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posted by martyb on Tuesday February 07 2017, @05:04AM   Printer-friendly
from the watching-those-who-watch-us dept.

When Google popped out Chrome 56 at the end of January it was keen to remind us it's making the web safer by flagging non-HTTPS sites. But Google made little effort to publicise another feature that's decidedly less friendly to privacy, because it lets websites connect to Bluetooth devices and harvest information from them through the browser.

[...Pete] LePage, in the video, says: "Until now, the ability to communicate with Bluetooth devices has been possible only for native apps. With Chrome 56, your Web app can communicate with nearby Bluetooth devices in a private and secure manner, using the Web Bluetooth API. "The Web Bluetooth API uses the GATT protocol, which enables your app to connect to devices such as light bulbs, toys, heart-rate monitors, LED displays and more, with just a few lines of JavaScript."

Let's start with LePage's security-and-privacy claims: what Google means is that the server-to-browser connection is over TLS, and users have to allow connection with a touch or a mouse click. To reiterate: as a user, you have to explicitly grant the remote web app access to your Bluetooth gadgets before anything happens. Then you select a device to pair with the webpage, and away you go. The webpage can filter for devices, so for example, a health site can ask to be paired with gadgets that have a heart rate sensor. A site can't see any device until it is paired.

Source:

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/02/05/chrome_56_quietly_added_bluetooth_snitch_api/


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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 07 2017, @06:10AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 07 2017, @06:10AM (#463918)

    Checkbox overload. OK sixty times. Sixty-one has something about bluetooth? Oops automatically hit 'ok' well I guess it was probably my bluetooth mouse and keyboard that chrome understands shortcuts from, yay.

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  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 07 2017, @06:56AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 07 2017, @06:56AM (#463929)

    Oh, but you are so naive, my precious AC!

    probably my bluetooth mouse and keyboard

    Mouse _and_ keyboard? Is that all, AC? (who is probably not AC anymore!) What about, oh, your car? Bluetooth connection. So why are your driving an Audi? Oh! Disposable income and a tendency to watch those movies with Audis in them, like IronMan? Advertising targeted. You are toast.

    More than mouse and keyboard? Do you, perhaps, have a dildo with bluetooth capabilities? Oh, you don't? Well that is information right there. We will sign you up for more ads. (Isn't capitalism wonderful, if you want to be screwed in the ass?)

      And now, you have a bluetooth headset, a bluetooth speaker, a bluetooth anal probe: all of these designed by the originator of the bluetooth protocol, you now, Harald the Bluetooth? Or, wait, it was Microsoft. Bluetooth= Microsoft. Let us sit down for a moment to let that sink in, bluetooth is a Microsoft "standard". And people are surprised it is being turned against them? Well, I am just going to have to send you the Bluetooth stream from my colonoscopy! Enjoy! Better than goatsex, or what ever that was back in the dark ages of the internets.

    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday February 07 2017, @07:29AM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 07 2017, @07:29AM (#463939) Journal

      Or, wait, it was Microsoft. Bluetooth= Microsoft. Let us sit down for a moment to let that sink in, bluetooth is a Microsoft "standard".

      While you are getting assit, make sure your bluetooth is positioned properly, otherwise it may not go as smooth as you want.

      Origin [wikipedia.org]:
      The development of the "short-link" radio technology, later named Bluetooth, was initiated in 1989 by Nils Rydbeck, CTO at Ericsson Mobile in Lund, Sweden, and by Johan Ullman... Nils Rydbeck tasked Tord Wingren with specifying and Jaap Haartsen and Sven Mattisson with developing. Both were working for Ericsson in Lund.[9]

      Stewardship [wikipedia.org]:
      The specifications were formalized by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG)... It was established by Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Toshiba and Nokia, and later joined by many other companies.

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
      • (Score: 2) by butthurt on Tuesday February 07 2017, @11:13AM

        by butthurt (6141) on Tuesday February 07 2017, @11:13AM (#463976) Journal

        The SIG is headquartered in Kirkland, Washington.

        -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth_Special_Interest_Group [wikipedia.org]

        Kirkland is located at 47°41′9″N 122°11′30″W (47.685821, -122.191729). It is bordered to the west by Lake Washington, to the east by Redmond, to the south by Bellevue, and to the north by Kenmore, Woodinville, and Bothell.

        -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirkland,_Washington [wikipedia.org]

        Redmond is commonly recognized as the home of Microsoft and Nintendo of America.

        -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redmond,_Washington [wikipedia.org]

        Coincidence detected.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 08 2017, @11:50AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 08 2017, @11:50AM (#464504)

          Damn, big N is on a roll!
          Not only did they manufacture controllers on their new console for a specific type of hand size that's become quite popular in the USA, but they also managed to move their USA HQ to the place the Bluetooth Group would settle only a few decades later!