The postMessage() API provides a mechanism by which two sites can communicate directly. At first glance, this might appear to open a new way by which the problems described above can occur. However, in practice, multiple mechanisms exist by which two sites can communicate that predate this API: a site embedding another can send data via an iframe element's dimensions; a site can use a cross-site image request with a unique identifier known to the server to initiate a server-side data exchange; or indeed the fingerprinting techniques described above can be used by two sites to uniquely identify a visitor such that information can then be exchanged on the server side.