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DuckDuckGo Now Fingerprinting Visitors

posted by chromas on Thursday January 10 2019, @04:12PM   
from the time-to-switch-to-dodododogo dept.

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Is this for real? DuckDuckGo has grown in popularity primarily on its claim: We don't track you. Is this no longer true?

DuckDuckGo now fingerprinting visitors

DuckDuckGo is using the Canvas DOMRect API on their search engine. Canvas is used to make unique geometry measurements on target browsers, and DOMRect API uses rectangles. This can be verified with the CanvasBlocker Firefox add-on by Korbinian Kapsner. DDG has recently been redirecting some website navigations to cute pictures with remarks about their privacy promises. The organization is now seeking to expand their Internet presence. DDG are without question data brokers, and commercial websites that make promises like DDG does will not survive for long if they actually keep them.

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Original Submission

• Re:But y tho Re:But y tho (Score: 3, Insightful) by ikanreed on Thursday January 10 2019, @04:24PM (1 child)

  by ikanreed (3164) on Thursday January 10 2019, @04:24PM (#784535) Journal

  How else are web devs supposed to give you a good social experience that you share with your friends on your internet search?!

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  Starting Score:	1		point
  Moderation		+1
  Insightful=1, Total=1
  Extra 'Insightful' Modifier		0
  Karma-Bonus Modifier		+1
  Total Score:		3

• Re:But y tho (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday January 11 2019, @11:10AM

  by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Friday January 11 2019, @11:10AM (#784976) Homepage

  I know there's a 99% chance you're being sarcarsetic, but as plain ascii is an imperfect medium, I'll answer your rhetorical question with "using HTML and CSS dating back at least a decade".
  
  For the hobby webpage I'm writing, I'm deliberately trying to implement all the interactive shit that would be nice (drop-down menus, stepper inputs, etc.) that is typically done using javascript, but using nothing more than CSS, preferably CSS1, for maximum portability, and all without smell, so it doesn't look shit in w3m/lynx/elinks. I've also asked a blind friend to advise. Bosh! Everything works everywhere, hoorah for CSS and having a brain with oxygen being fed to it.
  
  There's already a perfectly rich language for telling the browser what you need it to display - playing dumb and asking the server for additional assistance half way through the process is almost always unnecessary.

  --
  Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves

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