Google Chrome 67 Released for Windows, Mac, and Linux (bleepingcomputer.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Google released earlier today Chrome 67, the latest stable release of its web browser. According to changelogs released with Chrome 67, this version adds support for a Generic Sensors API, improves AR and VR experiences, and deprecates the HTTP-Based Public Key Pinning (HPKP) security feature. Probably the biggest change in Chrome 67 is the addition of the Generic Sensors API. As the name implies, this is an API that exposes data from device sensors to public websites. The new API is based on the Generic Sensor W3C standard. This API is meant primarily for mobile use, and in its current version, websites can use Chrome's Generic Sensors API to access data from a device's accelerometer, gyroscope, orientation and motion sensors. Another API that shipped with Chrome is the WebXR Device API. Developers can use this API to build virtual and augmented reality experiences on Chrome for mobile-based VR headsets like Google Daydream View and Samsung Gear VR, as well as desktop-hosted headsets like Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Windows Mixed Reality Headsets.
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Looks like a gay man doing the Macarena
The last time I installed Google Chrome browser, years ago, it installed 3 OS system services. Google Chrome had more control over my computer than I did when using it as a limited user!
Does Google Chrome browser still install system services? If so, I would never use it.
Virtual reality? It's a web browser, not Emacs.
Table-ized A.I.
Thanks for the reply.
I never would have guessed that. I thought if I didn't say yes to a UAC request, Google Chrome browser would not install.
My opinion: Google is becoming more and more badly managed. Now, when a Google map is displayed, the map shows hotels! To me, that might be useful: I know that any CEO of a hotel that displays on Google maps is not a sensible person. I would never stay at that hotel, no matter where it is located.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
From an ad company deep into your OS. For free.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Yesterday i went to order some shit from a memorial day sale and chrome popped up some bullshit "payments" form and tried to intercept my billing info. I thought it was malware, but apparently it's actually a real part of chrome. Finally i reloaded the website and it let me check out. Can't use a browser that is indistinguishable from malware.
How about I just open all the windows on my house, post all my account information on line, start using electric billboard based email/chat/tweets, and let the people Google sells my data to just cut out the middle man and see it all firsthand.
You said, "most or all of google's spyware removed". Most?
Google is so wackily managed, in my opinion, that I would not trust that there is no spyware in the Chromium browser. If there is no spyware now, maybe it would be added later. And, how would I know? I don't want to spend hours dealing with those details.
Why the fuck would I want a web browser to do any of that shit?
I want websites to have less information about me, not more.
Honestly, make a fucking web browser, the rest is just bullshit we don't want.
I expect the sensors will be used to make forced interactions with ads and tracking. It's time a web browser gets released that says we won't add any more APIs, just a plain text browsing experience. A modern gopher basically
... that all important benchmark value, 69! Highest version number wins! Remember that, kids.
There is no XUL, only WebExtensions...
Certificate transparency = Lifelock commercial.
There is no equivalence between the two systems.
Yes, on Windows 7. Most of our computers aren't running Windows 10.
Many articles say Microsoft and Windows cannot be trusted. Two of those articles: Windows 10 is possibly the worst spyware ever made.
And: 7 ways Windows 10 pushes ads at you...
So, it seems to me that Google and Microsoft are, more and more, poorly managed. They are in the abuse business, not in any real business.
Several years ago, I talked with a mid-level Google manager who said that Google had more money than it knew how to manage. Also, that it was difficult for Google employees to know what was happening inside the company.
And Linux: We have 2 computers running Linux. Mostly they don't get used. It is too difficult to deal with all the poorly-documented variations. This story about Linux makes me laugh: Why is the Number of Linux Distros Declining? Linux had 285 variations when that article was published!
Why did I say "Google Chrome browser", and not just "Chrome"? I was trying to make my comment easier to read. I didn't want to assume that every Slashdot reader has experience with Chrome.
On the positive side, PWAs will now have access to sensors and there's even less need for native apps.
There is a book filled with poison in a library of 100,000 books. Just open all the books to find that bad book. You have nothing else to do, is that correct?
Also, the poison may be extremely well-disguised as a typical hamburger.
Also, if the poison is found, a new version of the book may be released that disguises the poison in a different way.
The answer? Stay away from those who have demonstrated an intention to harm you.
