doublspeak. Google might have a vested interest in trying to bullshit us about this being about "web integrity," but that doesn't mean we have to accept its dishonest framing!
IMHO we have several really big problems with the web as it is today, which are intertwined:
The web (standards) is by far too complicated. If even Microsoft doesn't have (or isn't willing) to provide the resources to implement a browser, there are not many players left with the resources and the motivation
Google Chrome and Safari are the only game in town. (My main browser is Firefox, but seriously, we have such a small market share that nobody gives a damn)
Most people/governments/companies don't care or don't understand the problem of the mono culture for browsers
The value of the web is everything which is already on the web and that one can access anything with the browser - for this reason, we can only grow in the direction of more complicated while keeping backwards compatibility
Besides lip-service to the contrary, our politicians want to control communication and supervise their citizens, so for politicians it is better to have a browser controlled by a company like Google, than a really free web
Given how fundamental important the web is for modern human basic infrastructure, we (as a society) should find a better way to protect our infrastructure, freedom of speech and basic freedoms.
This has already happened in the past, and it will unfortunately end exactly like it did before.
It's going to end up exactly like it did with WC3 EME, as mentioned in the 2014 article mentioned few comments after the one you linked. This quote from the article sums it up perfecly:
I know of people recommending Chrome (not Chromium) because it has Flash Player natively incorporated, so you no longer have to install it separately.
This serves to prove that the majority of users doesn’t know about either the technical or ethical differences in the software they are using.You may also think of the pirated software the are using,but this is a different matter.
Ignoring this marketshare goes against Mozilla’s idea of a web available to everyone, not to mention that Firefox is no longer the most used browser as it used to be a a few years ago and it is therefore forced to comply with this kind of requests.
What I find funny is that Ben or one of his few colleagues that helped write the draft closed the Github page over the weekend because of pressure and promises to open it back on monday or something.
Thank you for posting this. I've read five or six descriptions of the issues with Google's proposal by now and this was the first one that was clear, concise, and not riddled with histrionics.
LB: Que bom que a Mozilla se opõe a essa ideia de jerico do Google.
A galera precisa parar de usar o Chrome e navegadores baseados no Chromium para não dar moral ao Google, que fica achando que pode transformar a internet num jardim murado dele para mostrar anúncios, usar rastreadores e raspar dados para o Bard (IA deles).