{"id":44103,"date":"2024-07-16T14:49:05","date_gmt":"2024-07-16T18:49:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=44103"},"modified":"2024-07-16T14:49:05","modified_gmt":"2024-07-16T18:49:05","slug":"chromium-browsers-preferencing-google-com-domains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2024\/07\/16\/chromium-browsers-preferencing-google-com-domains\/","title":{"rendered":"Chromium Browsers Preferencing *.google.com Domains"},"content":{"rendered":"

Simon Willison<\/a> (Hacker News<\/a>):<\/p>\n

It turns out Google Chrome (via Chromium) includes a default extension which makes extra services available to code running on the *.google.com<\/code> domains - tweeted about today by Luca Casonato<\/a>, but the code has been there in the public repo since October 2013<\/a> as far as I can tell.<\/p>

It looks like it’s a way to let Google Hangouts (or presumably its modern predecessors) get additional information from the browser, including the current load on the user’s CPU.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Since the code is in Chromium, it also affects Brave and Edge.<\/p>\n\n

Luca Casonato<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

This is interesting because it is a clear violation of the idea that browser vendors should not give preference to their websites over anyone elses.<\/p>\n

The DMA codifies this idea into law: browser vendors, as gatekeepers of the internet, must give the same capabilities to everyone.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

John Gruber<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

I frequently bemoan the DMA’s ambiguity but here I’d say it’s crystal clear. Chrome is a designated gatekeeping platform<\/a>, and granting system-monitoring privileges only to Google’s own websites<\/em> is clearly in violation. Here’s a Hacker News comment from a purported Google employee<\/a> who calls the feature “mundane” while admitting that Google Meet uses it as a tool to debug bad connections, even though no other web-based meeting app has access to it. I can think of no better example proving that Google views the open web as a platform that it owns.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n