And since you won’t be able to modify web pages, it will also mean the end of customization, either for looks (ie. DarkReader, Stylus), conveniance (ie. Tampermonkey) or accessibility.
The community feedback is… interesting to say the least.
This post title is misleading.
They aren’t proposing a way for browsers to DRM page contents and prevent modifications from extensions. This proposal is for an API that allows for details of the browser environment to be shared and cryptographically verified. Think of it like how Android apps have a framework to check that a device is not rooted, except it will also tell you more details like what flavor of OS is being used.
Is it a pointless proposal that will hurt the open web more than it will help? Yes.
Could it be used to enforce DRM? Also, yes. A server could refuse to provide protected content to unverified browsers or browsers running under an environment they don’t trust (e.g. Linux).
Does it aim to destroy extensions and adblockers? No.
Straight from the page itself:
Non-goals:
…
- Enforce or interfere with browser functionality, including plugins and extensions.
Edit: To elaborate on the consequences of the proposal…
Could it be used to prevent ad blocking? Yes. There are two hypothetical ways this could hurt adblock extensions:
- As part of the browser “environment” data, the browser could opt to send details about whether built-in ad-block is enabled, any ad-block extensions are enabled, or even if there are any extensions installed at all.
Knowing this data and trusting it’s not fake, a website could choose to refuse to serve contents to browsers that have extensions or ad blocking software.
- This could lead to a walled-garden web. Browsers that don’t support the standard, or minority usage browsers could be prevented from accessing content.
Websites could then require that users visit from a browser that doesn’t support adblock extensions.
I’m not saying the proposal is harmless and should be implemented. It has consequences that will hurt both users and adblockers, but it shouldn’t be sensationalized to “Google wants to add DRM to web pages”.
Edit 2: Most of the recent feedback on the GitHub issues seems to be lacking in feedback on the proposal itself, but here’s some good ones that bring up excellent concerns:
-
The proposal does not do an adequate job explaining how a browser may be attested to.. Would this require something like Secure Boot in order for a browser to be attested to? That would discriminate against users with outdated hardware lacking support for boot integrity, or users who don’t have it enabled for some reason or another.
I mean, they said Manifest V3 wasn’t supposed to interfere with ad blocking either. Yet here we are. Their power over how people access the web is too great to just trust what they say.
I don’t disagree with you. If this gets implemented, the end result is going to be a walled garden web that only accepts “trusted” browsers. That’s the concern here for ad blocking: every website demanding a popular browser that just so happens to not support extensions.
My issue is with how the OP framed the post. The title is misleading and suggests that this is a direct attempt to DRM the web, when it’s not. I wouldn’t have said anything if the post was less sensationalized, laying out the details of the proposal and its long-term consequences in an objective and informative way.
, laying out the details of the proposal and its long-term consequences in an objective and informative way.
“Google wants to introduce DRM to the web”.
With the years of experience that we have with the disasters caused by all of “Google”, “wants”, “DRM” and “web”, how is this not objective and informative enough for a title?
Frankly, I don’t trust that the end result won’t hurt users. This kind of thing, allowing browser environments to be sent to websites, is ripe for abuse and is a slippery slope to a walled garden of “approved” browsers and devices.
That being said, the post title is misleading, and that was my whole reason to comment. It frames the proposal as a direct and intentional attack on users ability to locally modify the web pages served to them. I wouldn’t have said anything if the post body made a reasonable attempt to objectively describe the proposal and explain why it would likely hurt users who install adblockers.
They aren’t proposing a way for browsers to DRM page contents and prevent modifications from extensions.
And yet, this proposal would make it easier to do so.
“We won’t use it for that even though we could”
Is just the first step in a series of corporate decisions that inevitably leads to
“We know we said we wouldn’t, but we didn’t realize how much money we could make”
Google took “do no evil” out of their mission statement. Why would you trust them to stick to their word and not develop this tech in a way that helps their own ad platform make money?
In my other comments, I did say that I don’t trust this proposal either. I even edited the comment you’re replying to to explain how the proposal could be used in a way to hurt adblockers.
