Rick FalkvingeVerified account

@Falkvinge Where does it say it actually actively enables mic and listens? Can't seem to find that anywhere.

@PVandenheede It downloads a binary blob for that purpose. You can't tell whether it does, so you cannot trust anybody's statement on it.

@Falkvinge True. Should be opt-in only and much clearer. I think it's just for capturing "ok, google", but it's not OK. Thank you.

@PVandenheede It's supposed to capture "Ok, Google" only. Magic techology that turns on and listens just before I say those exact words.

@Falkvinge In theory that part could be client side, but indeed, we should not believe in fairytales.

@Falkvinge Woah, what?

@garethnelson Yeah. Even Chromium, even when compiled from source. They've basically compromised millions of computers.

@Falkvinge The good thing about having the source is you can edit that bit out, has anyone done so yet?

@garethnelson You're missing part of the point. The source downloads a binary blob that 1) acts as invisible extension and 2) listens.

@Falkvinge https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=491435 … Seems like there's already an option to disable it in chromium upstream

@garethnelson Yes, but that still means it's installed without consent unless you opt out. It's still nowhere near okay.

@Falkvinge @willstraf There was no breach. Yes, it downloaded, but it didn't run by default -- it requires a checkbox to be ticked. But(1/2)

@Falkvinge @willstraf more importantly: it *couldn't* run anyway, at least in Debian, because Debian disables NaCl entirely, which this is.

@michabailey Possibly partly true. I've seen Ubuntu installations with NaCl enabled - OTOH, they ran Chrome. @willstraf

@Falkvinge @willstraf If you're running Chrome, that means you've installed Google's .deb/repo. Of course you're getting binary blobs.

@michabailey I wasn't arguing you weren't getting blobs then; I was questioning the "Debian disables NaCl" statement. (How?) @willstraf

@Falkvinge @willstraf I mean it's disabled in their package.