"Service workers are basically app downloads that take place entirely at the provider's whim and under their control. Not only do we not know what the app does - we don't even know we're downloading it. Meanwhile, lawmakers think they saved online privacy with cookie banners."
Quote the term "service worker" to your average internet user, and they'll probably envisage some abused soul being repetitively ear-bashed by permanently angry customers in a call centre. But in the tech world, a service worker is also a particularly surreptitious facet of browser technology…
WHAT ARE SERVICE WORKERS?
Service workers are JavaScript programs which expand a simple web connection into a provider-controlled online/offline relationship. They're downloaded to and installed on the user's own device - often along with a raft of cached paraphernalia they usher through the door behind them - without consent or (in most cases) knowledge. The functionality of a service worker can be likened to that of an app. But an app is installed and controlled by you. The service worker is installed and controlled by a website or platform, behind your back. That's already a problem.