[jpnelson]

Would it be possible to mitigate the CSS based fingerprinting using URLs, by having the client forcibly cache the fonts / urls? I think then on return to the site, there would be client cache hits, and no request to the server on return visits.

I imagine this would be a pain for browsing in general, but could help browsers in a privacy mode

[codetrotter]

In addition to making browsing slower you’d also consume more of your data, if you’re on a capped plan.

These days I have a 70 GB plan with data rollover, which leaves me with plenty of data to spare. But for the longest time I used to be on a plan with only a couple of GB of data per month, and it was a real pain in general. In that situation, downloading all resources instead of only the ones I need would have made a noticeable impact I am sure.

Even though I now have data to spare, the additional slowness that you mentioned would be annoying enough that I would not want my device to do that. Additionally, transferring more data would also consume more battery.

[oblak]

Caching would make things slower, consume more bandwidth and power why exactly?

Also, your argument assumes everyone is browsing on a phone, and with a "plan". Is there no other way to access the web these days?

I think simply disabling JS spares a lot more battery. Hell, with noScript you can block font manipulation.