I doubt the fonts on my iPhone identify me. As far as I know, they would be the fonts it came with. Or can apps install fonts?
A web page that shows you everything the browser told it without asking
161–170 of 309 posts
Re: A web page that shows you everything the browser told it without asking
#162Maybe it's just because I am old, or have worked on internet software for almost 30 years, but none of this seems surprising or even concerning? Someone sets up a server that accepts connections to it and then someone sends a connection request to it. There has been no agreement on anything, no expectations or rules established. No one forces the server to accept any connection request it gets, and no one forces some…
My students are essentially forced to use MS services. So... there is that. So am I, come to think of it.
That seems more of an issue with the school, though, rather than the actual web request. In this case, there IS a prior agreement between the school and MS, so there can be additional expectations about how that works.
Re: A web page that shows you everything the browser told it without asking
#163Maybe it's just because I am old, or have worked on internet software for almost 30 years, but none of this seems surprising or even concerning? Someone sets up a server that accepts connections to it and then someone sends a connection request to it. There has been no agreement on anything, no expectations or rules established. No one forces the server to accept any connection request it gets, and no one forces some…
Maybe it's because I'm idealistic in addition to being old, but I think a lot of this functionality was in fact added for explicit purposes. A client sends the language header or the list of supported fonts not so that the server can "do whatever they want with this data." There is (or was) a real reason for it when we came up with these standards. The fact that website providers, or more specifically ad-networks, ha…
I don’t understand why that would be an implicit agreement, though? Why would I expect that the website would not try to figure out who I am?
They are free to remember whatever they want about my request… but I am also free to modify the request however I want, if I choose to randomize the list of fonts or choose to not send it or whatever.
Re: A web page that shows you everything the browser told it without asking
#164* I'm not in that city. * It's running a kind of Chrome on a kind of Linux, at a stretch. * Nobody can infer when I work and when I sleep. That includes me. * The recent, high-end display is the screen of a low-end tablet I bought in a supermarket five years ago. * But yes, browser fingerprinting is annoying. * Since you can detect light mode, would it kill you to honor it?
> I'm not in that city.
Same, it claims Brussels, but I'm in Antwerp. It also got my screen resolution wrong.
Re: A web page that shows you everything the browser told it without asking
#165"With JavaScript off, the page cannot tell you what your browser disclosed. The data is still there. The disclosure still happened. Only the telling of it stops."
This is surely only partially true.
Re: A web page that shows you everything the browser told it without asking
#166A vibe-coded EFF Cover Your Tracks. The fact this made it to front-page is spookier than its contents
Yes! By a user who’s 21 days old, has never commented and it’s not even following this thread as he has absolutely never replied and never will. Having these kind of submissions not flagged is killing hacker news
I disagree, the discussion is still interesting to me. The page might be low quality AI slop (though it claims it’s not), I did find the discussion about it informative to a degree.
Re: A web page that shows you everything the browser told it without asking
#167Jokes on them, they got the wrong IP address, dummies!!! My IP address is 127.0.0.1!
Re: A web page that shows you everything the browser told it without asking
#168> Your screen is 320 by 568 pixels, rendered at 2x density — which means it is almost certainly a recent, high-end display. It’s been a long time my 2016’ iPhone as been called recent or high-end but I’ll take the compliment, thank-you.
Ya, I'm not running my Pinephone's display at x2 cause its a high end display on a $200 phone.....
Re: A web page that shows you everything the browser told it without asking
#169* I'm not in that city. * It's running a kind of Chrome on a kind of Linux, at a stretch. * Nobody can infer when I work and when I sleep. That includes me. * The recent, high-end display is the screen of a low-end tablet I bought in a supermarket five years ago. * But yes, browser fingerprinting is annoying. * Since you can detect light mode, would it kill you to honor it?
> Nobody can infer when I work and when I sleep. That includes me.
Are you like /severed/ or something? Surely you can infer when you work and sleep from your experience living your life as you.
Re: A web page that shows you everything the browser told it without asking
#170the breathless fearmongering but also condescending tone of this really makes it hard to take seriously. yeah, you can "digitally fingerprint" me when i browse the web. do you know when else you can get my fingerprints? literally any time i touch something in the real world, i leave my fingerprints behind. and nobody is making websites telling us all what a risk to privacy that is.
if you want to make me afraid of browser fingerprinting, try explaining how that information can be used to harm me. i'm aware that it's possible, i just don't care because it doesn't seem like it's that big of a deal.