Widevine DRM. Yes or NO?

[Rod]

This is a new one for me and although I have more than an inkling what it's about I'd like opinions form others.
While looking at Microsoft Word on the App Store re the update to MS Word on my mobile devices this popup appeared;



As you can see and as mentioned in the popup I was using the Brave Browser(my current default).




Recently I removed all of my Google content from my MBP and i can see no reason to instal a DRM from them as an extension to the Brave browser but it does claim to be from apps.apple.com

Is it a scam, will it improve my browsing experience, will it increase functionality, will it compromise my security on the Brave browser? Obviously up till now I have not required it, this is the first time I have gotten this popup and personally I would rather not have any Google extensions running on this device but I am interested in what others might think.

 

[chscag]

Why would you want to install some unknown DRM? Block it and get rid of the Brave browser while you're at it.

 

[Rod]

That sounds like a thumbs down then?

 

[chscag]

Sorry for the shortened post Rod, but the Brave browser is not exactly on my "like" list. But aside from that, it appears that the "Widevine" installation is akin to malware. I wouldn't go near it.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

Sorry for the shortened post Rod, but the Brave browser is not exactly on my "like" list.

I don't know why you don't like the Brave browser...but I really like it. I've recently found that on the few Web sites that Brave didn't work well with (mostly news sites) that the problem is that Brave considers Flash content to always be malicious. (Which may be a bit over-zealous, but I'm not sure that I blame them. It certainly will be the case by the end of the year.) In those cases I just take Brave's "shields" down, and those sites work. It was my last criticism of Brave and it's gone. Brave is awesome.

Brave is also very highly thought of by others, especially respected folks in the security field:

8 Secure Browsers to Protect Your Privacy and Stay Safe

But aside from that, it appears that the "Widevine" installation is akin to malware. I wouldn't go near it.

Where do you get that it's "akin to malware"?

Widevine is just what that pop-up said it is: DRM software.
https://www.widevine.com

More information here:
Widevine - Wikipedia

It's DRM used by many popular subscription services to keep folks from hacking or abusing commercial content.

At worst, if you don't need Widevine because you don't subscribe to a commercial service that uses/requires it, you just don't download it.

 

[Rod]

The more I use Brave the more I like it, year it took a little tweaking here and there for some sites but now I'm very happy with it and appreciate the inbuilt security features as well as the "BAT" concept and hope it takes off.
Thank you for the links, I noted in the Secure Browsers link the note about WebRTC protection and I had turned the no fingerprinting option although I was not sure why at the time. A bit like Ghostery, I turned on block everything then worked backwards from there till I got the maximum without functional loss. I see that Ghostery now has a system wide app but I think it's by subscription.
As for Google's DRM, I have not needed it in the past and doubt if I ever will, I have concerns that it may be a sort of trojan horse (in the classic sense) like many of Google's services.
I just wanted to hear what other people's opinions might be.


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