Re: Proposal for device "enumeration"

I like this.

On 12/06/2012 06:57 PM, Martin Thomson wrote:
> As discussed on the call, and as no doubt Travis is already typing up,
> here is what I think we need for device enumeration:
>
> VideoStreamSource and AudioStreamSource each have a static method
> (invoked on the constructor, not an instance) that produces a sequence
> of device identifiers.
>
>    typedef DOMString DeviceId;
>    partial interface VideoStreamSource {
>      static sequence<DeviceId> getDeviceIds();
>    }
>    partial interface AudioStreamSource {
>      static sequence<DeviceId> getDeviceIds();
>    }
>
> MediaTrackConstraints has a new constraint called... "deviceId", which
> takes a DeviceId as its value.  This allows an application to select a
> specific device.
>
> We should *strongly* recommend that device identifiers are persistent
> for a given origin.  However, it MUST NOT be possible to correlate
> between different origins otherwise we may as well sign our own death
> warrants lest the anti-fingerprinting mafia wring our necks for
> wrecking all their efforts.
>
> This last requirement assumes that the identifier has a non-trivial
> amount of entropy, such as a GUID, which I believe to be the most
> practical method of implementation.  A potential method would be to
> take the stable OS-level identifier; a persistent, browser-generated
> secret; and the origin.  These would be combined and maybe run through
> one of them hashish algorithms [1].
>
> --Martin
>
> [1] I hear that's what the kids are all doing nowadays.  Travis lives
> in Washington, so he would have more information on that.
>

Received on Thursday, 6 December 2012 21:42:13 UTC