Sheesh, I hope there are somewhere some hackers that care about freedom and privacy that are working on Chromium. Non-free extremely invasive code making it's way into a popular free project is teh lose. http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jun/23/google-eavesdropping-tool-... -- Sent from my $DEVICE with $SOFTWARE. Please excuse my brevity.
Sam, Thank you. I wonder if the same is true in Chrome, which some of my friends use from their Windows(tm) installs. Also ran into a rather weirdly layered printer registration with a new HP printer. A bit too interactive a process. I wonder if printers are monitoring people, too? Thank you, Ted P.
On Wed, Jun 24, 2015 at 07:34:37PM -0600, Ted Pomeroy wrote:
Sam, Thank you. I wonder if the same is true in Chrome, which some of my friends use from their Windows(tm) installs.
Yeah, it's totally in chrome, which is not free software. From the article: # The feature is installed by default as part of Google’s Chrome browser. # But open source advocates are up in arms about it also being installed # with the open source variant Chromium, because the listening code is # considered to be “black box” Because apparently having your browser automatically download modules that turn whatever computer one is using into a device which transmits audio input across the internet, is something that non-free software users consider acceptable. :sigh: -- sam
How about you? ;) what time and when is next meeting, I know I know it's on web site. Keep hoping I can make it not tonite, next week. Sky On Jun 24, 2015 12:56 PM, "Sam Noble" <s@mnoble.net> wrote:
Sheesh, I hope there are somewhere some hackers that care about freedom and privacy that are working on Chromium. Non-free extremely invasive code making it's way into a popular free project is teh lose.
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jun/23/google-eavesdropping-tool-... -- Sent from my $DEVICE with $SOFTWARE. Please excuse my brevity. _______________________________________________ nmglug mailing list nmglug@lists.nmglug.org http://lists.nmglug.org/listinfo.cgi/nmglug-nmglug.org
On Thu, Jun 25, 2015 at 08:44:40AM -0600, esque wrote:
How about you? ;)
Right, because if I was going to work on a free software browser, I'd pick the one where my paid collaborators say things like: # 'The fact is that an end user should not care if software downloads a # "binary blob" without running it. This is functionally equivalent to # downloading anything from the Internet, a JPG file for example. Chromium # downloads a bunch of things on startup, and nobody seems to mind. Just # because hotword.nexe happens to be an executable blob doesn't really # make a difference.'¹ Instead I think I'd prefer to work on the one where the code that they silently download and install is free software: # Firefox does auto-download an OpenH264 binary on systems without a # supported H.264 decoder library (if this feature is enabled, which it # isn't currently in Debian's iceweasel packages). But note that OpenH264 # is free software available under the BSD license: # Firefox downloads binaries from Cisco because Cisco can legally # distribute this software in binary form in countries where H.264 patents # apply, while Mozilla can't do so directly.² :sigh: (That actually sounds like a neat-ish legal hack for our tricky patent law, but) I haven't heard of this before, and it's frustrating if it really is silently downloading code in the background. Though as someone who lets a lot of unsourced javascript run when browsing the www I probably have scarier things than this happening, though still not as scary as chromium installing a thingymablob that if the debian devs hadn't been wise enough to disable all of NaCL in chromium could be happily sending private conversations across the internet. -- sam [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9736033 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9729379
Sam; I applaud your vigilance,and speaking up for rectitude In your comment you describe behaviour, I think of as being bereft ethically. They would not be considered guardians of ethics. one mans view. a On 06/25/2015 11:32 AM, Sam Noble wrote:
On Thu, Jun 25, 2015 at 08:44:40AM -0600, esque wrote:
How about you? ;) Right, because if I was going to work on a free software browser, I'd pick the one where my paid collaborators say things like:
# 'The fact is that an end user should not care if software downloads a # "binary blob" without running it. This is functionally equivalent to # downloading anything from the Internet, a JPG file for example. Chromium # downloads a bunch of things on startup, and nobody seems to mind. Just # because hotword.nexe happens to be an executable blob doesn't really # make a difference.'¹
Instead I think I'd prefer to work on the one where the code that they silently download and install is free software: # Firefox does auto-download an OpenH264 binary on systems without a # supported H.264 decoder library (if this feature is enabled, which it # isn't currently in Debian's iceweasel packages). But note that OpenH264 # is free software available under the BSD license: # Firefox downloads binaries from Cisco because Cisco can legally # distribute this software in binary form in countries where H.264 patents # apply, while Mozilla can't do so directly.²
:sigh: (That actually sounds like a neat-ish legal hack for our tricky patent law, but) I haven't heard of this before, and it's frustrating if it really is silently downloading code in the background. Though as someone who lets a lot of unsourced javascript run when browsing the www I probably have scarier things than this happening, though still not as scary as chromium installing a thingymablob that if the debian devs hadn't been wise enough to disable all of NaCL in chromium could be happily sending private conversations across the internet.
participants (4)
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a -
esque -
Sam Noble -
Ted Pomeroy