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Google Chrome ships a default, hidden extension that allows code on *.google.com access to private APIs, including your current CPU usage (fedi.simonwillison.net)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/23752739

https://simonwillison.net/2024/Jul/9/hangout_servicesthunkjs/

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It turns out Google Chrome (via Chromium) includes a default extension which makes extra services available to code running on the *.google.com domains - tweeted about today by Luca Casonato, but the code has been there in the public repo since October 2013 as far as I can tell.

It looks like it's a way to let Google Hangouts (or presumably its modern predecessors) get additional information from the browser, including the current load on the user's CPU. Update: On Hacker News a Googler confirms that the Google Meet "troubleshooting" feature uses this to review CPU utilization

The code doesn't do anything on non-Google domains.

Maybe it's because you tried it on a non Google site? Idk.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Hehe, I read that sentence, tried it on google.com

But forget what I said. I have the ungoogled variant of Chromium installed. No wonder that's not in there...