this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2023
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Privacy

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submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by ekZepp to c/[email protected]
 

Open-source tests of web browser privacy.

[EDIT] - Check the comments for more information and links ๐Ÿ”ฝ ๐Ÿ”ฝ ๐Ÿ”ฝ

[Edit Edit] - Brave Browser caught adding its own referral codes to some cryptocurrency trading sites - More in the comments ๐Ÿ”ฝ ๐Ÿ”ฝ ๐Ÿ”ฝ

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[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Some of the items on that list are kinda weird. Why would I want to block a website from knowing my screen size?

[โ€“] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

Window sizes can vary widely and if you come from the same IP with the same exact window size (1033x832 for example) then people wanting to track you for ads etc will have a higher degree of confidence that you're the same person. It's part of "browser fingerprinting", which can also include things like the extensions you have installed: https://amiunique.org/

[โ€“] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Tracking/advertising corporations have developed techniques called 'browser fingerprinting' where innocuous seeming things like screen size and the fonts you ahve installed on your system can be used to uniquely identify you and track you across the internet even without cookies or anything like that.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

@xe3 @Phen @ekZepp Screen size fingerprinting is so serious that Tor Browser has a feature where it snaps your screen size to a certain set of sizes, adding padding around the edges.

[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

It's one of the metrics used to build unique identifiers (amongst many many others).