A new report from four French and Belgian security researchers reveals that a device’s battery status could allow websites to track users across the Internet without the users’ knowledge, The Guardian reports. A feature in the HTML5 specification allows websites to see users’ battery life in order to provide them with a lower-energy mode when their battery is getting low. The specification, introduced by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), allows sites to collect the data without consent because “the information disclosed has minimal impact on privacy or fingerprinting and therefore is exposed without permission grants,” W3C stated. The researchers disagree, however, pointing out that websites receive specific data on battery life, rendering such data as a sort of unique ID for a device.
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