Comment by leptons
2 hours ago
That's nonsense. You have to opt-in on any website that is requesting USB access, just like every other useful but potentially privacy-risky browser API.
Plenty of sites ask for camera access, and that is typically a USB device. Plenty of sites ask for microphone accesss, which can be a USB device. And even if those aren't always USB devices, they are still very much a privacy risk that browsers all allow. USB access is no different, a website can't just do whatever it wants, you have to give it permission to use it first. And it doesn't have to be all-or-nothing either, it could be implemented to allow the browser to access only specific USB devices.
Apple is holding back progress in favor of profit. They profit when developers are forced to create a native app where Apple can extract 30% of revenue through the app.
It's not about if the camera is a USB device or not, it's about what the capabilities being exposed is. Web browsers aren't just handing over the webcam as an arbitrary USB device, they are presenting a media stream from them. Which means they can't for example send arbitrary commands, flash firmware, or do any of the infinite things a USB device might present.