Google abandons Web Environment Integrity API proposal

Google announced that it was abandoning its controversial Web Environment Integrity API proposal and instead developing the Android WebView Media Integrity API.

In May this year, Google announced its Web Environment Integrity API on the developer mailing list, which is intended as a way to limit online fraud and abuse without causing privacy issues such as cross-site tracking or browser fingerprinting. However, it has encountered strong opposition from the public, who believe that it is more like a digital rights management (DRM) function for websites, and are worried that Google will use it to restrict Internet freedom.

Therefore, after receiving a lot of feedback, Google said that its Chrome team is no longer considering the Web Environment Integrity API; and will turn its focus to a narrower solution, the Android WebView Media Integrity API, which only targets WebViews embedded in applications.

According to the introduction, this new API only extends the existing functionality on Android devices with Google Mobile Services (GMS), and there are no plans to provide functionality beyond embedded media (such as streaming video and audio) or Android WebView.

The Android WebView API allows application developers to display web pages with embedded media, with enhanced control over the UI and advanced configuration options to allow seamless integration in applications. This brings great flexibility to mobile application development, but also provides a path for fraud and abuse; because it allows application developers to access web content and intercept or modify user interactions with web pages.

The new Android WebView Media Integrity API is designed to give embedded media providers access to customized integrity responses that contain device and application integrity verdicts so that they can ensure their streaming media runs in a secure, trusted environment, regardless of which app store the embedded app was installed from.

Google plans to pilot the experimental Android WebView Media Integrity API with selected embedded media vendors early next year.