from Hacker News

No Cookies, No Problem – Using ETags for User Tracking

by vanni on 7/8/20, 3:31 PM with 7 comments

  • by oltdaniel on 7/9/20, 6:44 AM

    Quick note on this one. ETags have been used for years, but there is a court case from 2011 and before, speficaly noting this ETag technology as undeletable cookies. Was just a click away from the Wikipedia page. So I think anybody using it, would have an huge issue with the laws. Personally, I think the tracking pixels are more interesting to look at.

    https://www.extremetech.com/internet/91966-aol-spotify-gigao...

  • by hilbert42 on 7/8/20, 6:43 PM

    Ah, but using ETags to track users doesn't work unless JavaScript is enabled. As one who normally doesn't use JavaScript, I had to turn JS on then refresh the page to make this spying example 'work' (i.e.: track me).

    As I've been saying for years, get rid of JavaScript and 90%+ of these privacy violations and other security breaches will melt away.

    The trouble is we users have to suffer the brunt of this JavaScript 'disease' because it primarily benefits large commercial interests. If ordinary users get trampled upon as a consequence then that's just too bad.

    Seems I've found yet another good reason to keep JavaScript turned off.

  • by treyhuffine on 7/8/20, 4:51 PM