Brave 2019 Analysis
Title: Brave, Fingerprinting, and Privacy Budgets
Authors: Peter Snyder (Brave), Ben Livshits (Brave)
Abstract/Summary: Browser fingerprinting is a difficult threat for the privacy community to defend against, and one that’s likely to get ever more challenging as browsers deploy protections against traditional, cookie-based tracking systems. Because there is so much privacy-harming technical debt in the Web platform, successful defenses will require addressing the problem at every level: resource blocking, fingerprint randomization, restricting which sites have access to risky functionality, and improving privacy in Web standards.
Approaches that attempt to maintain an “acceptable” amount of identification and tracking online, however well-meaning, are antithetical to the goal of a truly privacy-respecting Web. We expect that “budget”-based approaches to Web privacy will not be effective privacy protections, and that the steps described above will be far more effective at protecting user privacy. We’re excited to work with others in the privacy community to continue to improve privacy on the Web.