4 ms·

I don't understand: couldn't they just make the results less accurate (say, ten possible values) so that it can still be used to tell if the battery is going do

I don't understand: couldn't they just make the results less accurate (say, ten possible values) so that it can still be used to tell if the battery is going down but not to identify users?

altern8 10y ago
I was thinking exactly the same thing. It could even be limited to an integer, or even keywords: 'good', 'medium', 'low', 'critical'.
frankquist 10y ago
Or to go entirely minimalistic: only provide a boolean "device might die within 10 minutes" value or something.
chriswwweb 10y ago
Agree, this seems overkill, privacy is good, but removing a feature because some use to spy on users seems to be a quick fix. I mean will they also remove cookies because some adds networks use them to track users? Probably not. And the problem probably won't go away by just killing one feature. As far as I know such user fingerprinting techniques work because values from lots of APIs get taken into account, so just killing one API won't solve the problem completly. What bothers me most, is that this is a step back for webapps developers, the web app loose a feature the native apps can still use, it's just sad. I guess the mozilla team has put some thought into this!? I would really like to know what their pros and cons where. I wonder what other solutions they considered and why those where all dismissed until finally deciding in favor of such a drastic move.
- Loose_or_Lose 10y ago
  lose
  - PhantomGremlin 10y ago
    One problem with your comment is that HN is global. There are many people reading and posting on HN from China, Japan, Spain, Germany, Russia, etc. English is not their native language. Their mastery of written English is superb, by most objective criteria. Or maybe someone just made a typo? Not every minor mistake needs to be pointed out. This particular mistake wasn't egregious enough to justify creating a provocatively named new account in order to point it out.
  - sctb 10y ago
    We've banned this account. Hacker News doesn't need this kind of nitpicking, let alone un-novel novelty nitpicking.
Ygg2 10y ago
I doubt attackers only rely on a battery API. It's a conglomeration of attributes, not a single one. Problem isn't this phone with 30% battery is Adam Jensen. The problem is this phone with 30% battery and this user agent, and these addons, that takes X time to render SVG as Y, and takes 20ms to execute this code, etc. is Adam Jensen. For example the mere presence of battery API gives bits of information (because it identifies your program as phone or computer). I assume that Battery API: A) Provides enough bits of information, B) Isn't useful enough.

I don't understand: couldn't they just make the results less accurate (say, ten possible values) so that it can still be used to tell if the battery is going down but not to identify users?

altern8 10y ago

I was thinking exactly the same thing. It could even be limited to an integer, or even keywords: 'good', 'medium', 'low', 'critical'.

frankquist 10y ago

Or to go entirely minimalistic: only provide a boolean "device might die within 10 minutes" value or something.

chriswwweb 10y ago

Agree, this seems overkill, privacy is good, but removing a feature because some use to spy on users seems to be a quick fix. I mean will they also remove cookies because some adds networks use them to track users? Probably not. And the problem probably won't go away by just killing one feature. As far as I know such user fingerprinting techniques work because values from lots of APIs get taken into account, so just killing one API won't solve the problem completly. What bothers me most, is that this is a step back for webapps developers, the web app loose a feature the native apps can still use, it's just sad. I guess the mozilla team has put some thought into this!? I would really like to know what their pros and cons where. I wonder what other solutions they considered and why those where all dismissed until finally deciding in favor of such a drastic move.

Loose_or_Lose 10y ago
lose
- PhantomGremlin 10y ago
  One problem with your comment is that HN is global. There are many people reading and posting on HN from China, Japan, Spain, Germany, Russia, etc. English is not their native language. Their mastery of written English is superb, by most objective criteria. Or maybe someone just made a typo? Not every minor mistake needs to be pointed out. This particular mistake wasn't egregious enough to justify creating a provocatively named new account in order to point it out.
- sctb 10y ago
  We've banned this account. Hacker News doesn't need this kind of nitpicking, let alone un-novel novelty nitpicking.

Ygg2 10y ago

I doubt attackers only rely on a battery API. It's a conglomeration of attributes, not a single one. Problem isn't this phone with 30% battery is Adam Jensen. The problem is this phone with 30% battery and this user agent, and these addons, that takes X time to render SVG as Y, and takes 20ms to execute this code, etc. is Adam Jensen. For example the mere presence of battery API gives bits of information (because it identifies your program as phone or computer). I assume that Battery API: A) Provides enough bits of information, B) Isn't useful enough.