/Tracking/Fingerprinting/active/can_play_type/

• $ fingerprint@info:~ echo $CAN-PLAY-TYPE

• Name:

  canPlayType
  

  Original feature purpose:

  HTMLMediaElement.canPlayType determines, whether the specified media type can be played back and MediaSource.isTypeSupported checks if a SourceBuffer object can be created for the specified MIME type. For more details see, e.g., MDN web docs ([1], [2])

  
  

  FP-Explanation:

  There are many different media MIME types including media subtypes and codecs available and whether a browser supports a given MIME type, subtype or codec depends on the browser implementation, installed plugins and the host system.
  The test of a MIME type with the method HTMLMediaElement.canPlayType can have three possible return values:

  • 'probably': The specified media type appears to be playable.
  • 'maybe': Cannot tell if the media type is playable without playing it.
  • '' (empty string): The specified media type definitely cannot be played.

  There is no guarantee for the return values to be correct (e.g., H.264 support in Firefox OS 1.0), but the same values are consistently returned (within the same environment).
  The test of a MIME type with the method MediaSource.isTypeSupported returns true, if the browser is capable of playing the specified MIME type, and otherwise false. Given a comprehensive MIME types test, it is possible to distinguish browsers and browser versions. In this demo, the canPlayType/isTypeSupported fingerprint is the hashed result of 797 MIME type support tests.

  
  

  FP-Type:

  active
  

  FP-Categories:

  js, html5, hardware-dependent, software-dependent, unchanged-consistent
  

  Counter-measures:

  -
  

  Publications/References:

  • Media formats for HTML audio and video (MDN)
  • Video type parameters (WHATWG Wiki)
  • H.264/MPEG-4 AVC (Wikipedia)
  • New VP9 codec string and Profile 2 support Sample
  • VP Codec ISO Media File Format Binding (The WebM Project)
  • The Codecs and Profiles Parameters for "Bucket" Media Types (IETF)
  • Dolby Audio Experience (Microsoft Edge Development)
  • Can I use ... Audio Format
  • ISOBMFF MIME Types Support (GitHub)
  • A privacy by design browser solution as protection against personalized online tracking (2019)
  
  
• $ fingerprint@info:~ run can-play-type-demo

Demo:

>> Jump to canPlayType Fingerprinting Demo <<