cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/6738148
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.
So in order to accomplish what you’re saying, all attesters would have to reject all browsers with extension functionality then, right? And if they really wanted to eliminate ad blocking, those browsers would not even be allowed to run debugging scripts.
I don’t see a lot of buy in from users to such a system. The proposal requires the site, the user, and the attestor to comply. I don’t see any plans for an overhaul of the entire tech infrastructure.
The worst that can happen as I understand it is a handful of websites will start blocking users who aren’t validated per the spec, they’ll display a message like “this website only works in BrowserEveryoneHates”, and then a competitor will swoop in that works in every browser.
The best that can happen is users will have a little more security from tampered software, advertisers won’t lose as much money from bots, among other things as they describe in the spec.
I’m open to changing my mind, but this is just how I understand it so far.
There is little to no competition for a lot of services. Just a reminder, the IRS just got caught selling data to Facebook. Imagine you can only do your taxes in ad-ridden Chrome.