Chrome Browser Fingerprint
Google proposes new privacy and anti-fingerprinting controls …
Google today announced a new long-term initiative that, if fully realized, will make it harder for online marketers and advertisers to track you across the web. This new proposal follows the company’s plans to change how cookies in Chrome work and to make it easier for users to block tracking cookies.
Today’s proposal for a new open standard extends this by looking at how Chrome can close the loopholes that the digital advertising ecosystem can use to circumvent that. And soon, that may mean that your browser will feature new options that give you more control over how much you share without losing your anonymity.
Over the course of the last few months, Google started talking about a “Privacy Sandbox, ” which would allow for a certain degree of personalization while still protecting a user’s privacy.
“We have a great reputation on security. […] I feel the way we earned that reputation was by really moving the web forward, ” Justin Schuh, Google’s engineering director for Chrome security and privacy told me. “We provide a lot of benefits, worked on a lot of different fronts. What we’re trying to do today is basically do the same thing for privacy: have the same kind of big, bold vision for how we think privacy should work on the web, how we should make browsers and the web more private by default. ”
Here is the technical side of what Google is proposing today: To prevent the kind of fingerprinting that makes your machine uniquely identifiable as yours, Google is proposing the idea of a privacy budget. With this, a browser could allow websites to make enough API calls to get enough information about you to group your into a larger cohort but not to the point where you give up your anonymity. Once a site has exhausted this budget, the browser stops responding to any further calls.
Some browsers also already implement a very restrictive form of cookie blocking. Google argues that this has unintended consequences and that there needs to be an agreed-upon set of standards. “The other browser vendors, for the most part, we think really are committed to an open web, ” said Schuh, who also stressed that Google wants this to be an open standard and develop it in collaboration with other players in the web ecosystem.
“There’s definitely been a lot of not intentional misinformation but just incorrect data about how sites monetize and how publishers are actually funded, ” Schuh stressed. Indeed, Google today notes that its research has shown that publishers lose an average of 52% of their advertising revenue when their readers block cookies. That number is even higher for news sites.
In addition, blocking all third-party cookies is not a viable solution, according to Google, because developers will find ways around this restriction by relying on fingerprinting a user’s machine instead. Yet while you can opt out of cookies and delete them from your browser, you can’t opt out of being fingerprinted, because there’s no data stored on your machine (unless you regularly change the configuration of your laptop, the fonts you have installed and other identifiable traits that make your laptop uniquely yours).
What Google basically wants to do here is change the incentive structure for the advertising ecosystem. Instead of trying to circumvent a browser’s cookie and fingerprinting restrictions, the privacy budget, in combination with the industry’s work on federated learning and differential privacy, this is meant to give advertisers the tools they need without hurting publishers, while still respecting the users’ privacy. That’s not an easy switch and something that, as Google freely acknowledges, will take years.
“It’s going to be a multi-year journey, ” said Schuh. “What I can say is that I have very high confidence that we will be able to change the incentive structures with this. So we are committed to taking very strong measures to preserve user privacy, we are committed to combating abuses of user privacy. […] But as we’re doing that, we have to move the platform forward and make the platform inherently provide much more robust privacy protections. ”
Most of the big tech companies now understand that they have a responsibility to help their users retain their privacy online. Yet at the same time, personalized advertising relies on knowing as much as possible about a given user, and Google itself makes the vast majority of its income from its various ad services. It sounds like this should create some tension inside the company. Schuh, however, argued that Google’s ad side and the Chrome team have their independence. “At the end of the day, we’re a web browser, we are concerned about our users’ base. We are going to make the decisions that are most in their interest so we have to weigh how all of this fits in, ” said Schuh. He also noted that the ad side has a very strong commitment to user transparency and user control — and that if users don’t trust the ads ecosystem, that’s a problem, too.
For the time being, though, there’s nothing here for you to try out or any bits being shipped in the Chrome browser. For now, this is simply a proposal and an effort on the Chrome team’s part to start a conversation. We should expect the company to start experimenting with some of these ideas in the near future, though.
Just like with its proposed changes to how advertisers and sites use cookies, this is very much a long-term project for the company. Some users will argue that Google could take more drastic measures and simply use its tech prowess to stop the ad ecosystem from tracking you through cookies, fingerprinting and whatever else the adtech boffins will dream up next. If Google’s numbers are correct, though, that would definitely hurt publishers, and few publications are in a position to handle a 50% drop in revenue. I can see why Google doesn’t want to do this alone, but it does have the market position to be more aggressive in pushing for these changes.
