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Rewrite privacy considerations on fingerprinting in start_url #1114

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merged 4 commits into from
May 2, 2024
Merged

Rewrite privacy considerations on fingerprinting in start_url #1114

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82afba1
Rewrite privacy considerations on fingerprinting in start_url.
mgiuca Mar 7, 2024
0225c70
Change "UUID" to "identifier"
mgiuca May 1, 2024
73af81f
Reword note to developers.
mgiuca May 1, 2024
3351bdc
Add title to note box.
mgiuca May 1, 2024
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21 changes: 16 additions & 5 deletions index.html
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Expand Up @@ -817,18 +817,29 @@ <h3>
This can be useful for analytics and possibly other customizations.
However, it is also conceivable that developers could encode
strings into the start_url that uniquely identify the user (e.g., a
server assigned <abbr>UUID</abbr>). This is fingerprinting/privacy
sensitive information that the user might not be aware of.
server-assigned identifier, such as `"?user=123"`,
`"/user/123/"`, or `"https://user123.foo.bar"`). This is
fingerprinting/privacy sensitive information that the user might
not be aware of.
</p>
<p class="note" title="Don't add identifiers to start URLs">
It is bad practice for a developer to use the [=start URL=]
to include information that uniquely identifies a user, as it would
represent a fingerprint that is not cleared when the user clears
site data. However, nothing in this specification can practically
prevent developers from doing this.
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</p>
<p>
Given the above, it is RECOMMENDED that, upon installation, or any
time thereafter, a user agent allows the user to inspect and, if
necessary, modify the [=start URL=] of an application.
</p>
<p>
Additionally, developers MUST NOT use the [=manifest/start URL=] to include
information that uniquely identifies a user (e.g., "?user=123" or
"/user/123/", or "https://user123.foo.bar").
A user agent MAY offer other protections against this form of
fingerprinting. For example, if a user clears data from an origin,
the user agent MAY offer to uninstall applications that are
[=manifest/within scope=] of that origin, thus removing the
potential fingerprint from the application's start URL.
</p>
</section>
</section>
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