Re: Improved Client Identification

["Chris Seal (HWEL - 3 Solutions - Technology Manager)" <[e-mail]>]

I¹d agree that this would go against BCP188.

Arguably it¹s already possible without the need for anything new.  See
https://panopticlick.eff.org/
and
https://panopticlick.eff.org/browser-uniqueness.pdf

Chris

On 05/03/2015 09:43, "Cory Benfield" <[e-mail]> wrote:

>On 20 February 2015 at 15:36, Sanel Mesinovic <[e-mail]>
>wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> I found your email address here. Have one small contribution / request
>>to
>> make to the new HTTP 2 protocol. Already wrote an email long time ago
>>to Tim
>> Berners Lee however no reply. Maybe someone already during this time
>>already
>> raised the issue.
>
>Unfortunately, HTTP/2 is now complete, which means this request is out
>of scope for HTTP/2. You could make this request as a generic HTTP
>extension, however I don't recommend it.
>
>> In my opinion the new protocol should introduce a better way to uniquely
>> identify the client. Currently it is not possible to uniquely identify a
>> user. IP identification is not reliable. There can be two or more users
>> behind the same IP. Session identification is even worse.
>
>Why?
>
>Setting a cookie absolutely does uniquely identify a client, unless
>the client chooses to remove it. It also does not allow correlation
>across origins. For that reason, I have to assume that the following
>motivations apply to this request:
>
>- you'd like to be able to uniquely identify a client across multiple
>domains
>- you'd like to prevent clients from being able to opt out of tracking
>
>I'd say that either one of these is in violation of IETF BCP 188[0],
>though I admit to that being a slightly broader reading of BCP 188
>than is common. IMO, clients should always be able to choose not to be
>tracked, and they should certainly be free from any form of
>cross-domain tracking. There is a reason that people are uncomfortable
>with the way the Facebook 'like' button can be used to track users as
>they move around the web: adding an easier tools to do it would not
>make people happier, safer or more free.
>
>I am confident the IETF and this WG would never dream of adding such
>functionality.
>
>[0]: https://tools.ietf.org/html/bcp188
>

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