"Web Environment Integrity" is an all-out attack on the free Internet — Free Software Foundation — Working together for free software
www.fsf.org

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/2546109

Read why “Web Environment Integrity” is terrible, and why we must vocally oppose it now. Google’s latest maneuver, if we don’t act to stop it, threatens our freedom to explore the Internet with browsers of our choice.

  • theneverfox@pawb.socialEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    There’s something no one seems to be talking about

    this isn’t limited to your browser

    It runs at the highest ring of security on your processor. It could mean it locks you to OEM Android, iOS, or Windows. It could be extended to look at your app list, dns settings, potentially even tell if the device is using a vpn

    it could be paired with kosa to use biometrics to verify identity

    And it would be shocking if cloudflare didn’t implement this - it would save them a ton of processing. It’s likely it would be a default setting - this would apply to large swaths of the Internet, not just Google services

  • Engywuck@lemm.ee
    0·
    11 months ago

    " it will be used by Google to deny access to their services unless you are using a browser that gels with their profit margin"

    Cool. So people using a different browser will move elsewhere. Maybe they’ll even stop youtube addiction. Cant’ really see a downside.

    “It is not far-fetched to imagine a future in which sites simply refuse to serve pages to users running free browsers or free operating systems.”

    Same here. Sites doing this wouldn’t probably worth to be looked at anyway.

    • zeus ⁧ ⁧ ∽↯∼@lemm.eeEnglish
      1·
      11 months ago

      lemm.ee was talking about using cloudflare (i can’t remember whether he went through with it), which will almost certainly implement this. lemmy.world already does. there is no good outcome from this going through where this only blocks google sites from firefox.

      even if there was, that still means you can’t open any gdrive links you find on the internet, use a youtube tutorial to fix something, use the play store to buy any apps (because if they integrate this into chrome, they will integrate it into the play store), etc.

      edit 2023-08-10:

      hey guess what engywuck, lemm.ee uses cloudflare now:

      image showing the cloudflare "edge ip restricted" page for lemm.ee

      good luck accessing lemm.ee from non-chromium if this goes through

      in fact view you probably won’t be able to view any embedded youtube videos at all. people would have to go back to hosting their own videos which would push hosting costs up, which would raise the barrier of entry to people making their own sites. which is something we want to encourage