Modern browsers reveal a huge amount of information not just about themselves, but also about the operating system in which they reside. After a while, our font collections start to diverge. Yes, we all have the same basic set of fonts that come with Windows, but installation of other programs often adds new fonts, and uninstallation doesn’t remove them. If a needed font is missing, the site might choose to display a simplified page. Your browser queries the OS for a list of fonts and passes that list along to the website. Just what fonts are available depends on the operating system. To render a design-rich page from a website, your browser needs access to the right fonts. That’s a simple enough need, but it’s the start of a slippery slope.
Requests to a server identify the browser making the request, right down to the precise version and build number. But over time, browsers have come to send more and more information.Ĭompatibility isn’t much of an issue these days, but if you go back far enough, you’ll find a time when websites had to tune their responses to the requesting browser, perhaps sending a different page to Netscape Navigator than they did to Internet Explorer. That request necessarily includes your IP address-without it, the server wouldn’t know where to send the response. The browser sends a request, and the server sends a response. In truth, your experience is made up of many small interactions between your browser and the website’s server. When you’re surfing the web, it really feels like you have a direct, continuous connection with the site you’re perusing. It doesn’t change anything on your computer it just takes advantage of normal browser functions. And all of them have been foiled in various ways.įingerprinting is different. Trackers responded with new technologies such as supercookies, evercookies, Flash cookies, and more.Īll these tracking technologies involve placing something (a text file, a script, a file) on the victim’s computer. Security companies responded by devising Do Not Track technology that actively prevented tracking.
#Hide your hardware fingerprint free
This effort fizzled because sites were free to ignore the header. Internet experts proposed reining in this abuse by letting browsers add a Do Not Track header to page requests. If an advertiser has a presence on multiple sites, its cookie data now lets it link your presence on each of those sites you visit. These third parties can save their own cookies to your PC, containing whatever data they have available, including the site that’s hosting the ad. They contain links and content from advertisers and other third-party sites. However, modern websites aren’t simply monolithic entities. When you revisit that site, it can pull out its own cookie (but nobody else’s) and read back that info. The site can put information into the cookie, such as your preferred address, things you’ve bought, or which page you were reading in an online novel. Each cookie is a simple text file that lives on your computer, not on the site. The purpose of a cookie is to let a website remember things about you without having to maintain a monster database of everyone who ever visited. Cookies have been around almost as long as web browsers have existed. It's important to explain what cookies are right from the outset, if only to help people what browser fingerprinting isn't. Just what is this arcane art that threatens your privacy, and how can you avoid being fingerprinted? It’s Not a Cookie Browser fingerprinting lets them manage that tracking with no chance that you’ll spot them in the shadows. They want to know exactly where you go, how you act, and what you buy. On the internet, advertisers and data brokers take the role of that shadowy clipboard-wielding spy. There’s nothing wrong with that, but if you notice someone following you in the shadows with a clipboard, taking note of everything you do, you might feel differently. A street hawker may try to sell you a watch. If you’re just walking down the street, you’re out in public view.
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