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Simon Willison

@djh yeah, I imagine the fingerprinting risk is why they don't expose this functionality to everyone else

12 comments
Vo

@wander1236 @simon @djh Also did you know Google has a subdomain called "stalk.google.com"

Hippo πŸ‰

@bennihtm maybe some extension to Google Talk? It's an appropriate domain though πŸ˜‚

@Vo@noauthority.social @wander1236 @simon @djh

Jeff "weBOOOOlogy" Triplett

@simon @djh I thought it was already established that Google fingerprints you via your account. I think making it private to them keeps others from using it for fingerprinting, but I apologize if I'm missing the point.

Timo Zimmermann

@webology @simon @djh I think the interesting part will be when Europe looks at this and invokes the DMA which should AFAIK apply here.

If this would be the case and if they would rule to open it up for everyone not just the company who already got all your data will be using it. :/

Timo Zimmermann

@SiteRelEnby while I’d obviously prefer that I honestly don’t see Google make an ethical decision at this point :/

Dan Herbert

@webology I think a major problem here is that the same API also works in Incognito mode. This would allow Google to fingerprint you even if signed out of your account and track you across incognito sessions.

And that's not to mention the fact that the API works even if you're signed out of a Google account so fingerprinting can be performed even without an account.

stefan

@simon But why would Google themselves need it for fingerprint given that the control the whole browser? Or do you mean "they need it for something else but it could be used for fingerprinting by others"? @djh

Christopher Schmidt

@stefan @simon @djh this is what I would mean by this statement, yeah.

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