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by ranger_danger 210 days ago
What is your definition of "track you" in this context?

If it's to pinpoint a unique device accessing a website even through VPNs and/or other IP changes, there are an untold number of ways that apps can track you better than a website.

Apps have access to many device-specific APIs in addition to all the web ones, and every additional bit of information used can be added to the mix to create an even more unique fingerprint of the specific device accessing a website.

For example with phones, an app (even if it's mostly just a webview) may now also have access to your phone model, phone number, maybe your contacts or GPS location, and many other things.
1 comments
raw_anon_1111 208 days ago
A website Can easily deduce your phone model based on the browser agent attribute which tells the operating system and the screen resolution with a fair degree of certainty, an app can’t get your phone number, it can get your GPS with your permission. But so can a web page with your permission. There is a standard JavaScript API for it. Contacts are also gated by permissions.

And there is a Contact Picker API for browsers

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Contact_Pic...

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ranger_danger 208 days ago
> an app can’t get your phone number

Apps can absolutely get your phone number:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2480288/programmatically...

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