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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday August 14 2018, @05:43PM   Printer-friendly
from the can-you-ID-me-now? dept.

Browser fingerprinting is where JavaScript or other means are used to scrape uniquely identifying information from the browser metadata and functions such as how it draws a canvas object. In it's latest release Apple will defeat browser fingerprinting by making all Mac users look alike to advertisers and websites that use fingerprinting to track users. Apple can afford to do this as it doesn't have skin in the online advertising game.

[This is likely only going to be for the Safari browser. - Ed]


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  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday August 15 2018, @02:37AM (4 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday August 15 2018, @02:37AM (#721642) Journal

    Every other font that a document wants to use needs to be supplied as a downloadable woff?

    Everyone should routinely block remote fonts from the get-go. I don't give the smallest damn what font the author uses on his word processor. I want his thoughts, not his preferences. I can read those thoughts in any of the three fonts installed on my system. If I had a Mac, I might have five fonts? Hmmm - interesting. Maybe I will upgrade.

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  • (Score: 2) by Pino P on Thursday August 16 2018, @01:00PM (3 children)

    by Pino P (4721) on Thursday August 16 2018, @01:00PM (#722157) Journal

    That's fine up until someone's thoughts are about a language, and zero (0) fonts for that language's script are installed on your machine. Then you just get boxes. Browsers' views of Wikipedia articles about languages of South Asia often suffer from lack of installed fonts.

    • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday August 16 2018, @01:25PM (2 children)

      by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Thursday August 16 2018, @01:25PM (#722164) Homepage Journal

      Unifont and/or Noto are pretty good for that, despite Noto being a Google product.

      --
      My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: 2) by Pino P on Thursday August 16 2018, @01:52PM (1 child)

        by Pino P (4721) on Thursday August 16 2018, @01:52PM (#722172) Journal

        So what mechanism for a website operator to ensure Noto is available best balances security with convenience?

        A. The web font mechanism
        B. Writing "Best viewed using Noto. See installation instructions" on every page, as Wikipedia articles about foreign languages do. This method does not work on iOS or Android because end users can't easily install fonts locally on these operating systems. In my experience, Samsung Android allows installing only fonts from Samsung's store, which lists only fonts from major foundries that pay substantial dues to Samsung. Other systems (iOS and stock Android) don't allow the unelevated user to install fonts at all.
        C. Something else I missed and you'll explain

        • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday August 16 2018, @02:00PM

          by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday August 16 2018, @02:00PM (#722179) Journal

          Every language in which I am fluent is already installed on my machine. In my case, that is one language. I'm sure that people like Aristarchus already has all the fonts necessary to read all of the world's languages are installed on his machine. I mean, seriously, if you enjoy Fu Manchu's Ancient Silly Wing Dings, you probably have it installed, right? Me? I don't like Wing Dings, not even if they are Buffalo Wing Dings - so don't try to sneak it in with a web font.