[Gnucomm-privacy] Standards and privacy

[Lars Nooden]

The EFF is measuring browser agent strings to collect data on how the
relatively small number of combinations result in a fingerprint unique
enough to identify individual users.  Go to this site to read about the
project or go about building their data set:

        http://panopticlick.eff.org/

The results should be interesting.

Here is some commentary on the current web experience:

Some of the reasons for having a browser agent string include
compensation for weak or inadequate standards support.  Most browsers
have very good standards compliance.  Concentrating on these and making
them better reduces the need for a browser identification string.

Other data points are related to activities that inhibit usability and
accessibility : screen size, color depth and system fonts.  The original
goals of SGML and even XML were to separate structure and content from
appearance.  It's taken years to clean up from the browser wars, those
showed how much of a waste of time and resources it is to not separate
structure and content.

Still others are related to client side scripting.  There's too much to
say about client side scripting but it can be summed up as nearly
synonymous with XSS.

In other words a move to a web with a foundation of rock-solid standards
compliance, complete separation of content and layout, and sites that
work without scripting improve privacy in addition maintenance,
accessibility, usability and general security.

Regards
/Lars Nooden