Talk:Browser fingerprint

Manual Issue

Hello,

The article was issued as "manual". I tried to solve the issue and think it is, so I think it can be removed it. However, I'm an new user of the plateform so if you think it's not resolved, please tell me why, I'm open to discussion.

Thanks and regards, Ergozat (talk) 08:19, 14 January 2020 (UTC)

I presume what you are asking about is that an editor has added the template "This article is written like a manual or guidebook." to the top of the article, and you hope it can be removed. Best next step is to ask on that editor's Talk page what the problem is. David notMD (talk) 10:26, 14 January 2020 (UTC)

Understand, thanks for your response ! Ergozat (talk) 16:46, 14 January 2020 (UTC)

Duplicate of device fingerprint, and other feedback

I don't understand if there is any meaningful difference between this page and device fingerprint, whose first sentence claims "browser fingerprint" as a synonym.

I also worry that the article in its current form is cluttered with too many details that are only partially related to the concept of device/browser fingerprints. For example, while it may be helpful for a person intending to perform a browser fingerprinting operation to understand how specific CSS queries can be used to identify a browser, it is not the role of an encyclopedia to list how this works with precise references to CSS syntax. Many of the subsections under "Techniques" seem to instruct what a person should do in order to build their own browser fingerprinting protocol, which makes the article read like a manual; see WP:NOTHOWTO for an essay-style explanation. Finally, I think it might be helpful to look at some other articles to learn the formatting of references and links, as well as the style of writing. Grammatical errors erode the "encyclopedic" tone of your article. For example: "Fingerprint aren't just used to track user across websites, but also to regenerate deleted cookies.[17] Or relink old cookies.[14][17]" (verb conjugation error, sentence fragment) Other formatting tricks, like using Template:Main instead of manually creating a "More info on..." link, or Template:Cite web instead of the manual bibliography, could also make your article easier to navigate and integrate with the rest of Wikipedia.

Ergozat and AureliaCatrice: I see that you are new users and that you may have created this as part of a college assignment. As long as I am not interfering with your academic evaluation, I would be happy to help you work on any of the following issues:

1. trim extraneous details that lie in "manual" territory
2. fix references and wiki-links to use helpful templates like Template:Citation, Template:Main, etc
3. consider proposing a WP:MERGE with device fingerprint
4. check grammar, style, tone of writing

Thank you for contributing to Wikipedia, and looking forward to your next edit. Aeffenberger (talk) 03:20, 17 January 2020 (UTC)

Hi, thanks for your review. For the duplicate problem, I think browser fingerprint is a specific device fingerprint as it's browser-based, and so not exactly the same. But I understand that this subject need to be on the other page anyway. At the beginning this page was a redirection to device fingerprint, do you think that we can directly merge this page into the other page ?

I agree on all your other remarks, we'll work on it and your help is welcomed. Ergozat (talk) 22:17, 17 January 2020 (UTC)

I agree with Aeffenberger: the contents should be substantially summarized and merged with device fingerprint. Although the browser fingerprint is a specific type of device fingerprint, it is the only one that has great relevance in practice, and it is consequently well suited for being described in the same article. Regarding the level of detail, I agree that the current article is beyond the scope of an encyclopedia and I advise to summarize it to at least half the length before merging, leaving any in-depth review to the cited material. —Esponenziale (talk) 16:18, 19 January 2020 (UTC)

Hi Ergozat, thanks for being open to our advice. I think the meaning of "browser" fingerprint as a special case of device fingerprints makes it a perfect candidate for being a subsection of the "device" page. It would also make your content more visible and accessible to readers who are interested in the broader concept! As Esponenziale suggested, let's first work on the article contents here, and merge later. Aeffenberger (talk) 20:12, 21 January 2020 (UTC)