browsers in Android 2.x. However, this is not normally the case—they are independent standards. The situation is complicated because there are scene graph libraries for canvas, and SVG has some bitmap manipulation functionality. Reactions At the time of its introduction, the canvas element was met with mixed reactions from the web standards community. There have been arguments against Apple's decision to create a new proprietary element instead of supporting the SVG standard. There are other concerns about syntax, such as the absence of a namespace. Intellectual property over canvas On March 14, 2007, WebKit developer Dave Hyatt forwarded an email from Apple's Senior Patent Counsel, Helene Plotka Workman, which stated that Apple reserved all intellectual property rights relative to WHATWG's Web Applications 1.0 Working Draft, dated March 24, 2005, Section 10.1, entitled “Graphics: The bitmap canvas”, but left the door open to licensing the patents should the specification be transferred to a standards body with a formal patent policy. This caused considerable discussion among web developers and raised questions concerning the WHATWG's lack of a policy on patents in comparison to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)'s explicit favoring of royalty-free licenses. Apple later disclosed the patents under the W3C's royalty-free patent licensing terms. The disclosure means that Apple is required to provide royalty-free licensing for the patent whenever the Canvas element becomes part of a future W3C recommendation created by the HTML working group. Privacy concerns Canvas fingerprinting is one of a number of browser fingerprinting techniques for tracking online users that allow websites to identify and track visitors using HTML5 canvas element. The technique received wide media coverage in 2014, after researchers from Princeton University and KU Leuven University described it in their paper The Web never forgets. The privacy concerns regarding canvas fingerprinting center around the fact that even deleting cookies and clearing the cache will not be sufficient for users to avoid online tracking. Browser support The element is supported by the current versions of Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari, Konqueror, Opera and Microsoft Edge. See also Anti-Grain Geometry (AGG) Cairo (graphics) Display PostScript Graphics Device Interface (GDI+) Quartz 2D WebGL References External links Canvas description in WHATWG Web Applications draft specifications Canvas reference page in Apple Developers Connection Basic Canvas Tutorial on Opera Developer Community Canvas tutorial and introductory page on Mozilla Developer center HTML tags HTML5