Show HN: Modern Browsers Don't Need the Cookie Anymore

(kuber.studio)

23 points | by kuberwastaken 2 days ago ago

26 comments

  • Clamchop 2 days ago ago

    > It asked for zero permissions.

    Not quite. It requested to play DRM protected content.

    • hotsalad 2 days ago ago

      And asked to create a WebGL context and to view canvas data.

      Closed and reopened the browser and revisited the site a couple times, and it thought it was my first and gave me a different fingerprint each time.

      • kuberwastaken a day ago ago

        removed it! The latter should not be happening anymore either hopefully

    • kuberwastaken a day ago ago

      update: removed it, didn't need it and I use chrome so it didn't pop up haha

  • madiling 2 days ago ago

    > What you are using it on > > Your display scaling is set to 150%. > A fractional device pixel ratio (1.5) only comes from Windows display scaling. macOS uses whole-number ratios. So you're on Windows, and you've bumped the UI size up from the default.

    > Device pixel ratio = 1.5

    im on linux though. the page even says earlier that im on a linux box.

    • dolmen a day ago ago

      Same issue here. Pixel ratio 1.25 on Linux, Firefox.

    • kuberwastaken a day ago ago

      Perks of making this deterministic haha will fix, thank you

  • eisleggje a day ago ago

    Fun site, but it got some things wrong:

    - 8 core cpu. I have 24.

    - devtools open. they are not.

    - primary language. this one is strange, because I'd think the browser declares it pretty loudly. I have a fairly small regional language set as my primary, but it detects English.

    - zero permissions. This is not true, Firefox actively opened a permissions button asking to access other apps and services on the machine. I decided to accept it out of curiosity - it didn't change the results in any way relative to blocking it.

    - first time here. it thinks it's my first time on the page every time I visit.

  • yev76 a day ago ago

    Good demo of the gap between "no cookies" and "no tracking". A chunk of the analytics industry sells "cookieless" where under the hood it's exactly this - a fingerprint doing the cookie's job. Easy way to tell the two apart: if a tool can recognize you as a returning visitor across days without ever asking, something is identifying you.

  • voidUpdate 2 days ago ago

    > "Your CPU is ARM-family — we know from a single subtraction"

    Not sure what went wrong for you but I'm running an i9

    > "Your battery is at 100%"

    I don't think my desktop computer has a battery

    > "Microphones attached = 1, Audio outputs attached = 1"

    Windows audio settings shows 3 inputs and 5 outputs currently

  • pkphilip a day ago ago

    I was surprised that it only detected very basic details about me.. and most importantly, it got the display resolution completely wrong!

  • Panzerschrek a day ago ago

    > You're inside a virtual machine.

    It's wrong. I have Hyper-V and VirtualBox installed on my machine, maybe it has some effect?

    > You use Microsoft Office

    No, I don't. It was installed previously, but my license expired.

    • kuberwastaken a day ago ago

      Yes, probably detected those, including teams haha

  • jogu a day ago ago

    On an iPhone like half of the information was wrong and conflicted prior information. And then stopped responding at the gathering ip, etc part.

  • zhxiaoliang 2 days ago ago

    I looked into my ad profile section and saw that I was worth nothing... I'm not sure if I should be happy or not.

  • Trung0246 2 days ago ago

    Nice got different fingerprint across firefox and chrome on android

  • thisisauserid 2 days ago ago

    More like, Tell HN: advertisers don't need cookies to track you anymore!

    • kuberwastaken 2 days ago ago

      potato potato haha ; sadly advertisers aren't the only ones tracking us these days

  • LargoLasskhyfv 17 hours ago ago

    TZ wrong.

    Screen resolution wrong. 3200x2200? How does it come up with that?

  • zinekeller 2 days ago ago

    Just tested this.

    > Your User-Agent says Windows, but your installed fonts are Linux's. One of those is lying, and it isn't the fonts.

    But also...

    > Voice list = Microsoft David - English (United States) [snip]

    > You use Microsoft Office.

    Considering that this is tested on Windows 11, I think your Linux detection is wonky.

    • kuberwastaken a day ago ago

      Tested on MacOS, but will try to patch this

  • znpy 2 days ago ago

    > Nice machine, by the way. an Apple M1.

    > 2 CPU cores and a 1920×1200 display. All the bells and whistles.

    i'm actually using a macbook neo and my display resolution is not 1920x1200

    > You've got LaTeX installed. You write academic papers, or you're a grad student.

    no i don't

  • cvince 2 days ago ago

    This is such a clever technical demo. Do you work for Posthog? LOL