Re: Why does screen sharing require a browser extension?

On 11/27/2013 07:38 PM, Steve Kann wrote:
>
>
> On 11/27/13, 1:11 PM, "cowwoc" <cowwoc@bbs.darktech.org 
> <mailto:cowwoc@bbs.darktech.org>> wrote:
>
>     On 27/11/2013 12:10 PM, Justin Uberti wrote:
>>     The publisher of the extension can control which domains can talk
>>     to it. See
>>     http://developer.chrome.com/extensions/manifest/externally_connectable.html.
>>     This would allow you to make your extension available to
>>     yourcompany.com <http://yourcompany.com>, as well as development
>>     machines on *.corp.yourcompany.com <http://corp.yourcompany.com>.
>>     (Note that *.com and other wide-reaching wildcards are not
>>     permitted.)
>>
>>     There is also the Chrome flag parameter to force on the
>>     screen-sharing feature for testing purposes
>>     (chrome://flags/#enable-usermedia-screen-capture).
>
>     So you're saying we will never be able to implement "help your mom
>     with her computer" style applications in WebRTC? Those kind of
>     apps have no way of knowing ahead of time which websites they will
>     navigate to.
>
>
>
> Actually, to really implement "help your mom with her computer",  or 
> "help your computer science student debug his program", you need 
> remote control --- the ability to grant a remote user the ability to 
> inject mouse and keyboard events.    This kind of control has been key 
> to educational applications in particular --- and earlier in the 
> thread it was mainly dismissed.

Apps like Chrome Remote Desktop
https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/1649523?hl=en
do this kind of thing already.

If you ask for it, you'll get it.


<https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/1649523?hl=en>
>
> Otherwise, the best you can get is seeing what's happening, and then 
> having to go through the very painful process of operating the 
> computer by vocally directing the person in front of it where to 
> click, drag, type, etc.
>
> After reading through some more of this thread, allowing remote 
> keyboard mouse events doesn't actually seem that much more dangerous 
> than allowing an app which can view the screen to also be able to 
> operate the browser (the case of navigating to the bank, and capturing 
> the display).
>
> -SteveK