this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2023
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Google is working on essentially putting DRM on the web (github.com)
submitted 1 year ago by jherazob@beehaw.org to c/technology@beehaw.org
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The much maligned "Trusted Computing" idea requires that the party you are supposed to trust deserves to be trusted, and Google is DEFINITELY NOT worthy of being trusted, this is a naked power grab to destroy the open web for Google's ad profits no matter the consequences, this would put heavy surveillance in Google's hands, this would eliminate ad-blocking, this would break any and all accessibility features, this would obliterate any competing platform, this is very much opposed to what the web is.

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[–] jherazob@beehaw.org 160 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Note of amusement: The GitHub issues tracker for that proposal got swamped with tickets either mocking this crap or denouncing it for what it is, this morning the person who seems to be the head of the project closed all those tickets and published this blog post, in essence saying "Shut up with your ethical considerations, give us a hand in putting up this electric fence around the web". Of course that didn't stop it.

Also somebody pointed out this gem in the proposal, quoted here:

6.2. Privacy considerations

Todo

Quick edit: This comment on one of the closed tickets points out the contact information of the Antitrust authorities of both US and EU, i think i'm gonna drop the EU folks a note

Edit: And they disabled commenting on the issues tracker

[–] TheOakTree@beehaw.org 73 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

My favorite part is when they ask you to give them the benefit of the doubt, but also anyone who disagrees with them in a way that doesn't fit their expectations is "noise."

[–] Norgur@kbin.social 35 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

And if you have issues with the "use case" itself, you're shit out of luck, shut it, shithead!

If you raise legal issues with the 'use case' of their 'web platform' thing, ppl will just not respond to you!

Meaning: we don't care if the shot we plan might be illegal, and we won't be stopped by you fucks telling us if it is or not "

[–] hassanmckusick@lemmy.discothe.quest 13 points 1 year ago

My favorite part was "even if you notice we intend to break the law just be quiet about it"

[–] ilmagico@beehaw.org 8 points 1 year ago

Benefit of the doubt, as in "I doubt this is a good idea"

[–] BumpingFuglies@lemmy.zip 46 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Wow, that blog post is truly nauseating and infuriating to read, knowing the context.

Fuck Google. They're the Nestlé of tech.

[–] Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 26 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I don't think Google has recently insisted that child slavery is just a thing we all have to be OK with if we want chocolate, or starved millions of babies by convincing their mothers that their breast milk is dangerous. But I also wouldn't be shocked to learn that they had...

[–] BumpingFuglies@lemmy.zip 15 points 1 year ago

Ha! Fair point. I guess the Internet is ultimately peanuts compared to the real world.

But as far as relative negative effect on its sphere of influence, I'd say they're comparable.

[–] fulano@lemmy.eco.br 4 points 1 year ago

No, but they accepted to publish political fake news ads for one of the running parties (the fascistoid one, of course) in the last elections here in Brazil.

That party has lost, but it was too close. In the 4 last years, during their mandate, hunger, violence, discrimination rape, and other problems rose to the highest levels in the century.

Google and other big tech companies have been influencing elections in a lot of places, and the consequences are enormous.

[–] resetreboot@geddit.social 2 points 1 year ago

We developers should stop just looking at the technical side of our work only. There's social, economic and values to be taken into account when we put our minds to solve a problem. We tend to go blindly into it, without thinking what it can cause when it is released into the world.

It's like if we put a bunch of developers into a secret project to develop an Internet World Wide Nuclear Bomb a là Project Manhattan... the leaders shouldn't really have to hide what they were about to do, just throw the developers and engineers troubles to solve and they wouldn't mind what it will be used for. It's just tech, right?

At least this guy seems to fit the type: I want to do this technology I've been tasked for, I'm trying to solve a technological problem. The rest of the world is telling him «Man, this is a bad idea to implement.» and he whines saying «I want solutions to this technology, not what is wrong with it!»

(And if you aren't one of those developers, congratulations, we need more of you!)