[553] in Privacy_Forum
[ PRIVACY Forum ] "Web Sockets" in Google Chrome (and an Annoying
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (privacy@vortex.com)
Wed Dec 9 16:51:30 2009
Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 13:27:46 -0800
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"Web Sockets" in Google Chrome (and an Annoying Cookie Issue Persists)
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000650.html
Greetings. Google has announced an early implementation of Web
Sockets in their Chrome browser, that shows much promise for helping
to reduce a significant bottleneck in a variety of browser-based
applications ( http://bit.ly/808SMz [Chromium Blog] ).
However -- and I'm gonna keep hammering on this! -- I still
unfortunately cannot recommend Google Chrome as a general purpose
browser until it includes reasonable *per-site* cookie controls
at least up to par with what Firefox (and to some extent IE) natively
offer. If this can be accomplished via a Chrome plugin, that's OK --
but there's no plugin to do this yet in Chrome as far as I know (am I
wrong?)
I'm not a hardcore cookie hater, and clearly there are many reasonable
uses for cookies, particularly for state control. But the "all,
nothing, or no '3rd party' cookies" choice palette is insufficient.
Users who wish to block cookies from specific sites (e.g. when they
don't wish to be tracked by those sites) are typically stuck in Chrome
with the only option being to turn off all cookies in a manner that
breaks logins at most sites that require authentication.
Admittedly, some people get themselves into trouble with per-site
cookie controls, by blocking cookies necessary to logins (creating the
infamous "repeating login dialogue" effect).
But this is still not a valid excuse for users being unable to
control -- per site and in detail -- how cookies will be managed in
their browsers.
When I made earlier queries about this issue to Google, I was told
that better Chrome cookie controls were on the wish list, but would
have to wait. However, with so many sophisticated features now being
rolled out for Chrome seemingly almost daily, the lack of better
cookie controls -- which by all rights should not be a comparatively
major implementation task -- seems more glaring. I might add that the
same issue persists in the standard Android Web browser as well.
I hope that Google will move on this matter with due diligence.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@vortex.com
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
- People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, NNSquad
- Network Neutrality Squad - http://www.nnsquad.org
Founder, GCTIP - Global Coalition
for Transparent Internet Performance - http://www.gctip.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
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