Google’s New Plot To Lock Down The Web

Because of its by now seriously sullied reputation around all things privacy and online freedoms in general, each proposal coming from Google, aimed at making changes on the internet, comes under particular scrutiny.

This time, the giant has come up with the idea, an API, of what it calls Web Environment Integrity (WEI), explained and justified as a way to increase browser security. This would be done by a site obtaining a token from the user, which is next attested by an attester.

The way Google sees WEI - an idea formalized last month as a draft specification - improving security is by making it possible to ascertain if a browser is "trustworthy," i.e., not tampered with, while connecting to a server - and do this via a third party.

Say, a Google service like Google Play. Or other entities, like Apple and Microsoft - and that's pretty much the extent of that list.

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