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<blockquote data-quote="Rod" data-source="post: 1945250" data-attributes="member: 204485">Its amazing what does get installed albeit accidentally at times, by developers.&nbsp; For example on Brave which I use as my default browser I momentarily turned off Brave Shields just before writing this reply.&nbsp; I wanted to see the difference on this site for another forum thread.&nbsp; After a couple of seconds a dialogue box popped up saying &quot;Google wants to instal Widevine&quot; and the option to Accept or Refuse.&nbsp; I had never seen this popup before thanks, no doubt, to Brave's ad and tracker blocking.&nbsp; According to Reddit it's spyware but Brave forum says this about it;&quot;Widevine is tool for what is called Digital Rights Management (DRM). In a nutshell, some types of online content will be encrypted using this and you have to use Widevine in order to decrypt it and access it. Largest examples of websites that uses DRM are Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video.It theoretically is supposed to help prevent piracy. Part of what also gets built in is like if I go to a website that requires Widevine and I attempt to record the video or take a screenshot, it will show as a black screen. It also will prevent you from being able to download the video on the web browser That’s because it does this extra layer of protection to protect content.Widevine is owned by Google. That said, it’s self contained in the browser (supposedly) and nothing gets reported to them. It just is a key to access content.&quot;Do I want it?&nbsp; No, not really unless I encounter data I cannot access without it but it's a perfect example of how developers sneak seemingly innocuous stuff onto our devices.&nbsp; I'm guessing many people would have said, Yes.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Rod, post: 1945250, member: 204485"] Its amazing what does get installed albeit accidentally at times, by developers. For example on Brave which I use as my default browser I momentarily turned off Brave Shields just before writing this reply. I wanted to see the difference on this site for another forum thread. After a couple of seconds a dialogue box popped up saying "Google wants to instal Widevine" and the option to Accept or Refuse. I had never seen this popup before thanks, no doubt, to Brave's ad and tracker blocking. According to Reddit it's spyware but Brave forum says this about it; "Widevine is tool for what is called Digital Rights Management (DRM). In a nutshell, some types of online content will be encrypted using this and you have to use Widevine in order to decrypt it and access it. Largest examples of websites that uses DRM are Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video. It theoretically is supposed to help prevent piracy. Part of what also gets built in is like if I go to a website that requires Widevine and I attempt to record the video or take a screenshot, it will show as a black screen. It also will prevent you from being able to download the video on the web browser That’s because it does this extra layer of protection to protect content. Widevine is owned by Google. That said, it’s self contained in the browser (supposedly) and nothing gets reported to them. It just is a key to access content." Do I want it? No, not really unless I encounter data I cannot access without it but it's a perfect example of how developers sneak seemingly innocuous stuff onto our devices. I'm guessing many people would have said, Yes. [/QUOTE]

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