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Why is Mozilla causing download of widevinecdm.dll--a google product? Google d/n = privacy. Can this file be uninstalled w/o affecting performance?

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  • Last reply by philipp

dmn
dmn
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Norton security popped up with "widevinecdm.dll" as "safe." I asked no one or anything to install it. Thus, I investigated what it is and how w/o permission it was installed. It happened after a firefox update. I've read several Mozilla posts on this but none answer the fundamental question why Mozilla is using a google id'd product since by definition this does not protect privacy. In fact google's reason to be is to mine data. And I find no one explaining what deficits to functioning occur if this is uninstalled.

Norton security popped up with "widevinecdm.dll" as "safe." I asked no one or anything to install it. Thus, I investigated what it is and how w/o permission it was installed. It happened after a firefox update. I've read several Mozilla posts on this but none answer the fundamental question why Mozilla is using a google id'd product since by definition this does not protect privacy. In fact google's reason to be is to mine data. And I find no one explaining what deficits to functioning occur if this is uninstalled.

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philipp
philipp
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hello, the widevine module is part of firefox to be able to playback drm-crippled content on the web (unfortunately a browser without support for netflix & co would have a severe competitive disadvantage).

the following article explains how to disable this: Watch DRM content on Firefox

here is some technical background on how this is implemented (except that firefox is no longer using adobe's cdm but widevine in the meantime): https://hacks.mozilla.org/2014/05/reconciling-mozillas-mission-and-w3c-eme/