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One of the sites opened fullscreen mode to hide browser UI. Note that currently web browser developers are implementing a fullscreen mode with keyboard lock tha

One of the sites opened fullscreen mode to hide browser UI. Note that currently web browser developers are implementing a fullscreen mode with keyboard lock that is much harder to leave because it blocks most of system key combinations: [1]. The only keys that will still work are Ctrl + Alt + Del or holding an Esc for two seconds. And as I assume you cannot leave it using mouse or touchpad. Another problem is that browsers are tol complicated. Building Firefox from source requires you to have a powerful machine with multicore CPU and lot of memory and comilation would take a lot of time. This could stop people from contributing fixes. [1] https://www.chromestatus.com/feature/5642959835889664 https://www.chromestatus.com/feature/5642959835889664

Santosh83 8y ago
> Note that currently web browser developers are implementing a fullscreen mode with keyboard lock that is much harder to leave because it blocks most of system key combinations. The only keys that will still work are Ctrl + Alt + Del or holding an Esc for two seconds. And as I assume you cannot leave it using mouse or touchpad. What possible justification is there for this? Looks like this can become an ideal way to 'force' unsuspecting users to interact with a malicious site...
- franga2000 8y ago
  > What possible justification is there for this? If I had to guess, I'd say games. Browser games just refuse to die. I thought they'd die with Java applets, then with Flash, but they just keep coming back...
  - crysin 8y ago
    Why the language of refuse? Are you inferring there is inherently something bad about games on the web?
    - franga2000 8y ago
      No, that's just my opinion. One of the main reasons wouldn't like to see browser games come back is that they are usually basically 100% tied to a server. They're not like standard games, where even if the servers go down, you still have the files and can either keep playing offline or even hack together a server implementation. Once the server goes down, that game is gone[1]. Not to mention, that if an industry were to arise around web-based games, most would probably either be the "free but pay-to-win and with ads" kind, or on Netflix-style subscription platforms where you don't actually own anything and you're just paying for the access. [1] - not saying it's impossible to preserve it, just that it's not preserved by default, like a locally-installed game is
      - vorpalhex 8y ago
        This is no longer true for even locally installed games. If Ubisoft's uPlay disappears tomorrow, your locally installed games are just useless bits. Many very nice web based games exist, and many can be saved to disk and launched from a local html file just fine. Many games target the web browser because it's easily cross platform, requires no install, and is easy to convince new players to give it a try.
  - gambler 8y ago
    There is no good reason for any website to be able to block Esc key from exiting fullscreen mode, games or no games.
- codedokode 8y ago
  The spec [1] says: > Richly interactive web sites, games and remote desktop/application streaming experiences want to provide an immersive, full screen experience. To accomplish this, sites need access to special keys and keyboard shortcuts while they are in full screen mode so that they can be used for navigation, menus or gaming functionality. But I guess it will be used by scammers as well. [1] https://w3c.github.io/keyboard-lock/#introduction https://w3c.github.io/keyboard-lock/#introduction
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago
  People increasingly trying to turn the web into an application layer instead of writing actual applications.
tinus_hn 8y ago
I also saw one with an offset custom mouse cursor so you can’t trust what you’re clicking on.
- codedokode 8y ago
  Also such sites sometimes play audio instructions trying to scare or deceive a user.
  - Someone1234 8y ago
    I've had relatives tricked by this and called the number for "Microsoft Support." They were using Chrome. Clicking on the browser outside of the page area resulted in the tab going full screen again somehow, and they used multiple other tricks to make the page impossible to close (e.g. looping message boxes). I don't think browser vendors take these issues very easy. But when I tell relatives to hit the escape key and it DOESN'T work, it isn't helpful.
    - codedokode 8y ago
      Also, Escape key won't work if you had pressed F11 to switch to a fullscreen mode. Furthermore, browsers like Opera remember this setting and restore fullscreen mode (along with the page content) even after restart. I saw a case when a user somehow has opened a page with ads in fullscreen mode (probably it was done for watching a movie) and it was restored even after exiting and restarting the browser. So I killed the browser with Task Manager, restarted it and the fullscreen ads appeared again. I (an experienced user) couldn't quickly figure out that it was actually a fullscreen mode, couldn't understand why the browser doesn't launch and thought it was some kind of virus in the system. I figured it out only when I tried to move mouse upwards and a browser UI appeared.
danShumway 8y ago
Note that this proposal is still in Editors Draft (meaning it hasn't even been proposed as a Working Draft yet, they're still in the process of writing the initial proposal). It could very well be rejected, and I hope it is. It's being championed by the Chromium team, and just because Chromium has turned something on doesn't mean it's a standard. It just means that Chromium doesn't know how to properly launch experimental browser settings behind user flags, <rant>because apparently we've all learned literally nothing from the early days of browser-specific CSS tags and the botched release of flexbox</rant>. Remember HTML imports, Observable, etc... there's still plenty of time to file issues[0] and participate in conversation about the feature[1]. And I encourage you to do so, because speaking as a game developer on the web, this is a bad feature that shouldn't be built. [0]: https://github.com/w3c/keyboard-lock/issues https://github.com/w3c/keyboard-lock/issues [1]: https://discourse.wicg.io/t/proposal-system-keyboard-lock-api/1594 https://discourse.wicg.io/t/proposal-system-keyboard-lock-ap...

