Show HN: Modern Browsers Don't Need the Cookie Anymore
kuber.studio23 points by kuberwastaken 2 days ago
23 points by kuberwastaken 2 days ago
> It asked for zero permissions.
Not quite. It requested to play DRM protected content.
And asked to create a WebGL context and to view canvas data.
Closed and reopened the browser and revisited the site a couple times, and it thought it was my first and gave me a different fingerprint each time.
removed it! The latter should not be happening anymore either hopefully
update: removed it, didn't need it and I use chrome so it didn't pop up haha
Fun site, but it got some things wrong:
- 8 core cpu. I have 24.
- devtools open. they are not.
- primary language. this one is strange, because I'd think the browser declares it pretty loudly. I have a fairly small regional language set as my primary, but it detects English.
- zero permissions. This is not true, Firefox actively opened a permissions button asking to access other apps and services on the machine. I decided to accept it out of curiosity - it didn't change the results in any way relative to blocking it.
- first time here. it thinks it's my first time on the page every time I visit.
Good demo of the gap between "no cookies" and "no tracking". A chunk of the analytics industry sells "cookieless" where under the hood it's exactly this - a fingerprint doing the cookie's job. Easy way to tell the two apart: if a tool can recognize you as a returning visitor across days without ever asking, something is identifying you.
> What you are using it on > > Your display scaling is set to 150%. > A fractional device pixel ratio (1.5) only comes from Windows display scaling. macOS uses whole-number ratios. So you're on Windows, and you've bumped the UI size up from the default.
> Device pixel ratio = 1.5
im on linux though. the page even says earlier that im on a linux box.
I was surprised that it only detected very basic details about me.. and most importantly, it got the display resolution completely wrong!
> "Your CPU is ARM-family — we know from a single subtraction"
Not sure what went wrong for you but I'm running an i9
> "Your battery is at 100%"
I don't think my desktop computer has a battery
> "Microphones attached = 1, Audio outputs attached = 1"
Windows audio settings shows 3 inputs and 5 outputs currently
> You're inside a virtual machine.
It's wrong. I have Hyper-V and VirtualBox installed on my machine, maybe it has some effect?
> You use Microsoft Office
No, I don't. It was installed previously, but my license expired.
On an iPhone like half of the information was wrong and conflicted prior information. And then stopped responding at the gathering ip, etc part.
I looked into my ad profile section and saw that I was worth nothing... I'm not sure if I should be happy or not.
TZ wrong.
Screen resolution wrong. 3200x2200? How does it come up with that?
Nice got different fingerprint across firefox and chrome on android
More like, Tell HN: advertisers don't need cookies to track you anymore!
potato potato haha ; sadly advertisers aren't the only ones tracking us these days
Just tested this.
> Your User-Agent says Windows, but your installed fonts are Linux's. One of those is lying, and it isn't the fonts.
But also...
> Voice list = Microsoft David - English (United States) [snip]
> You use Microsoft Office.
Considering that this is tested on Windows 11, I think your Linux detection is wonky.
> Nice machine, by the way. an Apple M1.
> 2 CPU cores and a 1920×1200 display. All the bells and whistles.
i'm actually using a macbook neo and my display resolution is not 1920x1200
> You've got LaTeX installed. You write academic papers, or you're a grad student.
no i don't
This is such a clever technical demo. Do you work for Posthog? LOL
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