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I visited the page once on my Android using my HN app's built-in webkit browser, where it displayed some interesting stats like the location, the battery level,
by AdmiralAsshat 11y ago
I visited the page once on my Android using my HN app's built-in webkit browser, where it displayed some interesting stats like the location, the battery level, ISP, etc.
I opened the same link in Firefox Android with uBlock Origin installed, and got no hardware stats other than the kernel, no software stats, and no IP.
My takeaway from this is to NEVER use an app that uses Webkit.
I'm not sure if that was the intended purpose, but thanks for the eye-opener anyway!
- bcook 11y agoMy takeaway would've been; use some sort of protection, like NoScript, uBlock, etc. The choice of web-browser engine seems less important when you globally allow javascript or other similar capabilities.
- AdmiralAsshat 11y agoThis is true, but on Android this is not possible on Chrome or the default webkit browser, as Google doesn't allow extensions. So my point still stands.
- stephenr 11y ago> My takeaway from this is to NEVER use an app that uses Webkit You're talking about WebKit on android, which was ported there by Google. The original WebKit (as WebKit, not khtml) browser (Safari) doesn't leak all that information, so my take away would be not to trust a company obsessed with collecting private information and pushing all things into a browser, to have the best track record when it comes to protecting your privacy.