Does blocking WASM improve privacy? As I understand it, it essentially has the same capabilities as regular JS(?) but I never looked very deeply in to it, so maybe there's some parts I don't know about(?)
Theoretically, wasm shouldn't have more access, though I would be moderately concerned about bugs, and better access for timing and rowhammer.
Practically, it's mostly used for tracking and making users' machines execute even more inscrutable code. IMO, if you need wasm for |"normal" pages and apps, you're doing something wrong. There are notable exceptions (say machine emulators, maybe 3d games and such), but they are spread far between most pages.
It's ridiculous to me to even call these things web browsers anymore. A more realistic term is any-type-of-application-cross-platform engine. But that's not really concise. Why did the web have to become the primary development platform for nearly everything, with WebAssembly, WebGL, notifications, etc?
I, for one, am a fan of the fact that Gemini is growing in adoption (at least as far as I can tell). Such a nice, stout protocol.
The good thing is this new cross-platform runtime call the web browser has much better sandboxing and permissions models. Not perfect, but better than before, and can be improved. Something like uMatrix with granular comprehensive per site permissions to enable all the settings such as e.g. wasm is needed. Does anyone know of such?
Practically, it's mostly used for tracking and making users' machines execute even more inscrutable code. IMO, if you need wasm for |"normal" pages and apps, you're doing something wrong. There are notable exceptions (say machine emulators, maybe 3d games and such), but they are spread far between most pages.