Google Developers Create API For Direct USB Access Via Web Pages (softpedia.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Two Google developers have uploaded an unofficial (for now) draft to the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Incubator Community Group (W3C WICG) that describes a method of interconnecting USB-capable devices to Web pages. The API, called WebUSB, allows device manufacturers to provide special "registry and landing pages" where they can host JavaScript SDKs for their USB-capable devices. Site owners can load these SDKs as iframes inside their websites, and allow a site to access and relay commands (via the iframe to the browser's WebUSB API) to the actual device. To protect privacy and security, the WebUSB API also comes with a CORS-like system that prompts users for access to their devices to avoid abuse and Web-based fingerprinting. The system is also backward compatible with devices created before the standard's approval (if it gets approved).

Comments

W3C API for Google products

[Anonymous Coward]

Remember when Pale Moon devs wrote:

This is sort of an open letter to the community, because we're facing some difficult times in the medium-to-long future with the way the web is developing away from actual standards, and "standards" being currently mostly dictated by the same people who run the biggest browsers (Google, Microsoft) and web services (Google again, media sites, Facebook) -- including the W3C being heavily influenced and/or strong-armed into accepting standards that rather describe the way "the big three" are behaving than what is logical or should actually be part of clear, separated domains for different technologies involved in creating the Web.

This API is for ChromeOS 100%

Re: That doesn't sound like it could ever be abuse

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

It's just JavaScript. What could go wrong?

Nothing. Nothing could possibly go wrong with this idea.

As we've seen, the Internet Of Random Things has had a unblemished, stellar record of security and privacy practices. This is because the developers and manufacturers that make Random Things Connected To The Internet are experienced, careful, and spare no expense when it comes to securing these wonderful, life-enhancing gadgets. Your privacy and safety are their first concerns.