this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2023
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While WEI is thankfully cancelled, it's not entirely cancelled... They're planning on making it available still in WebViews with the intention that websites can check if a malicious Android app is trying to do a phishing scheme.

Seems like such a niche "security" feature... what are they really trying to accomplish here? Something seems fishy to me

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[–] [email protected] 131 points 9 months ago (5 children)

this is not cancellation. This is Google taking a step back, and regroup to attack back.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Its a common practice to do exactly that. Just demand something very absurd and let people rage about it, then "step back" to "please the masses" while in reality your "step back" idea is the thing you actually wanted to do from the beginning on. But now people are happy about it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

I learned that as a negotiation tactic. Pick the number you want to get, then ask for more. The counter will likely be around what you wanted!

[–] [email protected] 28 points 9 months ago

They care about one thing only: Money.

Obviously this is more of a strategic retreat and nothing else. It's also a very common tactic to push for something crass, pull back, wait a bit and repeat. Most commonly resistance gets weaker each time, because people are people.

Now if anyone thinks they made money with a retreat and won't try again, because it's obviously much more lucrative, which stone exactly are you living under?

You are 100% correct. Nothing is won till you make it impossible for Google to push forward or destroy their motivation for trying again later.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 9 months ago

Ah yes, the old Unity Trick™.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago

If they can't storm the front door, then try to sneak in through the back door I guess.

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[–] [email protected] 89 points 9 months ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 33 points 9 months ago

Ha, I didn't know there's a name for that, but it's definitely what I assume they're going to do. My initial reaction was to wonder what they'll now present as the "reasonable" option to WEI.

Considering they're rolling it out in Android, maybe they'll just wait a moment and then integrate it into desktop Chrome as well, just without any of the fanfare?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago

It's a good thing that people are calling out their deception.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I would never agree with what Google proposes, though

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

You may not, but you'd be surprised with how many people didn't even care about WEI, let alone whatever the reasonable option will be

[–] [email protected] 52 points 9 months ago

They grew thanks to the open internet where everyone let them scrape their website’s content. They can’t let anyone do that again.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Sure it isn't. * Wink wink nudge nudge*

It'll be back. With a different name and modified messaging.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

That probably would've been true even if they did follow through.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago (1 children)

@dean @rysiek For now... they'll bring it back with a new coat of paint and a new name within the next year.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

@4censord @dean @rysiek I can see where they could integrate and feature creep to what they really likely want, but in terms of webviews this would likely be beneficial for security.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

They want to put it on the default webview in android, which doesn't seem like a huge deal to me. It would basically let apps that use webview for things like logging in beef up their security.

It's not like the entire concept of this API was bad, it's just that with Google's proposed implementation companies would abuse the fuck out of it to do bad things. Not having it in browsers pretty much eliminates that while still letting things like banking apps enjoy some of the benefits.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago (4 children)
[–] [email protected] 55 points 9 months ago

Specifically, everyone who's not using Chrome and its derivates did it. Use Firefox, people.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 9 months ago

That's what Google want you to believe, forget about and step back. It's not over yet. We just stopped the first wave and it will get harder with each wave.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago (1 children)

@dean @lisamelton One of the reasons I don’t use Chrome. Here, they’ve revealed what they are working towards. They’ll try again.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

@kevinbhayes @dean You are correct. They will try again. 💯

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago (2 children)

People here really can't just accept a win

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago (5 children)

A win is when we have forced them to abandon the wretched plan. Them taking it elsewhere with a different name, only to be brought back in the future isn't a win - it's more or less the folly the Trojans committed with the Greek wooden horse.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I'm convinced people on Lemmy just want to be miserable all the time.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

We have won the battle, but the war is not over. If one is tired, he or she could employ escapism. But don't blame or poke those, who don't do that.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 24 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Nope. It's getting integrated into Android WebView.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Daaamn poor GrapheneOS devs...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (2 children)

As someone who uses GrapheneOS but knows very little about the technical side of things, what implications does this have for the OS? I'll actually just not use a smartphone anymore if I'm going to be forced back onto the privacy nightmare that is stock Android.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It means a bunch of work to undo all the things Google is about to do

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

I'd expect them to support basic integrity. They already do that for apps, so no reason to not expand it. It'd break compatibility.
Since they don't (want) to offer a way to circumvent the basic integrity check right now, I don't see why they would undo the expansion into the webview.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (10 children)

I don't know about graphene, but doesn't some android roms allow to use custom ( more private Webview implementations) instead of default ?

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