Google Updates Chrome Web Store Review Process and Sets New Extension Code Requirements (venturebeat.com)

Google is finally turning its attention to Chrome Web Store. On Monday, the company announced a range of big changes that would make the online store more secure for customers. From a report: The first two are happening now: Developers are being subjected to a more rigorous review process, and the Chrome Web Store no longer accepts obfuscated JavaScript files. In a couple of weeks, Chrome users will get the option to restrict host access for their extensions. And in 2019, two more changes will take effect: Chrome Web Store developer accounts will require 2-step verification, and Google will introduce manifest version 3 of the extensions platform.

[...] Effective today, extensions that request powerful permissions will be subject to additional compliance review. Google doesn't offer much detail here, but it does say your extension's permissions should be as narrowly scoped as possible and all your code should be included directly in the extension package to minimize review time. If your extension uses remotely hosted code, Google will also be taking a closer look (and will monitor on an ongoing basis).

Comments

Chrome, for Hearding the Ignorant

[BrendaEM]

Just lock people into the internet is yours, Google.

The product

[Anonymous Coward]

"the company announced a range of big changes that would make the online store more secure for customers."

Chrome users are not customers. They are the product.

Remove Chrome

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, we will need lots more chlorine to get rid of all this chrome infestation.
and something to get rid of microsoft
Apples can just be eaten, though preferably not by adam and eve nor steve, they'll cause us too much problems.

caption - borates

Why? Its not like the users care.

[DarkRookie2]

They will just ignore the permissions and install something that collects their data.

Re:Why? Its not like the users care.

[The MAZZTer]

And this is likely the reason Google is making this change. Google provided the tools for users to see what things extensions wanted access to, and users did not care. So now Google has to be more selective with their approval process.

The other big reason is the practice of selling legitimate extensions to "developers" who promptly pump it full of malware and push an update to all of the existing users.

It sounds like Google's changes will address these problems and I welcome them.

Re:Why? Its not like the users care.

[Anonymous Coward]

it's not that users "did not care", it's that they're unable to comprehend why they should.

eff needs to do a public education campaign, an accurate this-applies-to-everyone one, to scare the public awake and to start caring about their data.

Re:Why? Its not like the users care.

[Nexus Unplugged]

Google can say all they want about how they're trying to protect users against malicious extension updates, but I won't believe a word of it until they change the fact that Chrome still won't:

- Show you what extensions of yours have recently updated
- Show you when a particular extension was last updated
- Allow users to disable automatic updates for an extension

These are pretty basic features, and they're all things the Play Store has done on Android for years. It boggles the mind that they would develop a platform for shipping updates to one of the most important pieces of software many users run without giving the user any real control or insight into the process.

Re:Why? Its not like the users care.

[Raenex]

Google provided the tools for users to see what things extensions wanted access to, and users did not care. So now Google has to be more selective with their approval process.

Right. How dare these 3rd party apps spy on users. That's Google's job!

Re:Why? Its not like the users care.

[DarkRookie2]

It is not comprehension. Its the users own laziness. They don't care to learn
Computers have been around since at least the '40s, and (relatively) affordable personal system have been around since the early '70s
Unless you were born before 1950 or after 2013, there is no reason not to know how to use a computer.

Re:Brett KANVANAUGH

[JackieBrown]

I'm just curious if people get paid to manually post this stuff or if there is some program that is systematically posting these.

I guess the more people read a statement the less outlandish it seems and eventually just normal.

I don't run Chrome due to the licensing.

[Ungrounded Lightning]

I don't run chrome on my desktop and laptop for several reasons, but on my android smartphone, which includes Chrome as the default browser, I don't run it because of the licensing.

The Chrome license includes an Adobe license, due to their using an Adobe product as a component.

The Adobe license, while apparently intended as a no-reverse-engineering prohibition, amounts to a non-compete that would forever taint my ability to work on software similar to Adobe's.

(Clicking "accept" on a cellphone can be expected to leave a database record that is personally identifiable by its connection to my cellphone account with the carrier.)

So I haven't activated it. At the moment, having not gotten around to installing a replacement browser (and figuring out how to do so without use of the un-enabled Chrome browser) I don't have browser-based functions on the cellphone. This largely cripples it as a smartphone.

(Fortunately I can get by using it as a "dumb phone" and tethering it to my laptop (currently using Firefox) when I really need to get on the net. The latter works great. But it's a pain if I'm on the move.)

Re:I don't run Chrome due to the licensing.

[drinkypoo]

So I haven't activated it. At the moment, having not gotten around to installing a replacement browser (and figuring out how to do so without use of the un-enabled Chrome browser)

Naturally, you install it through the play store. Or you download an APK onto your laptop, and sideload it using adb install.

Re:I don't run Chrome due to the licensing.

[Anonymous Coward]

You need to explain a little further what exact component of chrome would "forever taint your ability to work on software similar to Adobe's".

You can't be the only person in the world who words on software similar to Adobe's.

Re:I don't run Chrome due to the licensing.

