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Google Drops Binary Code into Chromium for Linux

posted by janrinok on Friday June 19 2015, @11:56PM   Printer-friendly
from the I-forget,-who-are-the-good-guys-now? dept.

Kunasou writes:

Google added to Chromium 43.x a new add-on called "Chrome Hotword Shared Module" without source code. At first run, it is automatically downloaded and installed without any prompt. After this installation [it] is only available at chrome://voicesearch/ and is not shown in the extensions menu and by default the user is not able to disable or uninstall it. This add-on can record audio any time since is linked to the Ok Google feature ( https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2940021?hl=en [support.google.com] ).

Sources: https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=500922 and http://www.ghacks.net/2015/06/19/googles-in-hot-water-after-dropping-binary-code-in-chromium-for-linux/

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  • (Score: 2) by zeigerpuppy on Saturday June 20 2015, @04:06AM

    by zeigerpuppy (1298) on Saturday June 20 2015, @04:06AM (#198538)

    For a while I thought google was cool.
    Then they started killing and acquiring projects that were against their mantra of "all your data does belong to us"
    Then they started killing their own APIs and getting spooky about identifying their users.
    Then Snowden made it obvious that our worst fears were not creative enough.
    The US government pays Google for surveillance. There, I said it (you've all been thinking it). In fact the company has probably grown huge on the fat of the public purse. It's called "out sourcing". But there are also privileges that go with that position.
    If you dislike the nation state spying on you, then just don't use Google products.
    It's not impossible but it is really hard. They are most definitely evil and compromised and cowardly about standing up for their users (but you are not their users, you are their product).

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  • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday June 20 2015, @09:57AM

    by kaszz (4211) on Saturday June 20 2015, @09:57AM (#198596) Journal

    At what time would you say they went evil?

    • (Score: 2) by zeigerpuppy on Saturday June 20 2015, @10:15AM

      by zeigerpuppy (1298) on Saturday June 20 2015, @10:15AM (#198602)

      That's a difficult question. I lost faith in them when they killed projects like Wave. However, the rot had probably set in far before then. It looks like they were well and truly compromised by 2009 if the PRISM timeline is anything to go by
      http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/jun/15/nsa-covert-surveillance-trap [theguardian.com]

      • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday June 20 2015, @11:14AM

        by kaszz (4211) on Saturday June 20 2015, @11:14AM (#198610) Journal

        I think there are a few other breakpoints that might be interesting:
        2000 "Don't be evil"
        2001 Hiring Schmidt
        2004 IPO (pubic share offering)
        2005 The New York Times and others suggesting they now are evil

        Seems like 2001-2004 did something bad to the company behavior.