this post was submitted on 02 Apr 2026
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On the contrary, websites are incredibly sandboxed. It’s damn near impossible to find out anything about the computer. Off the top of my head: Want to know where the file lives that the user just picked? Sure, it’s C:\fakepath\filename. Wanna check the color of a link to see if the user has visited the site before? No need to check. The answer will be ‘false’. Always.
Here's the information a web server needs to deliver content to a browser:
Everything else is a fucking security hole. There's no good reason for servers to know what extensions you have installed, what OS you're running, the dimensions of your browser window, where your mouse cursor is positioned, or any one of a thousand other data points that browsers freely hand over.
If the site doesn't know the window width of can't react to mobile or desktop users automatically or scale elements/ change to best for your display.
You need mouse input for hovering effects as well
That can all be done 100% client side. The server does not need this information.
Ah I read as the Brower doesn't need that data. I'd say it needs width (maybe height) but that's it
But this info talked about in OP is done via client sending the data to a server not the server getting it all the time
If you can do it client side, you can send it to a server...
The difference is intent.
Yes, because web browsers, under current web architecture, allow this.
This is entirely my point.
They will always allow it as long as you have javascript or any other code.
There are absolutely reasons. Firefox is done by a reasonable job of anti-fingerprinting, and it's a fine line to walk to disable as many of those indicators as possible without breaking sites.
Browsers do give away too much, but at least Firefox is working on it. And it's not extremely straightforward.