from the I-forget,-who-are-the-good-guys-now? dept.
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/
Original Submission
Related Stories
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
Original Source
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Snospar on Saturday June 20 2015, @01:01AM
I guess this is all just innocently tied to their "voice-to-text" engine and we've nothing to worry about. Right?
Or is this a drop from the NSA that somebody tipped off the reporters about?
I thought Chromium was GPL. GPL enough for Debian. How does this kind of nonsense fit with this?
Too late. Too xxxxx. Good night.
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(Score: 5, Insightful) by K_benzoate on Saturday June 20 2015, @01:20AM
It's probably simpler than that. Google doesn't care about Open Source philosophy, and certainly not about privacy. They think this is a cool feature that we all should be using, so they push it out. It also pulls in more data for Google, which is their "prime directive".
Climate change is real and primarily caused by human activity.
(Score: 2, Flamebait) by Nerdfest on Saturday June 20 2015, @01:55AM
I think Google cares about privacy more than almost any other company, as their business model depends on it. If your 'private' data ever gets out it's very bad for them in multiple ways. More data is something they most definitely want though, and this is a comp;letely unacceptable way of doing it. They can stuff a closed binary in Chrome if they want, but certainly not Chromium.
As for the comment above, mentioning providing information to the NSA without being bound by law to do it, I believe you're thinking of Microsoft.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by K_benzoate on Saturday June 20 2015, @02:03AM
Google has a very close relationship with the US Government, through Eric Schmidt--much closer than is required by law. When Google Met Wikileaks [wikileaks.org] should be required reading for anyone trying to get their thinking straight about the US tech companies, privacy, and the surveillance state.
Climate change is real and primarily caused by human activity.
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Saturday June 20 2015, @02:50AM
I've actually read that article before, and don't really think the title matches the content of the article.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Saturday June 20 2015, @01:49PM
I think it matches the title of both of the sources referred to at the bottom of TFA. The previous link is for those who do not know what Google OK is.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 20 2015, @11:06PM
Its BSD mainly. Its not quite that simple, but for all practical purposes you can think of it as such. Google can do what ever they want with it (but so can you: if you don't like the free shit they give you, forking is a valid option).
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Justin Case on Saturday June 20 2015, @01:37AM
Oh, dear. One more browser off my list. Not much left. Time to write my own?
wget is looking better every day.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by K_benzoate on Saturday June 20 2015, @01:42AM
Consider Midori [midori-browser.org]. It's gotten very nice. Very small extension ecosystem but has most of the important features like script blocking, cookie control, content filtering. No Lastpass though, but I might be reconsidering my use of that soon...
Climate change is real and primarily caused by human activity.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 20 2015, @04:56AM
Those people like to cook and eat Japanese.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by jmorris on Saturday June 20 2015, @01:46AM
I can see this feature added to Chrome without a problem, it is already a closed product and you already give your soul to Google by using it. But how the heck do they think they can get away with adding it to Chromium? Anyone who wants the free version is going to have to start maintaining a repo with a patched version at this point since they can't package what Google ships anymore. It is a black letter license violation as well as a total violation of the rules for Debian and Fedora, although Fedora only has it as an out of tree personal package sort of thing anyway because of other issues. But I just checked and darned if the Fedora package doesn't have this turd enabled! DO. NOT. WANT!
(Score: 2) by zeigerpuppy on Saturday June 20 2015, @04:06AM
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).
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday June 20 2015, @09:57AM
At what time would you say they went evil?
(Score: 2) by zeigerpuppy on Saturday June 20 2015, @10:15AM
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
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.
(Score: 3, Disagree) by M. Baranczak on Saturday June 20 2015, @05:25AM
(Score: 2) by DarkMorph on Saturday June 20 2015, @02:09PM
(Score: 2) by Gravis on Saturday June 20 2015, @06:11PM
Both of the guys who use Chromium are gonna be pissed when they find out.
I use Chromium and I am pissed. I hope debian adds a patch to exclude this functionality soon.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by wonkey_monkey on Saturday June 20 2015, @10:17AM
Google Drops Binary Code in Chromium for Linux
Careful with your verbs there. "Drops" sounds like they've removed a feature, not added one. "Into" would have made things slightly clearer, but the verb is the main problem.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 2) by ticho on Saturday June 20 2015, @10:31AM
Would "Google Set Us Up Binary Code in Chromium for Linux" be better? :)
(Score: 2) by mtrycz on Saturday June 20 2015, @12:05PM
Allyour voice are belong to us.
In capitalist America, ads view YOU!
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Saturday June 20 2015, @04:53PM
Look at that, someone fixed it. Lovely!
systemd is Roko's Basilisk