Surveillance agencies could also use this to identify people who are employing other privacy measures to cloak their IP address and location, such as with VPN services or the Tor (onion) network. Some websites use browser fingerprinting to detect potential fraud, such as banks or dating websites, so it’s not always nefarious.

Advertisers and marketers find this technique useful to acquire more data on users, which in turn leads to more advertising revenue. There are many different entities – both corporate and government – that are monitoring internet activity, and they all have different reasons for doing so. Some researchers have found this method of identification to be extremely effective.īrowser fingerprinting is just another tool to identify and track people as they browse the web. a picture rendered with the HTML Canvas element.the screen resolution and its color depth.the Do Not Track preferences (yes, no or not communicated).the cookies preferences (allowed or not).The sum total of these outputs can be used to render a unique “fingerprint” for tracking and identification purposes. The use of this information to identify and track you online is known as device or browser fingerprinting.Īs browsers become increasingly entwined with the operating system, many unique details and preferences can be exposed through your browser. Whenever you go online, your computer or device provides the sites you visit with highly specific information about your operating system, settings, and even hardware. Many people use VPN services to hide their IP address and location – but there is another way you can be identified and tracked online. In addition to explaining what exactly this is, we’ll also show you how to protect yourself against these threats. In this guide we cover all aspects of browser fingerprinting and device fingerprinting in 2022.

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