Re:Show HN: How many miles do you think you've scrolled today?
by jfoster on Tuesday May 05, 2020 @03:50PM
(#23084131)
It's been a while since I dabbled in Chrome extensions, but if nothing has changed, then not as a Chrome extension, unfortunately. If you mean theoretically, then of course; Chrome could let extensions subscribe to particular event hooks and whatnot and get very fine-grained about it. I expect that would actually be too fine-grained for most users, but what they have at the moment is a system where installing almost any extension feels quite risky. I'm not sure that Google really want Chrome extensions to exist, though. It feels like a very neglected part of Chrome.
Re:Show HN: How many miles do you think you've scrolled today?
by prashantb on Tuesday May 05, 2020 @04:34PM
(#23084705)
On the last part, I agree with you from a developer's point of view as well. The review process is a shambles at the moment. Sometimes the review process can take weeks and one can still get rejected with no explanation. I understand the need for a manual review when an extension asks for powerful permissions like this one does but an approval time of more than a week is a bit much. And every subsequent update to the extension (even a small description change) also goes through the same review process. Imagine a critical bug fix taking more than a week for approval! It feels like they want to shut down their doors for individual developers. In comparison, firefox took only 2 hours to approve the same extension.
Re:Show HN: How many miles do you think you've scrolled today?
by ajayyy on Tuesday May 05, 2020 @09:57PM
(#23087221)
Firefox only does manual reviews on "Recommended Extensions"
Re:Show HN: How many miles do you think you've scrolled today?
by jdc on Tuesday May 05, 2020 @05:37PM
(#23085372)
I expect that would actually be too fine-grained for most users [...]
Even with that level of detail on the backend, there's no need to expose it all the user by default. That is, you could tell the user about group various related events together (eg. mouse, page load, etc) and power users could also drill-down if they like.
Re:Show HN: How many miles do you think you've scrolled today?
by jfoster on Wednesday May 06, 2020 @01:32AM
(#23088148)
Yeah, that would be a good way to do it.
Re:Show HN: How many miles do you think you've scrolled today?
by ramenmeal on Tuesday May 05, 2020 @03:49PM
(#23084121)
I don't think there is a "scrollbar usage" permission.
Re:Show HN: How many miles do you think you've scrolled today?
by jooize on Tuesday May 05, 2020 @04:30PM
(#23084657)
We need an extension firewall extension!
Re:Show HN: How many miles do you think you've scrolled today?
by revicon on Tuesday May 05, 2020 @04:17PM
(#23084482)
One thing I always do is use the Chrome Extension Source Viewer (also an extension)
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chrome-extension-s...
Which lets me view the source code of any chrome extension right from the chrome store install page, lets me see for myself if the extension is going to try to make any covert external web requests or whatever.
Re:Show HN: How many miles do you think you've scrolled today?
by jooize on Tuesday May 05, 2020 @04:28PM
(#23084631)
… in its current state.
Re:Show HN: How many miles do you think you've scrolled today?
by WilliamEdward on Tuesday May 05, 2020 @09:36PM
(#23087116)
Just don't update it?
Re:Show HN: How many miles do you think you've scrolled today?
by tbodt on Tuesday May 05, 2020 @11:33PM
(#23087666)
You can't avoid Chrome extension updates
Re:Show HN: How many miles do you think you've scrolled today?
by renewiltord on Wednesday May 06, 2020 @12:12AM
(#23087832)
Pretty easy if you’re a security concerned software engineer. Clone repo, read the source, and Load Unpacked...
Last time I did this it was easier than typing this comment.
Re:Show HN: How many miles do you think you've scrolled today?
by dddddaviddddd on Tuesday May 05, 2020 @03:59PM
(#23084255)
You could inspect the source code and build it yourself (about 300 lines of JavaScript + JQuery): https://github.com/prashantbaid/scrolltrotter
Re:Show HN: How many miles do you think you've scrolled today?
by mceachen on Tuesday May 05, 2020 @04:14PM
(#23084452)
The problem with any chrome extension is that there's no guarantee that the git repo matches the bag of bits that you're installing. No-prompt auto-updates exacerbate the issue.
Installation of software will always require a leap of faith that the publisher doesn't have ill intent.
Re:Show HN: How many miles do you think you've scrolled today?
by chapplap on Tuesday May 05, 2020 @04:37PM
(#23084745)
You can install the extension directly from a cloned copy of the Github repo (basically as if you were the extension developer). No auto-updates or anything since it's just loaded from some files on your disk. Chrome will nag you about it from time to time though since getting people to install unsigned extensions is a common attack vector.
Re:Show HN: How many miles do you think you've scrolled today?
by revicon on Tuesday May 05, 2020 @04:18PM
(#23084491)
Try this: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chrome-extension-s...
Views the source code straight from the google store
Re:Show HN: How many miles do you think you've scrolled today?
by mceachen on Tuesday May 05, 2020 @06:17PM
(#23085774)
Thanks for sharing, but that's yet another publisher I have to trust with "read and change your data on clients2.google.com, read your browsing history, manage your downloads."
It'd be great if chrome and firefox allowed open source chrome extensions to be compared with their git source tree, possibly with diffs between releases.
Still, though, how many people will go through that effort?
Chrome extensions that require such extensive permissions make me extremely nervous and I don't think I'm alone. Is there a way to build this in a way that didn't require such elevated privileges?