# Rationale There have been several reported problems around the Web MIDI API's drive-by access to client MIDI devices.[1][2] To address this problem, the Audio WG decided to place an explicit permission on the general MIDI API access.[3][4] Originally, the explicit permission was only required for advanced MIDI usage (System Exclusive messages) in Chrome, but the completion of this work will expand the scope of the permission even to regular MIDI API usage. # Project Scope This feature gates the Web MIDI API access behind a permissions prompt. Today the use of SysEx messages with the Web MIDI API requires an explicit user permission. With this implementation, even access to the Web MIDI API without SysEx support will require a user permission. [1] https://crbug.com/1251044 [2] https://www.phpied.com/nightmare-scenarios-with-webmidi/ [3] https://www.w3.org/TR/webmidi/#requestmidiaccess [4] https://webaudio.github.io/web-midi-api/#permissions-integration