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Google Fixes 10 Bugs In Chrome, Pays $4000 Bounty
Trailrunner7 writes "It seems Google's bug bounty program is paying some nice dividends, for both sides. Less than two weeks after releasing version 6.0 of its Chrome browser, Google has pushed out another Chrome release, which includes fixes for 10 security bugs, seven of which are rated either critical or high. Google Chrome 6.0.472.59 comes out just 12 days after the last Chrome release, which fixed 14 security bugs. As part of its bug bounty program, Google paid out $4,000 in rewards to researchers who disclosed security flaws in the browser. Most of the security flaws fixed in the new release are in the Windows version of Chrome, but the most serious bug is only in Chrome for Mac."
Tell me about Chrome when print preview is included. The trouble is that inclusion of this [basic] feature in Chrome will introduce yet another set of bugs. Scary! Come on Google.
Bug bounties are really not far off from Scab work at all. Companies use bounties and contests to replace what could otherwise be lucrative positions for permanent employees. And as long as there are people out there willing to do the work for free, the company has no incentive to create those positions. They just paid 400$ a bug to get god knows how many people to run QA for them, and paid out the ten people that got in fresh, reproducible bugs the fastest. This is great for the companies running the contests, but it sure isn't good for workers or the industry.