Misguided JavaScript API: Origin Private File System

The web browser vendors continually add JavaScript API that prioritize the needs of web developers over web users. The interests of the two groups can conflict, for example because web developers often want to fingerprint and track web users, and I would note that Google Search advertising revenue provides a large part of the funding for all three of the major web browser engines: Chromium, Gecko/Quantum, and WebKit. The Origin Private File System (OPFS) is such an API, that I would call misguided, prioritizing web developers over web users: The OPFS offers low-level, byte-by-byte file access, which is private to the origin of the page and not visible to the user. As a result, it doesn't require the same series of security checks and permission grants and is therefore faster than File System Access API calls. In other words, the web browser silently grants a website its own private file system inside your own computer’s private file system! Although the OPFS is subject to storage…