Apple, which doesn’t have any vested interest in the advertising business, has already made this more drastic move with the latest release of Safari. Its browser now blocks a number of tracking technologies, including fingerprinting, without making any concessions to advertisers. The results of this for publishers is in line with Google’s cookie study.
As far as the rest of Chrome’s competitors, Firefox has started to add anti-fingerprinting techniques as well. Upstart Brave, too, has added fingerprinting protection for all third-party content, while Microsoft’s new Edge currently focuses on cookies for tracking prevention.
By trying to find a middle path, Chrome runs the risk of falling behind as users look for browsers that protect their privacy today — especially now that there are compelling alternatives again.
What Is Browser Fingerprinting and How Can You Prevent It? – Avast
What is browser fingerprinting?
Browser fingerprinting (also called device fingerprinting or online fingerprinting) refers to tracking techniques that websites use to collect information about you. Modern website functions require the use of scripts — sets of instructions that tell your browser what to do. Working silently in the background, scripts can identify lots of information about your device and browser that, when stitched together, forms your unique online “fingerprint. ” This fingerprint can then be traced back to you across the internet and different browsing sessions.
What exactly can scripts find out? They can determine a lot about the device you’re using, such as its operating system, your browser, the software installed on your device, what timezone you’re in, which language you’re reading in, whether you use an ad blocker, your screen’s resolution and color depth, all the browser extensions you’ve installed, and even more granular technical specifications about your graphics card, drivers, and more.
Imagine you want to identify a person in a crowd: you can do so by listing their attributes and other defining features. For example, you could describe someone as a woman with long blond hair, a red shirt with a white collar, a grey skirt, black shoes, red lipstick, etc. With enough attributes, it’s easy to identify this woman, even in a crowd of other people.
Browser fingerprinting provides enough specific attributes about your device and its settings that you can be reliably identified out of a crowd of internet users.
Similarly, browser fingerprinting provides enough specific attributes about your device and its settings that you can be reliably identified out of a crowd, even the extremely large crowd of millions of internet users and billions of devices. In fact, device fingerprinting can identify users with 90 to 99% accuracy.
Not convinced you could actually be identified? Try it for yourself: Visit AmIUnique, a research project that helps developers identify techniques to fight back against fingerprinting. You’ll see how easily identifiable you are based on your fingerprint. AmIUnique shows me, for example, that my fingerprint is unique among the more than two million fingerprints in their dataset. I can also see the 75+ attributes they use to identify me in a matter of seconds.
Wait… Is online fingerprinting the same as tracking cookies?
Cookies and fingerprinting are completely different. While digital fingerprinting is a new concept to many, you might be more familiar with tracking cookies, which are also able to follow you around the web.
One difference between fingerprinting and cookies is that the latter are regulated (at least in the European Union), meaning that websites are required to notify you and gain your permission to use them. (These notifications are those annoying pop-ups you see on most websites. ) That is not the case for digital fingerprinting, which happens silently and without your knowledge or consent. And unfortunately, browser fingerprinting scripts are indistinguishable from all the other scripts required to make a website function.
And while you can delete your cookies, there’s no way to delete your browser fingerprint. Your fingerprint allows you to be identified as the same user when you revisit sites or visit other sites around the web that employ fingerprinting. Put together, information from your browsing activity provides a clear picture of your online history, preferences, hobbies, and even life circumstances — it identifies you even when you’re not logged in to a site or if you’re using incognito or private browsing mode.
How does browser fingerprinting work?
Browser fingerprinting works because websites use scripts that run in the background of your browser. Today’s web browsers have built-in software functions called APIs, which can be used by website scripts to collect information. Generally, scripts are designed for legitimate purposes like rendering videos or photos. If we were to block them, then most websites wouldn’t run properly — they’d “break. ”
That means there’s no way for someone to know when websites are collecting their personal information, because fingerprinting scripts look just like any other script running on a website. These scripts collect the attributes — device specifications, OS, browser settings and plug-ins, user agents, audio and video capabilities, timezone, and more — that can be compiled into a “hash” or digital fingerprint.
Many website owners and ad networks share browser fingerprinting functionality to perform cross-site tracking. That means they use your online fingerprint to track you across the web, and collect intimate details about you: your search history, shopping and news preferences, and more.
Your digital fingerprint, or hash, follows you around the web.
