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Comment by smackeyacky | Hacker News Reader

I wonder how this whole "web protection" racket is going to end up. We are now almost completely reliant on web tech to deliver government services in Australia, so even if I decide to opt out of Facebook/Instagram/Reddit/Google search I still need something to view and interact with websites that isn't going to be some kind of silo'd and DRM'd hell hole.

We've been falteringly down this path before (hello ActiveX and government contracts) but if Chrome is the last man standing (via Edge and Chromium even), we're kind of stuffed.

I kind of feel like a digital serf already, having pledged my allegience to Google (via samsung and chrome), switching to another lord like Apple just seems like swapping one master for another.

Maybe Stallman is onto something.

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>> Maybe Stallman is onto something.

"Who should your computer take its orders from? Most people think their computers should obey them, not obey someone else."

https://youtu.be/Ag1AKIl_2GM?t=57

https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/can-you-trust.en.html

Firefox is legitimately not bad peformance/supportwise these days.

Though, yes, they probably still get a bunch of money from Google.

And why exactly is that a problem? Google avoids a huge litigation by keeping Firefox alive, while Firefox only have to make it the default browser. Symbiotic relationship without any hidden motives.

> Maybe Stallman is onto something.

I think you're onto something!

WEI will be opt-in for websites so government websites don't have to use it.

In my experience the government loves raining money on tech that claims it will keep them “safe”. All it’ll take is for some huge security consulting firm to recommend WEI and it’ll be required to participate in most western countries.

Why wouldn't government websites use it? Of all the websites I would want using WEI, banks and government services are pretty high up the list. It's not like government websites run ads or whatever (as far as I know). I wouldn't want things fucking with my bank accounts and I would opt-in in a heartbeat.

Government generally has to make its services as accessible as possible to its citizens. At least, that was the driver when I worked in government.

It is one reason government is "less efficient" than the private sector; it has to be able to interact with everyone.

This seems like arguing that https is less accessible than http and therefore https shouldn't be implemented in browsers.

Accessibility is a website design issue. A website that relies on unofficial third-party hacks/userscripts/extensions/tampering to provide accessibility has completely failed to provide accessibility.

I'm not strictly talking about accessibility in web site design, although that is part of it. I just mean that government has to have ways for all/most of its citizens to interact with them.

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