logoalt Hacker News

mrguyoramayesterday at 5:45 PM1 replyview on HN

And like most people discussing these things, you entirely miss the point.

It doesn't matter whether you actually speak english natively or not, nobody cares about the actual values. Web sites don't actually care whether you have a robust font package in some way to discern whether you are a font hipster or something, they are just collecting signals.

What matters is that your physical machine and web browser combo report these values about the same way every single time they are probed, and that is used to reliably track YOU, uniquely, with great accuracy, with EVERYTHING you do on the internet, every site you visit, every mouse movement, every purchase linked back to you.

Everything.

The actual values don't have to match "reality" in any way. It's just about generating bits of signal about your setup.


Replies

nottorpyesterday at 8:22 PM

> It doesn't matter whether you actually speak english natively or not

So don't you think presenting the info as it's a great uncovered secret and then getting it wrong will lead the layman to disbelieveing everything?

Of course, the other extreme is the EFF site that says "Currently, we estimate that your browser has a fingerprint that conveys at least 18.33 bits of identifying information.".

There must be some middle ground to present this info.