Plugin array

Plugins as a way of running outside code inside a browser are gone. What remains is a fixed set of entries for the document viewer the browser already ships with, and every desktop Chrome reports the same ones.

• The same entries everywhere

  The names describe the built-in document viewer, not anything you installed.

• A pair of document types behind them

  Each entry answers for the same two document types, which is what a thorough check reads next.

• Extensions are not in here

  What you added from a store lives elsewhere, and a site cannot list it through this reading.

These values are read in your browser on this page and nothing leaves it. The first row is the length of the list, which is the whole of what a quick check reads.

A desktop browser reporting nothing here has answered in a way ordinary visitors do not. Emptiness is rarer than any particular list and marks the session at once.

• Automation strips it

  Builds made to run without a window often report nothing, which is why this reading sits beside the automation flag.

• A phone is a separate case

  Phone browsers legitimately report nothing, so the list is judged against the machine the browser claims to be.

• A long list is no better

  Entries no released browser carries separate a session as surely as an empty list does.

Our browser is compiled from the Chromium source, so the entries come from the document viewer that source already contains. Nothing is laid over the page to produce them.

The self-test asks every profile whether the list is there at all, and on the acceptance run of the build shipping today it was.

• The list was present and counted

  The acceptance run records the length it read rather than a yes or no, so a list that shrinks later is visible.

  length recorded

• The reading runs in a real browser

  The same script the app uses is executed on a page in a launched profile, not simulated.

  on a real page

Two neighbouring lists continue to describe your machine, and both are handled by trimming rather than by invention. A profile shows a subset of what is really there.

• Installed fonts

  The set a page can confirm is narrowed towards what the claimed machine would carry.

• Cameras and microphones

  The count is reduced towards what the profile claims, and a device that is not on the machine is never announced.

• Why nothing is invented

  An identifier for hardware that does not exist would itself be the mark, so the answer is only ever shorter than the truth.

The panel above shows what this browser reports, and the length alone tells you which side of the line you are on. A browser console answers the same question by name.

Inside the app the self-test asks in a profile, against the engine that profile launched, and reports the length it found.