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Comment by Mrirazak1 | Hacker News Reader

I’m not surprised. But my question is isn’t this antithetical to the whole privacy stance? We don’t sell your data but we do allow companies to bargain you as a user for their products.

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It's part of Apple's strategy. "If you want access to our users, you have to go through us".

Apple's Safari has built in anti-tracking tools. Apple's stance is still "we're not selling YOUR data", but they do allow your data to be anonymously shared and not point to you.

> anti-tracking tools

Do they help against fingerprinting?

Yeah, they're supposed to. One of the features is called "fingerprinting prevention" by Apple, which according to Apple's documentation hides some personalisations in the browser (like plugins, fonts, detailed OS info, etc) so that trackers can't use them to fingerprint.

So tell us what these websites show to you: https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/, https://www.amiunique.org/.

Safari 17 on Sonoma, with advanced tracking protections activated (also outside of Private Windows). I've tried with and without adblockers.

CoverYourTracks tells me I have strong browser protections but a unique fingerprint. In AmIUnique, I've a unique fingerprint too. I can see that Apple's claims to fingerprint-resistance are absolutely bogus, as the websites were able to list my fonts, plugins, etc., all things that should be protected against.

I'm disappointed.

I've tried all my other browsers and, in all of them, my fingerprint remains unique with plenty of information leaking.

That is the intent, yes.

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