On Wed, 1 Jul 2015, Keith Lofstrom wrote: > Google can use a closed source binary module in Chrome and > Chromium(!) to eavesdrop:
Keith, Disturbing, and puzzling. Because I'm ignorant of the underlying code and processes a few thoughts about this rise to the surface. In my situation, neither desktop nor portable computers have cameras or microphones, and my cell phone was considered a 'smart' phone prior to Apple and Android (the equivalent of a rotary dial phone, I suppose) and runs PalmOS. So, while I have chromium installed here, it is my third choice of browser and is rarely invoked. If it ain't running it can't try to listen via a non-existent microphone. Does Google being a trusted source mean no one external to the company has closely examined the chromium code? Now that this information has been disseminated, what might the open source communiity's responses be? For example, could the proprietary listening chunk of code be be subjected to a lumpectomy and the remaining code be included in distributions? This seems to be a very important issue (yet I might be wrong in my assessment) and I, for one, would greatly appreciate this thread continuing with contributions by you folks who are much more knowledgeable than I on the underlying issues and potential responses. Thanks for the post, Rich _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
