Google Chrome 94 Introduces Controversial AFK Detection
Chrome browser is introducing a feature that many may see as another level of surveillance. The new API that detects user inactivity takes into account much more data.
- Google is expanding its ability to monitor user activity in the Chrome 94 browser.
It's no secret that web browsers track our activity. Thanks to such mechanisms some websites can e.g. detect the cursor approaching the tab's close button and "save themselves" by displaying a message. Until now, the range of action was limited to interaction with the open page. Chrome 94 has a new API for inactivity detection, which takes much more data into account when it runs.
It can inform a web application about user inactivity by analyzing mouse and keyboard usage, recording screen changes, or activation of the screensaver. Designed for multi-user applications like chat rooms and online games, the new API is enabled by default in Chrome 94. Official Google description goes like this:
"Applications which facilitate collaboration require more global signals about whether the user is idle than are provided by existing mechanisms that only consider a user's interaction with the application's own tab."
Developers of other browsers are not too happy about the new features in Chrome and are warning of the dangers associated with them. Mozilla web standards leader Tantek Celik uses the term "surveillance capitalism" when referring to the new version of Google's browser:
"As it is currently specified, I consider the Idle Detection API too tempting of an opportunity for surveillance capitalism motivated websites to invade an aspect of the user's physical privacy, keep longterm records of physical user behaviors, discerning daily rhythms (e.g. lunchtime), and using that for proactive psychological manipulation (e.g. hunger, emotion, choice)."
Even Apple has some reservations - WebKit software engineer Ryosuke Niwa:
"Our concerns are not limited to fingerprinting. There is an obvious privacy concern that this API lets a website observe whether a person is near the device or not. This could be used, for example, to start mining bitcoins when the user is not around or start deploying security exploits, etc."
The controversial API isn't the only new feature in Chrome 94, thankfully. The new WebGPU instruction set makes better use of GPU capabilities, particularly in Direct3D 12, Vulkan and Metal. Chrome also pushes the use of encryption through HTTPS-First Mode, attempting to load a page securely if possible and warning you with a message if it's not. The new version of the browser also includes many other smaller improvements.
