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> What's interesting though, is that in reality, <canvas>'s prevalence in the the HTTPArchive isn't so far behind <video> (63rd/70th most popular elements respe
by 3np 5y ago
> What's interesting though, is that in reality, <canvas>'s prevalence in the the HTTPArchive isn't so far behind <video> (63rd/70th most popular elements respectively). It's considerably more widely used than many other standard HTML elements.
> Amazing, right? I mean, how could that even be?!
> The short answer is, it's just harder to recognize. A great example of this is maps. As a user, you recognize maps. You know they are common and popular. But what perhaps you don't recognize that it's on a canvas.
I’d posit that the majority of canvases in the wild is tracking and fingerprinting, not something that ends up visible to the user.
Unfortunately, privacy-conscious users are best off blocking canvas by default, like Tor Browser does.
- postalrat 5y agoYou are almost certainly wrong. I've seen canvas used on many pages for rendering documents. Some frameworks render a majority of the UI in a canvas. Games are often in a canvas. Fingerprinting and tracking done using many features. Canvas is one but not the only. Blocking canvas probably makes it easier to fingerprint you.
- 3np 5y agoEither way, you and I as well as the author are just guessing. Without further numbers to back it up it could be either. Google's Recaptcha uses canvas for fingerprinting, for one.
- postalrat 5y agoI don't think anyone is saying fingerprinting is based exclusively on canvas. Does disabling canvas disable recaptcha's fingerprinting? Or does it make it more effective?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- wgj 5y agoI didn't know about this, or have any idea how it might work, so I looked it up. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canvas_fingerprinting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canvas_fingerprinting