My issue is strictly with how the original post is framed. It’s using a sensationalized title, doesn’t attempt to describe the proposal, and doesn’t explain how the conclusion of “Google […] [wants] to introduce DRM for web pages” follows the premise (the linked proposal).
I wouldn’t be here commenting if the post had used a better title such as “Google proposing web standard for web browser verification: a slippery slope that may hurt adblockers and the open web,” summarized the proposal, and explained the potential consequences of it being implemented.
It doesn’t aim to destroy extensions but point #1 within the problem statement:
Users like visiting websites that are expensive to create and maintain, but they often want or need to do it without paying directly. These websites fund themselves with ads, but the advertisers can only afford to pay for humans to see the ads, rather than robots. This creates a need for human users to prove to websites that they’re human, sometimes through tasks like challenges or logins.
Oh, for sure. When bullet point number one involves advertising, they don’t make it hard to see that the underlying motivation is to assist advertising platforms somehow.
I think this is an extremely slippery and dangerous slope to go down, and I’ve commented as such and explained how this sort of thing could end up harming users directly as well as providing ways to shut out users with adblocking software.
But, that doesn’t change my opinion that the original post is framed in a sensationalized manner and comes across as ragebaiting and misinforming. The proposal doesn’t directly endorse or enable DRMing of web pages and their contents, and the post text does not explain how the conclusion of adblockers being killed follows from the premise of the proposal being implemented. To understand how OP came to that conclusion, I had to read the full document, read the feedback on the GitHub issues, and put myself in the shoes of someone trying to abuse it. Unfortunately, not everyone will take the time to do that.
As an open community, we need to do better than incite anger and lead others into jumping to conclusions. Teach and explain. Help readers understand what this is all about, and then show them how these changes would negatively impact them.
Does it aim to destroy extensions and adblockers? No. Straight from the page itself:
Are you intentionally trying to be dense?
Did you read until the end, or was it more important to accuse me of either being stupid or a corporate shill? I have nothing against you, and I don’t see how it’s constructive to be hostile towards me.
I said that the proposal itself does not aim to be DRM or adblock repellent, and cited the text directly from the document. It’s possible that something got lost in communication, but that wasn’t me trying to suggest that we should just blindly trust that this proposal has the users’ best interests at heart, or that motivations behind creating it could never, ever be disingenuous.
Hell, I even made sure to edit my post to clarify how the proposal—if implemented—could be used to prevent ad blockers. The paragraphs right after the one you quoted say:
To elaborate on the consequences of the proposal…
Could it be used to prevent ad blocking? Yes. There are two hypothetical ways this could hurt adblock extensions:
- As part of the browser “environment” data, the browser could opt to send details about whether built-in ad-block is enabled, any ad-block extensions are enabled, or even if there are any extensions installed at all.
Knowing this data and trusting it’s not fake, a website could choose to refuse to serve contents to browsers that have extensions or ad blocking software.
- This could lead to a walled-garden web. Browsers that don’t support the standard, or minority usage browsers could be prevented from accessing content.
Websites could then require that users visit from a browser that doesn’t support adblock extensions.
It’s not about you, it’s about your attitude towards the problem.
I read the entire document and several replies form beginning to end. I’ve also lived through several internet enshittifications. The point of the article is that while sure, that’s what it says on print, we’ve gotta learn to read between the lines, in particular when it comes to big corps like Google. They “say” on non-commital writing it doesn’t aim to be DRM, sure; that’s just soft doublespeak to try and appease the first wave of peer review. This was even called out on mastodon by one of the contributors to #28 where they even quoted the dogwhistle-style wording.
Frankly? We already know how to auto-translate this corpo speak, we’ve had decades of this (and a fair amount of from Google itself, too). They say this, they say that, as they have countless times before. “We are inventing some Doomsday parts here. Might be useful in case someone wants to do Doomsday Stuff that we have done before on the weekly but don’t officially approve of on record. Like, say, build the Doomsaday Device from the book ‘Don’t Invent the Doomsday Device’.” If you say this does not intend to lock the web, you are lying to yourself and to others. Whether by evil intent or by negligence, I leave that one up to you.
