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From: "J.O. Aho" <user@example.net>
Newsgroups: alt.os.linux,alt.windows7.general,comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: Re: What is the most common Screen Size and Color Depth (for   panopticlick)
Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 13:01:35 +0100
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On 24/01/15 03:07, Sage wrote:
> Paul wrote, on Fri, 23 Jan 2015 20:19:02 -0500:
>
>> https://www.mail-archive.com/tor-bugs@lists.torproject.org/msg66751.html
>
> Something is odd indeed!
>
> After reading that interesting bug report, I installed the tor browser
> and then checked results at panopticlick with the menu bar enabled:
>           Screen Size and Color Depth=1000x867x24
>
> I then added the bookmarks toolbar, and tried again with another session:
>           Screen Size and Color Depth=1000x835x24
>
> Then I disabled both bars and tried again with another TBB session:
>           Screen Size and Color Depth=1000x900x24
>
> I tried the same trick with a "normal" Firefox session, after setting the
> firefox window manually to the same size as that last test above:
>           Screen Size and Color Depth=1280x1024x24
>
> I tried adding the menu bar and bookmarks toolbar, but the results stayed
> the same for the "normal" Firefox window.
>
> So, it seems that the Tor browser bundle reports the actual size of the
> tor window (which is a good thing) while the normal Firefox reports the
> size of the display (which is a bad thing).

The Tor browser is reporting the canvas size, this can leak information 
that you have extra bars installed and of course make you more unique as 
not everyone has the same bars installed but many have their windows 
maximized.

Reporting a viewport size makes you less unique as it will be the same 
for everyone with similar setup (which is not equal) and you will not 
see if there is some extra toolbar installed from the size.

-- 

  //Aho