Latest Google Chrome update draws government and telecom concerns - Encrypted version of the web browser could endanger children's safety online

Critics of the encrypted version of the browser, which is currently available for download but not the default version, argue that it could make it more difficult for companies to block harmful material online as it will bypass most parental control systems.

As it stands now, harmful materials like terrorist propaganda and child-abuse images are blocked by internet companies through filters that scan the web's domain name servers.

I'm still in two minds about this as often agencies use the excuse of terrorism and child porn to impose more of their restrictions on us (their law-abiding citizens). I'd hope everyone is against instigating violence (terrorism can be a very relative term to whatever country you live in) and harm to children but we must also be careful where that is used to unfairly combat genuine freedoms of expression and resisting oppression.

What is also emerging is that with web/cloud services the desktop is becoming irrelevant and control of the browser is becoming paramount. We do also have to be concerned about the companies managing the browsers and 3rd party extensions we install.

On the plus side, we do have international open standards for browsers as well as many alternatives browsers. For me, open standards and interoperability are most important as they offer choice to users. So this is a familiar discussion again. I'm going to re-read George Orwell's 1984 and cover the camera on my wall TV's '-)

See www.techradar.com/news/latest-…

#privacy #encryption



source https://squeet.me/display/962c3e10-175c-bffa-8759-6fa928905618

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