Google’s New Chrome Move: App detection interface sparks privacy worries

guest · Dec 8, 2019

Google’s New Chrome Move: Another Reason To Switch To Firefox?
December 6, 2019
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kateof...hrome-move-another-reason-to-turn-to-firefox/

Now privacy advocates are honing in on a nascent web API called getInstalledRelatedApps, which has been in development since 2015 and available to experiment with since Chrome 59’s launch in 2017.
Described on GitHub, the API lets developers determine if their native app is installed on your device.

So what’s the problem? As an article on highly-esteemed tech site The Register points out, the purpose of this API “isn’t really about users so much as web and app publishers.”
Google Chrome privacy: Identifying factors
The privacy issue stems from the fact that the API would allow sites to potentially see which apps you have installed on your device. “Seeing what you have installed allows them to form a picture of what you do,” says Wright.
It looks like Google will officially support this API in a future version of Chrome, according to a statement of intent posted by Google engineer Rayan Kanso at the end of November.
Click to expand...

Google is aware that its new move could have consequences. This week, Google engineer Yoav Weiss expressed concerns, highlighting the API’s risks. He pointed out that “the collection of bits of answers” to “Is app X installed” could reveal enough about a user to uniquely identify them.

As the Register’s Thomas Claburn states, it shows “how user concerns, like privacy, don’t necessarily drive how software gets made.”
“It’s putting the company before users. This really frustrates me because without your users, there would be no company.”
Click to expand...

The Register: If you want an example of how user concerns do not drive software development, check out this Google-backed API

Get Installed Related Apps API

Abstract
The GetInstalledRelatedApps API allows web apps to detect if related native apps are installed on the current device.
Introduction
The situation of users having a web app and the corresponding native app both installed on the same device will become more common, and the feature sets of these apps will converge.
It is important to allow apps to detect this situation to allow them to disable functionality that should be provided by the other app.
Privacy Considerations
This feature only works in secure contexts.
The association between the web app and its counterpart is bidirectional, meaning that the web app has to declare its association with the related app, and the related app has to declare its association with the web app. This prevents malicious websites from fingerprinting users and getting a list of their installed applications.
Click to expand...

mirimir · Dec 8, 2019

This is why some of us don't use smartphones

Rasheed187 · Dec 10, 2019

Why would a browser need the ability to track which apps you're using? Seriously, Chrome is getting even more privacy invading, what the hell is going on with Google?

Reality · Dec 10, 2019

Rasheed187 said: ↑

Why would a browser need the ability to track which apps you're using? Seriously, Chrome is getting even more privacy invading, what the **** is going on with Google?
Click to expand...

The same as has always been going on with google. One of the most privacy invasive monsters to ever hit the world.

Rasheed187 · Dec 14, 2019

Reality said: ↑

The same as has always been going on with google. One of the most privacy invasive monsters to ever hit the world.
Click to expand...

Apparently they are so confident that people won't dump them, that they now go all out. ProtonMail has also published an article about why Chrome can't be trusted:

https://protonmail.com/blog/best-browser-for-privacy/

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