Google and the Mozilla foundation have teamed up to show off the WebRTC standard in their respective browsers by staging a live video chat between developers. The saccharine exchange, posted below, was made possible by RTCPeerConnection, a feature of the standard that allows browser-to-browser chat without the need for plugins …

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Tuesday 5th February 2013 05:52 GMT Anonymous Coward

Interesting development, however...

"that allows browser-to-browser chat without the need for plugins but with permission required to activate cameras and microphones."

Maybe I'm a bit too cynical here, but I can't help wonder how long it'll take before this development gets teens and other computer illiterates into problems because 3rd parties were spying on them without their knowledge or permission ?

The reason for my cynicism should be obvious: quite some people already had to get used to Messenger(-like) programs which didn't fully close down after you clicked the X button. So imagine their approach to a common browser...

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1. Tuesday 5th February 2013 08:25 GMT Bill the Sys Admin
  
  Re: Interesting development, however...
  
  Exactly what i was thinking, call me cynical but i reckon it wont be too long before this is being used for naughty things!
  
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  1. Wednesday 6th February 2013 12:46 GMT Tom 13
    
    Re: i reckon it wont be too long before
    
    I reckon you used the wrong tense there.
    
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2. Tuesday 5th February 2013 09:32 GMT Schultz
  
  Computer literacy...
  
  is required to operate a computer. Some may get into trouble along the way, but since when did that stop human progress?
  
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3. Tuesday 5th February 2013 11:48 GMT Elmer Phud
  
  Re: Interesting development, however...
  
  "Maybe I'm a bit too cynical here, but I can't help wonder how long it'll take before this development gets teens and other computer illiterates into problems because 3rd parties were spying on them without their knowledge or permission ?"
  
  Well, we've has schools spying on pupils and malware that allows external access so ---
  
  it looks like the stable door ended up on a Hampstead garage a long time ago.
  
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Tuesday 5th February 2013 06:06 GMT Anonymous Coward

It's good that Mozilla uses WebRTC...

...but Google seem to be using WebOrrrTC.

And do software people have any other adjectives than "great" and "awesome"?

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1. Tuesday 5th February 2013 06:38 GMT Richard 12
  
  Re: It's good that Mozilla uses WebRTC...
  
  There's also Superspeed and Ultra.
  
  Now available with even less crashiness!
  
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2. Friday 8th February 2013 02:40 GMT Jamie Jones
  
  Re: It's good that Mozilla uses WebRTC...
  
  > And do software people have any other adjectives than "great" and "awesome"?
  
  Have you seen the US version of "cash cab" - *every* contestant I've seen uses the word 'awesome' - some of them every few minutes....
  
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Tuesday 5th February 2013 13:47 GMT ScissorHands

Meanwhile@Opera

The Hardware Acceleration is broken, the Out-of-process plugins are MIA, they're making a WebKit browser to appease Apple, and the latest 12.13 was released after the testers complained of never-ending crashes on the release-candidate. Cue never-ending crashes while trying to update extensions and an official recommendation to reinstall 12.12.

I don't think Opera will ever support WebRTC.

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Tuesday 5th February 2013 20:13 GMT Pete Spicer

Well, given that Flash can be configured to access webcams, I'm not really seeing why there is a sudden new risk of browsers accessing webcams just because it doesn't need Flash to do it any more... it's not like there is a sudden lack of Flash on the desktop.

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Tuesday 5th February 2013 23:08 GMT Anonymous Coward

re: Interesting development, however..

as opposed to what? flash doing the same thing often with big holes :P ?

I am more worried about the lack of a physical privacy shade / lens cover on cams these days

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1. Wednesday 6th February 2013 08:54 GMT EddieD
  
  Re: re: Interesting development, however..
  
  Gaffer tape works wonders. And when you take it off, you're left with a lovely soft-focus effect.
  
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