[Anonymous Coward]

Have you tried Firefox for Android? I dumped Chrome on Android a couple years ago, plus I can use an adblocking browser extension. When I was using Chrome it didn't support browser extensions. That might have changed since I last used Chrome, though.

Re:I don't run Chrome due to the licensing.

[Anonymous Coward]

I installed Lineage but maybe you can't. When you're flashing that's when you need (or not) to add other .zip files such as the su add-on or a google apps package, guess which I didn't install.
I don't remember a EULA. Then again most smartphones can't install Lineage.

Re: Brett KANVANAUGH

[Anonymous Coward]

It's called trolls. Welcome to the internet.

Fucking noob.

Also if you reply to the man. At least answer his question.

Re: Brett KANVANAUGH

[JackieBrown]

It just seems like a lot of effort for something that I doubt people even look at.

Well, these and the racist and sex jokes make it harder and harder for me to risk using this site at work. Work wise, that is probably a good thing. I'd really hate a coworker to come up to me and see those comments and assume without actually talking with me.

EULA

[Anonymous Coward]

How in the world does clicking on a text box result in a meeting of minds or the exchanging of consideration? Must be J00ish logic, as detailed above...

JEWgle revealed

[Anonymous Coward]

Khazar Talmudic Jews believe this of all they call goyim/gentiles (any non-jew): Jews = biggest racists of all for which they "jew guilt" you for no less! They're hypocrites known as thieves all thru history or were Argentines in the 1940 under Peron, Spanish inquistion, France (1306), Egypt (despoiled/robbed by jews), Arabs (pre & post 1948), England (1330 Edward longshanks), Romans under titus, Russia pogroms and Germany who got rid of them from their nations nazi german's too? No. Driven into DESERTS ages ago! Don't wonder why after all those exilings above.

Should anyone doubt any of this see Jacob Javits' crony Rosenthal spill the beans on it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4zMVZ8HnFI/ where he called all Christianity fools for helping Israel and the biggest scam of all time per their beliefs below from their Talmud.

This is the province of the synagogue of Satan (Pharisees whom Jesus Christ himself kicked to the curb out of the temple & they killed him for it. Jeremiah did the same to them also + the Essenes could not stand them either breaking away from the pharisee corruption):

Jew Talmud excerpts (the book that calls Christ's mother a whore & a bastard of a roman soldier):

1. Sanhedrin 59a: "Murdering Goyim is like killing a wild animal."

2. Abodah Zara 26b: "Even the best of the Gentiles should be killed."

3. Sanhedrin 59a: "A goy (Gentile) who pries into The Law (Talmud) is guilty of death."

4. Yebhamoth 11b: "Sexual intercourse with a little girl is permitted if she is three years of age."

5. Schabouth Hag. 6d: "Jews may swear falsely by use of subterfuge wording."

6. Hilkkoth Akum X1: "Do not save Goyim in danger of death."

7. Hilkkoth Akum X1: "Show no mercy to the Goyim."

8. Choschen Hamm 388, 15: "If it can be proven that someone has given the money of Israelites to the Goyim, a way must be found after prudent consideration to wipe him off the face of the earth."

9. Choschen Hamm 266,1: "A Jew may keep anything he finds which belongs to the Akum (Gentile). For he who returns lost property (to Gentiles) sins against the Law by increasing the power of the transgressors of the Law. It is praiseworthy, however, to return lost property if it is done to honor the name of God, namely, if by so doing, Christians will praise the Jews and look upon them as honorable people."

10. Szaaloth-Utszabot, The Book of Jore Dia 17: "A Jew should and must make a false oath when the Goyim asks if our books contain anything against them."

11. Baba Necia 114, 6: "The Jews are human beings, but the nations of the world are not human beings but beasts."

12. Simeon Haddarsen, fol. 56-D: "When the Messiah comes every Jew will have 2800 slaves."

13. Nidrasch Talpioth, p. 225-L: "Jehovah created the non-Jew in human form so that the Jew would not have to be served by beasts. The non-Jew is consequently an animal in human form, and condemned to serve the Jew day and night."

14. Aboda Sarah 37a: "A Gentile girl who is three years old can be violated."

15. Gad. Shas. 2:2: "A Jew may violate but not marry a non-Jewish girl."

16. Tosefta. Aboda Zara B, 5: "If a goy kills a goy or a Jew, he is responsible; but if a Jew kills a goy, he is NOT responsible."

17. Schulchan Aruch, Choszen Hamiszpat 388: "It is permitted to kill a Jewish denunciator everywhere. It is permitted to kill him even before he denounces."

18. Schulchan Aruch, Choszen Hamiszpat 348: "All property of other nations belongs to the Jewish nation, which, consequently, is entitled to seize upon it without any scruples."

19. Tosefta, Abda Zara VIII, 5: "How to interpret the word 'robbery.' A goy is forbidden to steal, rob, or take women slaves, etc., from a goy or from a Jew. But a Jew is NOT forbidden to do all this to a goy."

20. Seph. Jp., 92, 1: "God has given the Jews power over the possessions and blood of all nations."

21. Schulchan Aruch, Choszen H