[whatwg] API for unique identification of devices (mobile/tablet/pc)

Stan stasson at orc.ru
Thu Dec 13 12:20:09 PST 2012


Hi,

I'd like to proprose an API to get a unique device's ID in HTML5. If some discussions/works
do already exist on it, please let me know, I didn't find this stuff.

In fact, a single method/property seems sufficient so far, say: window.navigator.deviceID.
The property should return a string, either obtained directly from OS (as provided
by manufacturer, for example, Android ID), or mangled with some "salt".

Due to security and privacy considerations, the API should ask user confirmation to
access the ID by current site, much like geolocation API does.

The reasoning for this API is the need to uniquely identify every device in
many web-applications. Currently the only option is to use some user registration
scheme with cookies, local storage, etc. It leads to overheads in development (user
table support, authorization implementation), and inconveniences to end users
which must register themselves on many sites. Seamless and unobtrusive,
yet authorized identification of device would improve users' experience, imho.

Best wishes,
Stan



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