4 ms·

Ouch... Firefox Focus includes: chargingTime : Infinity level : 0.77 Yes that is indeed my phone's current battery level. And no matter if incognito Brave, Fi

Ouch... Firefox Focus includes: chargingTime : Infinity level : 0.77 Yes that is indeed my phone's current battery level. And no matter if incognito Brave, Firefox Focus or Chrome browsers, I am unique to the site. Even Firefox Focus which is meant to be good for privacy by throwing the entire session each time is leaky as eg with the audio context.

GordonS 7y ago
Surely the battery level isn't particularly useful for fingerprinting, since it's going to change fairly quickly?
- jacobush 7y ago
  But why the fuck should a website know how much charge my phone has?
  - pbhjpbhj 7y ago
    It's quite clever, that a site that uses lots of processing, or has autoplay, can limit what it does: " your battery is low, do you want to continue ". The problem is that shitheads exploit every possibility to reduce the utility of society in favour of their own profit. This is why we can't have nice things; as the aphorism goes.
    - tsukurimashou 7y ago
      Well that is the problem with it, every shitty features like that someone can come up with something "quite clever" to do with it, in reality, all these things are being used 99% of the time for tracking. Maybe programmers and designers should start thinking the other way around: what could be pretty clever that could be used for a feature but that CANNOT be misused for tracking
    - dorgo 7y ago
      We are living in the best of all possible worlds. Without shitheads we would be vulnerable and wouldn't even know it.
    - rumanator 7y ago
      > It's quite clever, that a site that uses lots of processing, or has autoplay, can limit what it does: " your battery is low, do you want to continue ". That sounds like a client concern, not a server concern. I mean, as a consumer of web content I do not want my power saving profile to be accessible or actively influenced by a third party.
  - dorgo 7y ago
    To stop computationally intensive or security related or otherwise sensitive operations when charge level is low? Save the state / synchronize more often when charge level is low to prevent data loss?
    - jacobush 7y ago
      Running untrusted code doing these things is not something I'm ok with.
  - Jamwinner 7y ago
    Many places will increase prices with low battery as a despiration tactic. Its shady af and should be illegal imho.
- comboy 7y ago
  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12208880 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12208880
  - GordonS 7y ago
    I read the article you linked to, but the method it describes would surely only work for a few minutes, or until the battery level goes down? Having said that, I do get that battery level has some potential as part of a very short-lived fingerprint, and I really don't see the need to expose this information to remote sites.

GordonS 7y ago

Surely the battery level isn't particularly useful for fingerprinting, since it's going to change fairly quickly?

jacobush 7y ago
But why the fuck should a website know how much charge my phone has?
- pbhjpbhj 7y ago
  It's quite clever, that a site that uses lots of processing, or has autoplay, can limit what it does: " your battery is low, do you want to continue ". The problem is that shitheads exploit every possibility to reduce the utility of society in favour of their own profit. This is why we can't have nice things; as the aphorism goes.
  - tsukurimashou 7y ago
    Well that is the problem with it, every shitty features like that someone can come up with something "quite clever" to do with it, in reality, all these things are being used 99% of the time for tracking. Maybe programmers and designers should start thinking the other way around: what could be pretty clever that could be used for a feature but that CANNOT be misused for tracking
  - dorgo 7y ago
    We are living in the best of all possible worlds. Without shitheads we would be vulnerable and wouldn't even know it.
  - rumanator 7y ago
    > It's quite clever, that a site that uses lots of processing, or has autoplay, can limit what it does: " your battery is low, do you want to continue ". That sounds like a client concern, not a server concern. I mean, as a consumer of web content I do not want my power saving profile to be accessible or actively influenced by a third party.
- dorgo 7y ago
  To stop computationally intensive or security related or otherwise sensitive operations when charge level is low? Save the state / synchronize more often when charge level is low to prevent data loss?
  - jacobush 7y ago
    Running untrusted code doing these things is not something I'm ok with.
- Jamwinner 7y ago
  Many places will increase prices with low battery as a despiration tactic. Its shady af and should be illegal imho.
comboy 7y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12208880 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12208880
- GordonS 7y ago
  I read the article you linked to, but the method it describes would surely only work for a few minutes, or until the battery level goes down? Having said that, I do get that battery level has some potential as part of a very short-lived fingerprint, and I really don't see the need to expose this information to remote sites.