Santosh83 8y ago

> Note that currently web browser developers are implementing a fullscreen mode with keyboard lock that is much harder to leave because it blocks most of system key combinations. The only keys that will still work are Ctrl + Alt + Del or holding an Esc for two seconds. And as I assume you cannot leave it using mouse or touchpad. What possible justification is there for this? Looks like this can become an ideal way to 'force' unsuspecting users to interact with a malicious site...

franga2000 8y ago
> What possible justification is there for this? If I had to guess, I'd say games. Browser games just refuse to die. I thought they'd die with Java applets, then with Flash, but they just keep coming back...
- crysin 8y ago
  Why the language of refuse? Are you inferring there is inherently something bad about games on the web?
  - franga2000 8y ago
    No, that's just my opinion. One of the main reasons wouldn't like to see browser games come back is that they are usually basically 100% tied to a server. They're not like standard games, where even if the servers go down, you still have the files and can either keep playing offline or even hack together a server implementation. Once the server goes down, that game is gone[1]. Not to mention, that if an industry were to arise around web-based games, most would probably either be the "free but pay-to-win and with ads" kind, or on Netflix-style subscription platforms where you don't actually own anything and you're just paying for the access. [1] - not saying it's impossible to preserve it, just that it's not preserved by default, like a locally-installed game is
    - vorpalhex 8y ago
      This is no longer true for even locally installed games. If Ubisoft's uPlay disappears tomorrow, your locally installed games are just useless bits. Many very nice web based games exist, and many can be saved to disk and launched from a local html file just fine. Many games target the web browser because it's easily cross platform, requires no install, and is easy to convince new players to give it a try.
- gambler 8y ago
  There is no good reason for any website to be able to block Esc key from exiting fullscreen mode, games or no games.
codedokode 8y ago
The spec [1] says: > Richly interactive web sites, games and remote desktop/application streaming experiences want to provide an immersive, full screen experience. To accomplish this, sites need access to special keys and keyboard shortcuts while they are in full screen mode so that they can be used for navigation, menus or gaming functionality. But I guess it will be used by scammers as well. [1] https://w3c.github.io/keyboard-lock/#introduction https://w3c.github.io/keyboard-lock/#introduction
AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago
People increasingly trying to turn the web into an application layer instead of writing actual applications.

tinus_hn 8y ago

I also saw one with an offset custom mouse cursor so you can’t trust what you’re clicking on.

codedokode 8y ago
Also such sites sometimes play audio instructions trying to scare or deceive a user.
- Someone1234 8y ago
  I've had relatives tricked by this and called the number for "Microsoft Support." They were using Chrome. Clicking on the browser outside of the page area resulted in the tab going full screen again somehow, and they used multiple other tricks to make the page impossible to close (e.g. looping message boxes). I don't think browser vendors take these issues very easy. But when I tell relatives to hit the escape key and it DOESN'T work, it isn't helpful.
  - codedokode 8y ago
    Also, Escape key won't work if you had pressed F11 to switch to a fullscreen mode. Furthermore, browsers like Opera remember this setting and restore fullscreen mode (along with the page content) even after restart. I saw a case when a user somehow has opened a page with ads in fullscreen mode (probably it was done for watching a movie) and it was restored even after exiting and restarting the browser. So I killed the browser with Task Manager, restarted it and the fullscreen ads appeared again. I (an experienced user) couldn't quickly figure out that it was actually a fullscreen mode, couldn't understand why the browser doesn't launch and thought it was some kind of virus in the system. I figured it out only when I tried to move mouse upwards and a browser UI appeared.

danShumway 8y ago

Note that this proposal is still in Editors Draft (meaning it hasn't even been proposed as a Working Draft yet, they're still in the process of writing the initial proposal). It could very well be rejected, and I hope it is. It's being championed by the Chromium team, and just because Chromium has turned something on doesn't mean it's a standard. It just means that Chromium doesn't know how to properly launch experimental browser settings behind user flags, <rant>because apparently we've all learned literally nothing from the early days of browser-specific CSS tags and the botched release of flexbox</rant>. Remember HTML imports, Observable, etc... there's still plenty of time to file issues[0] and participate in conversation about the feature[1]. And I encourage you to do so, because speaking as a game developer on the web, this is a bad feature that shouldn't be built. [0]: https://github.com/w3c/keyboard-lock/issues https://github.com/w3c/keyboard-lock/issues [1]: https://discourse.wicg.io/t/proposal-system-keyboard-lock-api/1594 https://discourse.wicg.io/t/proposal-system-keyboard-lock-ap...