> but it is wrapped together with aspects for which we do not think meaningful end user consent is possible to obtain (in particular cross-site access to the end user's local file system)
This is a really difficult problem to solve, and I get Mozilla's hesitation. I'm also frankly very hesitant about Google leading the charge on this, not because I'm paranoid about them sneaking in tracking, just because I think Google tends to create less thoughtful web specifications sometimes.
But... cross-site file access is really important for data portability and open standards, and Google's current proposal isn't bad, it might be rough but it's definitely workable. Mozilla really should try to figure out a way to move forward on this.
We've seen the difference in data portability between mobile and desktop apps, and a big part of the difference between those two platforms is being able to very easily have multiple sources working on your data at the same time. Siloing data has downsides. It's tough to embrace a Unix-style philosophy without allowing programs to operate on the same data. And having Unix-style smaller webapps that work with each other is a good way of fighting against data silos and in some cases a good way of fighting against anti-user and anti-privacy services in general.
I'd love to see more progress made on this, but who knows how that will work out. Caution is probably warranted for the moment, I'm just disappointed that the language suggests Mozilla would never consider a proposal that included this.
It's also very important that this expose user-accessible file system access and not just a virtual filesystem in the browser; otherwise it just becomes another data-silo in the web browser. This is something that Google's proposal really gets right, and it's disappointing to see what appears to be pushback on the idea that users should be able to open up the directories that a web browser is writing to, inspect the files, and open them or move them around the filesystem, or even write to them from native apps. That to me is an essential part of the proposal.
This is a really difficult problem to solve, and I get Mozilla's hesitation. I'm also frankly very hesitant about Google leading the charge on this, not because I'm paranoid about them sneaking in tracking, just because I think Google tends to create less thoughtful web specifications sometimes.
But... cross-site file access is really important for data portability and open standards, and Google's current proposal isn't bad, it might be rough but it's definitely workable. Mozilla really should try to figure out a way to move forward on this.
We've seen the difference in data portability between mobile and desktop apps, and a big part of the difference between those two platforms is being able to very easily have multiple sources working on your data at the same time. Siloing data has downsides. It's tough to embrace a Unix-style philosophy without allowing programs to operate on the same data. And having Unix-style smaller webapps that work with each other is a good way of fighting against data silos and in some cases a good way of fighting against anti-user and anti-privacy services in general.
I'd love to see more progress made on this, but who knows how that will work out. Caution is probably warranted for the moment, I'm just disappointed that the language suggests Mozilla would never consider a proposal that included this.
It's also very important that this expose user-accessible file system access and not just a virtual filesystem in the browser; otherwise it just becomes another data-silo in the web browser. This is something that Google's proposal really gets right, and it's disappointing to see what appears to be pushback on the idea that users should be able to open up the directories that a web browser is writing to, inspect the files, and open them or move them around the filesystem, or even write to them from native apps. That to me is an essential part of the proposal.