FredAndrews - Slashdot User

Submission + - W3C declare DRM in scope for HTML, big business supports Web DRM - Schism looms (w3.org) 1

Submitted by FredAndrews on Monday February 11, 2013 @08:46PM

FredAndrews writes: The W3C has ruled DRM in-scope for their HTML standard. A lot of big businesses have supported advancing the Encrypted Media Extension (EME), including Google, Microsoft, and Netfix. The BBC calls for a solution with legal sanstions. The EME could well be used to implement a DRM HTML engine. A DRM enabled web would break a long tradition of the web browser being the User's Agent, and would restrict user choice and control over their security and privacy. There are other applications that can serve the purpose of viewing DRM video content, and I appeal to people to not taint the web standards with DRM but to please use other applications when necessary.

Submission + - W3C Community Group proposed to tackle covert sharing of user agent state. (w3.org)

Submitted by

FredAndrews

on Saturday September 22, 2012 @07:52PM

FredAndrews writes: "A W3C Community Group (Private User Agent PUA) has been proposed to tackle the privacy of the web browser by developing technical solutions to close the leaks. Current Javascript APIs are capable of leaking a lot of information as we browse the Internet, such as details of our browser that can be used to identify and track our online presence, and the content on the page including any private customizations and the effects of extensions, and can monitor and leak our usage on the page such a mouse movements and interactions on the page. This problem is compounded by the increased use of the web browser as a platform for delivering softare, and also by yet more leak standards are being developed which is often justifying by their authors by pointing to the current leaky infrastructure. While the community ignores the issue, solutions are being developed commercially and patented — we run the risk of ending up unable to have privacy because the solutions are patented. The proposed W3C PUA CG proposes to address the problem with technical solutions at the web browser, such as restricting the back channels available to Javascript, and also by proposing HTML extensions to mitigate lost functionality. Note this work can not address the privacy of information that we overty share, and there are other current W3C innitiatives working on this such as DNT."

Slashdot Top Deals