A JavaScript platform developer for Deno, who leads the JSR.io package directory, has pointed out discrimination in the Chromium browser engine related to providing Google services additional functionality that is unavailable to other websites without installing a separate extension. This concerns the built-in hangout_services extension, which is active by default and does not appear in the list of running browser extensions.
The extension provides functions to obtain information about CPU and GPU load in the context of separate tabs and the entire system, as well as about memory consumption in the system. The API provided by the extension is open to requests only from subdomains of 'google.com'. The extension is pre-installed in Chrome, various builds of Chromium, Microsoft Edge, Brave, and likely in other browsers based on the Chromium engine.
The delivery of such a built-in extension is perceived as unfair competition and a violation of the principle of providing a unified API for all websites, since thanks to the extension, Google services gain a competitive advantage due to access to system operation information unavailable to services from other companies. For example, Google Meet can adjust its operation depending on the user's system load, whereas in Zoom and other services, an external extension with granted permissions must be installed for this functionality (for Google services, such functionality is available out of the box).
The data provided by the extension is displayed in the meet.google.com service in the 'Troubleshooting' panel. To check for the hangout_services extension, you can search for the identifier 'nkeimhogjdpnpccoofpliimaahmaaome' in the resources.pak file supplied with Chrome, and to check for activity, you should open any site related to domain google.com, and send a request to the extension from the console in the web developer tools: chrome.runtime.sendMessage('nkeimhogjdpnpccoofpliimaahmaaome', {method: 'cpu.getInfo'}, response => {console.log(JSON.stringify(response, null, 2));}); 
$ strings /opt/google/chrome/resources.pak| grep -A 10 'nkeimhogjdpnpccoofpliimaahmaaome' // Extension ID: nkeimhogjdpnpccoofpliimaahmaaome 'key': '….', 'name': 'Google Hangouts', // Note: Always update the version number when this file is updated. Chrome // triggers extension preferences update on the version increase. 'version': '1.3.21', 'manifest_version': 2, 'externally_connectable': { 'matches': [ 'https://*.google.com/*' ] }
Forrás: opennet.ru
