Chrome 97 is the first version of Chrome from 2022, and it arrives after several weeks of delay. The version should have been released before Christmas, but was delayed to avoid introducing new bugs and forcing workers to fix them at Christmas.
Keyboard Map: a controversial new API in Chrome
Starting with Chrome 97, Google will integrate a API call Keyboard Map. This API could not be used in the past by some web pages because it could not be used within iframes. For example, Microsoft Office applications could not use it to detect keystrokes depending on the type of settings used depending on the country.
With the new integration, we have a function called getLayoutMap () which, used with other code, solves the problem of identify which key was pressed if letter layouts are used in Chrome from different languages, such as English, Spanish or French. Until now, when using Excel, Word or PowerPoint in Chrome, it is necessary to use an additional attribute that allows detecting the keyboard layout.
The problem is that this change has generated a rain of criticism of Google by companies that develop web browsers, such as Mozilla, Apple or Brave. They affirm that, if they integrate this functionality in their browsers, the web pages can them to perform fingerprinting. This technique allows various web pages and advertisements to track a user on the Internet, and identify it based on data such as screen resolution, connection time, way of browsing a website, and the type of distribution used with its keyboard.
Apple and Mozilla will not integrate it into their browsers
Apple claims that because this is a serious privacy issue, they are not going to implement this feature as it is currently designed. In the case of Brave, the company claims that the function does not offer any new functionality for the user, but instead makes work easier for companies that want to carry out tasks of fingerprinting.
While identifying a user using distributions used by tens or hundreds of millions of people is more complicated, yes there are serious problems for those who use distributions like Dvorak or Colemak, which is used by far fewer people. In addition, it can also be used to identify people who use other layouts in countries other than your region, such as someone in Spain using the US keyboard layout.
In the case of Mozilla, the company has added this API to the list of Dangerous APIs, and they will not implement it in Firefox. Google will implement it, but other Chromium-based browsers such as Edge will not implement it, and will even disable it so that it cannot be used by web pages.