White paper: Your DRM Can Spy on You, Too

General Privacy & Security
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Your DRM Can Watch You Too: Exploring the Privacy Implications of Browsers (mis)Implementations of Widevine EME

In searching for information about Google Widevine, I happened upon the above 2023 study at arxiv.org. The full paper (PDF) is linked there.

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Firefox says:

Firefox for desktop supports the Google Widevine CDM for playing DRM-controlled content. Firefox downloads and enables the Google Widevine CDM by default to give users a smooth experience on sites that require DRM. Firefox downloads and enables the Google Widevine CDM on demand, with user permission, to give users a smooth experience on sites that require DRM. The CDM runs in a separate container called a sandbox, and you will be notified when a CDM is in use.

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Even more all foss floss, opensource oses enable all drm by default it is not just firefox-drm.

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Firefox doesn’t enable it by default; it presents a prompt (when a site requires it) that allows the user to enable it or not.

And at least some Linux distros, e.g. Linux Mint, give you the choice of installing multimedia codecs, which, as far as I know, don’t include DRM.

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