Where are the features that would make the browser immune to malware? Defend from pop-under, javascript exploits, malware of all ilk. THOSE are the priorities that everybody and their dog cares about. VR, generic sensor API... it's just bloatware we didn't ask for.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
Well, history does show us that the vast majority of Nazi Brownshirts were, in fact, homosexuals. Ernst Röhm and many other senior Nazis were outright sodomites. This is not often discussed, but is very true. Not just a few of them were outright paedophiles, but then again,quite a few homosexuals are attracted to younger boys anyway, another fact homosexuals will outright deny, but has been borne out as fact over and over again.
But you need to run OS X 10.10 for some magical reason because the new version of the browser uses... eh, what exactly?
Why does it need 10.10?
#DeleteFacebook
Mostly garbage posts below, sad seeing slashdot reduced to a hosting platform for trolls.
You are indicating that you think you are more knowledgeable than someone else.
This is the issue: A system service could possibly do anything, including changing what it does at any time. Most people don't want to spend the time to investigate.
There is NO good reason why a browser should include a system service. If there is a system service, there is no certainty of privacy or control over the entire computer by the owner and user. Somewhat like Google's Android operating system.
Google (as well as other web giants) has always been pushing new web standards such as WebGL, sensors APIs and so on, boasting they could solve shits. However there are many apps floating here and service providers just want you to use their apps which uses many APIs in the native OS in order to suck up more of your data or privacy or something like that, and as a result the websites just became liberally crippled. I forgot hedging here, but in most cases they are correct.
So actually those damn APIs just became something that smart ass Web (or today something like nodejs) developers are happy to suck more data out of you. Consider WebRTC local address leak (why not use a real native software or app to communicate? Given today's popularity of WhatsApp or the seemingly political incorrect Facebook Messenger), WebGL fingerprinting (yeah except for web games, however most sites you visit just used webgl to drawing random stuff and *get graphics card information*, totally absurd to do that) and so on andsoforth, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Now the W3C just passed (or more accurately, have passed) the generic sensor API, which makes me wonder why don't they deprecate 10 or so older APIs (yeah just like battery percentages and *distance sensor* which non-tech folks might never even hear about) to make way for the new shiny clusterf**k one. More fingerprinting dimensions, I suspect.
Recently there's the fact that more and more seemingly open Web standards are pushed by the big dogs, prominently Google, such as Web biometrics API (yeah *real* permanent cookies, something living in the paradise of advertisers and governments and harassers and whatever) and this. I cannot even think about the reason why it's needed to add a cluster**** to another pile of the same ones. Even Web three point zero might not need that kind of APIs. Yeah I know the Web is being enriched, and former Web extensions, predominantly Flash, has been abandoned by the extensions and extensions and extensions of HTML5 and new JavaScript APIs. But richer and richer and richer web features implemented by the browsers is also a factor. Flash on Linux is a pita though.
Nowadays W3C just mostly became a puppet-like thing under the big dogs. Want new tracking methods and so-called web enrichment? Big dogs bark, and the puppets make a referendum. Then it goes along the course.
The solution? Just block APIs or use something like an extension to implement a whitelist. Nowadays where the web is the new Java or something more like an mostly centralized and OS independent computing environment, new APIs adds little excluding more powerful sucks of your data or privacy. The less you disclose, the safer you are. Personally as a Firefox fan, maybe you can support Mozilla (they're partly backed by Google and is seeking solution, however) by using Firefox. AFAIK, only Firefox implemented the *technically proper* way of mitigating time-based attacks on the processor - add randomness, which might make fingerprinting less accurate. Only Firefox blocks really really privacy invading APIs (that is, the APIs on distance sensor). Only Firefox technically allows more control of script execution (yeah on webextensions, however they tend to be giving more control over chrome), which gives more power on website internal frontend logic. Additionally, Mozilla tends to take part in most talks on standards besides the big dogs, as a matter of fact. They do have the right to speak. If Mozilla falls, I wonder there is any entity which has as much influence as Mozilla. It's existence is better than not, at least.
It's natural and normal to see big dogs dominating everything in a particular field, and the web is no exception. However, countermeasures is better than none.
just another reason not to repress gay behaviour, or countries for that matter.
Probably the biggest change in Chrome 67 is the addition of the Generic Sensors API. As the name implies, this is an API that exposes data from device sensors to public websites.
HOLY F'CK! Seriously? The audacity!
I am glad I read this so I know to uninstall and never look back.
J