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Firefox Disables Loophole that Allows Sites To Track Users Via Battery Status (theguardian.com)

Posted by msmash on from the fixing-things dept.

New submitter xogg writes: Battery Status API allows web sites to read the battery level of user's system. The API was found to bring privacy risks and abuse potential and a number of implementation bugs. Now with apparent no legitimate use cases, Mozilla is taking the unprecedented decision to vaporize a browser API due to privacy concerns. And apparently, WebKit, powering Apple's Safari follows. Is that the first time a browser reduces functionality following research reports warning of privacy risks?

5 of 104 comments (clear)

  1. Reducing Functionality? by iYk6 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I would hardly call this reducing functionality. Technically, sure. But a web browser is supposed to browse the web, and this API wasn't helping any.

    1. Re:Reducing Functionality? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Right, because webmasters always do what is technically possible for improving UX, not what is most profitable with shoving malware-laced ads down consumers' throats at the maximum possible bandwidth.

      Oh brb, slashdot just jacked my browser with some "dnshost.me" tab that is almost certainly downloading malicious javascript.

      If only I could say, "hey guys! my battery is low! lay off a bit!". I'm sure they'd listen.

  2. Not to worry... by QuietLagoon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ... there will be far more egregious privacy-risking APIs in web browsers in the future....

  3. We've gone too far by Virtucon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Stop introspecting the device within the browser framework. Browse the web, run sandboxed script code, but stop digging into the device. Leave the other information mining to apps with appropriate user controls to say fuck off when appropriate.

    --
    Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
  4. Fuck you (-10000 Flaimbate) by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There were many promising use cases for this functionality, which now have gone into the shitter.

    Horseshit. No website has *any fucking business whatsoever* accessing my hardware in such a fashion, period.

    And I am perfectly capable of reading my device's battery monitor on my own, thanks very much.

    And if websites didn't on serving up "video intensive" ads, ad blockers might not be in such high demand.

    And you're a complete asshole for wanting to be an enabler of this shit.

    Go die in a fire.

    --
    Il n'y a pas de Planet B.