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Binary Blob Banished By Berated Browser's Better Build (Chromium)

posted by janrinok on Saturday June 27 2015, @09:01PM   Printer-friendly
from the did-not-want dept.

"gewg_" writes:

El Reg reports

New Chromium builds will no longer download/install the Hotword Shared Module and will automatically remove the module on startup if it was previously installed.

A closed-source and binary-only kernel module caused a fair fuss when it was found inveigling its way into the very much open-source Chromium.

Thanking the community for their attention and input on the issue, one of the project developers told the issues ticket thread that "as of the newly-landed r335874, Chromium builds, by default, will not download this module at all."

[...] An additional developer update regarding Hotword explains that "Builds of Google Chrome will still download this module by default. It will not be activated unless the user explicitly flips a preference to do so."

Related: Google Drops Binary Code into Chromium for Linux

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  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday June 28 2015, @01:05AM

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Sunday June 28 2015, @01:05AM (#202279) Journal

    Alt binary sites? Like this? https://www.srware.net/en/software_srware_iron.php [srware.net] Chrome and Chromium already do stuff that some people don't like.

    Starting Score:    1  point
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  • (Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday June 28 2015, @01:48AM

    by frojack (1554) on Sunday June 28 2015, @01:48AM (#202297) Journal

    Aren't there like 6 or 8 chromium based browsers [techgyd.com] all claiming to do pretty much the same sort of privacy cleanup?

    I have a friend in the office next floor above that swears by Epic browser. But its main trick is a proxy.

    --
    No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.

  • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday June 28 2015, @01:49AM

    by kaszz (4211) on Sunday June 28 2015, @01:49AM (#202298) Journal

    Like [srware.net]:
      * Generated installation number which will be sent to Google after the installation.
      * Information is sent to Google to provide suggestions.
      * Typed wrong in the adress bar, this is sent to Google and you get an error message from Google's servers.
      * Details about crashes or failures are sent Google's servers.
      * RLZ-Tracking, for example, when and where Chrome has been downloaded.
      * Google Updater, which loads at every Windows in background.
      * URL-Tracker

    Features:
      * Built-in adblocker which can be configured by a single file.
      * The User-Agent in Iron can be flexiblel and permanently changed by UA.ini.
      * Iron offers you 12 preview-thumbs to make the most of the available space on your monitor.

    Verdict: Slimy spies.