Privacy

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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

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WebUSB. Could websites know what's connected to my computer? (discuss.tchncs.de)

submitted 1 month ago by cmgvd3lw@discuss.tchncs.de to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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Was browsing on the GrapheneOS website and came across a new thing called WebUSB, which is essentially a JS API through which GrapheneOS web installer worked.

This got me wondering, if website could read what's plugged into my computer like my phone or disks, isn't that a huge risk to privacy? I don't know how this works (haven't used it) so I would like to know about its privacy.

AFAIK Firefox doesn't allow this API, so that's a relief (I use librefox), but what about other browsers? I am getting a bit paranoid.

[Also, are there other APIs like these; which are a privacy nightmare that websites could use?]

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[–] refalo@programming.dev 12 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (7 children)

Yes there is a risk of bugs being exploited just like any other feature in a browser. Another example is WebRTC being used to de-cloak VPN users. I think WebGPU and/or WebGL also had exploits that allowed remote code execution or escaping the browser sandbox.

[–] chemicalwonka@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 1 month ago (6 children)

WebRTC being used to de-cloak VPN users

The clock of my device always match with the location of the server of my VPN provider

[–] refalo@programming.dev 12 points 1 month ago

For those who actually think I said clock instead of cloak :)

https://voidsec.com/vpn-leak/

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