Everytime you connect to a web page and make an HTML/CSS request your browser sends information about your computer as a way to optimize the webpage (screen size, resolution, operating system, JavaScript settings, IP, internet connection, and many more attributes). This information put together essentially forms a fingerprint that is unique to you. It can be saved and used to track you across multiple web pages without having to use cookies or other more invasive tracking methods. It’s like a digital form of facial recognition.
Here is a webpage that helps you determine how unique is your fingerprint (and therefore how identifiable):
Just know that sites like this are useless if you don’t understand the results. There are anti-fingerprinting techniques that add random noise to your fingerprint. This might result in these kind of tests claiming you have a completely unique fingerprint, even though the anti-fingerprinting mechanisms randomise the fingerprint for every site, browser session, etc. (depending on the config). This would mean that you are relatively „safe“ from fingerprinting because you never have the same print twice but tests think you are very vulnerable because it’s still a random “unique“ fingerprint.
Fingerprinting?
Everytime you connect to a web page and make an HTML/CSS request your browser sends information about your computer as a way to optimize the webpage (screen size, resolution, operating system, JavaScript settings, IP, internet connection, and many more attributes). This information put together essentially forms a fingerprint that is unique to you. It can be saved and used to track you across multiple web pages without having to use cookies or other more invasive tracking methods. It’s like a digital form of facial recognition.
Here is a webpage that helps you determine how unique is your fingerprint (and therefore how identifiable):
https://amiunique.org/
Just know that sites like this are useless if you don’t understand the results. There are anti-fingerprinting techniques that add random noise to your fingerprint. This might result in these kind of tests claiming you have a completely unique fingerprint, even though the anti-fingerprinting mechanisms randomise the fingerprint for every site, browser session, etc. (depending on the config). This would mean that you are relatively „safe“ from fingerprinting because you never have the same print twice but tests think you are very vulnerable because it’s still a random “unique“ fingerprint.
Oh that’s cool, I was wondering what was the best way to beat it.