3 ms·

The recent moves to turn the browser into its own OS are worrying. The problem I see is that no one seems to care. Its full steam ahead and its only later do we

The recent moves to turn the browser into its own OS are worrying. The problem I see is that no one seems to care. Its full steam ahead and its only later do we realize that these new feature and standards are trivial to abuse. I really wish there was some kind of web mission statement on where browsers are going instead of this kitchen sink approach. I have no idea what the W3C is thinking. I don't think even the W3C knows what its thinking. Its just being reactionary; trying to turn HTML5 into a "flash killer" and shoving feature after feature into the spec. I don't want to piss on progress, but I think privacy and security concerns get a backseat with W3C members, especially Google, whose very existence is dependent on finding information about users to sell to advertisers. Soon we'll need sandboxing and privacy apps to wrap our browsers in. I really hope Mozilla leads the way to pushing back on this recent mad push of thoughtless progress. A more moderate approach would be very much welcome and having more "off by default" options for easily abused features like P2P in the browser, which is what webrtc really is, makes sense. Right now I had no idea what my browser is capable of. Can it silently turn on my camera and microphone? Probably. Can it make all sorts of crazy p2p connections to various servers/clients silently? Probably. Its all a little scary.

marcosdumay 11y ago
The kitchen sink approach is a Nash optimum strategy. Any browser that does not adopt it fails.
csense 11y ago
> no one seems to care Article about browser feature creep, currently on frontpage: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9961613 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9961613 People do care about this stuff. Maybe not enough people, and maybe not the right people to do anything about it. But there are people right here on HN who do care about this stuff.
- drzaiusapelord 11y ago
  I was pleasantly surprised to see that article on the front page. It wasn't up when I posted my comment. I do hope this becomes a major issue.
pdkl95 11y ago
This situation will become 10x worse when WebAssembly is available and everybody can bypass the usual browser features by uploading their own DRMed/obscured version of freetype. I seriously cannot think of a feature more pathological to the open web. I normally rely on Hanlon's razor and assume this is the work of a bunch of short-sighted nerds that are only looking at the fun-and-shiny features. In light of stuff like BULLRUN and the methods described in PHK's amazing "Operation Orchestra"[1], I am forced to wonder who is pushing this crap - because someone is obviously trying to create a digital imprimatur[2]. [1] https://archive.fosdem.org/2014/schedule/event/nsa_operation_orchestra/ https://archive.fosdem.org/2014/schedule/event/nsa_operation... [2] https://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/digital-imprimatur/ https://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/digital-imprimatur/

marcosdumay 11y ago

The kitchen sink approach is a Nash optimum strategy. Any browser that does not adopt it fails.

csense 11y ago

> no one seems to care Article about browser feature creep, currently on frontpage: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9961613 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9961613 People do care about this stuff. Maybe not enough people, and maybe not the right people to do anything about it. But there are people right here on HN who do care about this stuff.

drzaiusapelord 11y ago
I was pleasantly surprised to see that article on the front page. It wasn't up when I posted my comment. I do hope this becomes a major issue.

pdkl95 11y ago

This situation will become 10x worse when WebAssembly is available and everybody can bypass the usual browser features by uploading their own DRMed/obscured version of freetype. I seriously cannot think of a feature more pathological to the open web. I normally rely on Hanlon's razor and assume this is the work of a bunch of short-sighted nerds that are only looking at the fun-and-shiny features. In light of stuff like BULLRUN and the methods described in PHK's amazing "Operation Orchestra"[1], I am forced to wonder who is pushing this crap - because someone is obviously trying to create a digital imprimatur[2]. [1] https://archive.fosdem.org/2014/schedule/event/nsa_operation_orchestra/ https://archive.fosdem.org/2014/schedule/event/nsa_operation... [2] https://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/digital-imprimatur/ https://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/digital-imprimatur/