With the help of the following advanced techniques, fingerprinting online allows websites to identify individuals with an extremely high degree of accuracy.
Canvas fingerprinting: Canvas fingerprinting uses the HTML5 canvas element to force your browser to draw an image or some text. This occurs invisibly in the background, so you won’t see it happening. But the precise way your browser renders the image/text provides detailed information about your font style, graphics card, drivers, web browser, and OS. Canvas fingerprinting is one of the most widely used digital fingerprinting techniques.
WebGL fingerprinting and rendering fingerprinting: Like canvas fingerprinting, these two techniques force your browser to render images off-screen and then use these images to infer information about your device’s hardware and graphics system.
Device fingerprinting: While device fingerprinting is often used synonymously with browser fingerprinting, it also refers to a particular technique that uncovers a list of all the media devices (and their IDs) on your PC. That includes internal media components such as your audio and video card, as well as any connected devices like headphones.
Audio fingerprinting: Rather than forcing your browser to render an image, audio fingerprinting tests the way your device plays sound. The resulting sound waves provide information on your device’s audio stack, including specifications about its drivers, sound hardware, and software.
Once you’ve been tracked, a profile can be compiled that includes intimate details about your life. That profile can be sold to data brokers, who are already hard at work compiling as much information as possible about everyone. Data brokers combine offline information (from public records, offline loyalty cards, and other sources) with online information, and the precise details from your device fingerprint are just what they need to complete their files. Data brokers then market this information, often selling it to advertisers who use it to target you more effectively.
Strong anti-tracking software disguises your browser fingerprint and helps prevent advertisers from knowing who you are. Avast AntiTrack blocks trackers on every site you visit, and our advanced anti-fingerprinting technology keeps your identity safe against even the most advanced tracking techniques.
Why is browser fingerprinting used?
Browser fingerprinting is mainly used for web tracking. It’s a more secretive way to track people than simply using tracking cookies, which require consent. But what do companies do with the information they collect? The large majority use this data to advertise to you and personalize your experience online. While being served personalized ads may not seem like a serious issue, the amount of information collected through digital fingerprinting and other tracking methods has the potential to be used quite nefariously.
Just imagine how much sensitive data is included in your online search history. If you search for chest pain, that information becomes part of your search history, which is included in the information that data brokers buy and sell. That means when a data broker later sells your search history to a health insurance company, the insurance company could infer that you’re at risk of heart disease and increase your rates.
If a health insurance company has access to your search history, they might think you’re at risk of heart disease and increase your rates.
Dynamic pricing is another example of how browser fingerprinting is used. Most people are aware that travel and ecommerce sites can and do adjust prices based on various factors. If browser fingerprinting pinpoints your location in an affluent area, you can expect prices to rise on almost everything you see online: airline tickets, clothes and other products, apps with subscription services, and more.
Browser fingerprinting can reveal lots of information about your finances and buying habits.
Those are just a few examples. As device fingerprinting becomes more prevalent and more accurate, companies will have increasing amounts of information about you — and more ways to wield this information to their advantage. It’s concerning, to say the least.
To protect yourself against online fingerprinting, consider using a privacy-focused browser like Avast Secure Browser. Our browser masks your digital identity and confuses website scripts so that they can’t collect accurate information to build your digital fingerprint. Download it today to get free protection against insidious online tracking.
But it’s not all doom and gloom: there are a few legitimate uses of browser fingerprinting. It can be used to identify the characteristics of botnets to help prevent DDoS attacks. Fingerprinting can also help to identify fraud and other suspicious activity. Banks use browser fingerprinting to detect potential identity theft and banking fraud.
Is browser fingerprinting legal?
Yes, browser fingerprinting is legal in most areas (as of this writing). In the European Union, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requires companies to get consent from users before tracking them with cookies. An additional law, the ePrivacy Regulation, is supposed to address browser fingerprinting — but it still hasn’t come into effect.
The US doesn’t have national laws on data protection. The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and Vermont’s Data Broker Law attempt to regulate some forms of online tracking and data collection, but they don’t address online fingerprinting.
In fact, some people think that device fingerprinting was actually developed to circumvent regulations like GDPR and CCPA, which focus on protecting personally identifiable information by regulating tracking cookies.
How to prevent browser fingerprinting
Without sophisticated tools, browser fingerprinting is extremely difficult to avoid. The normal privacy tricks — like using private browsing or Incognito mode, cleaning your cookies or search history, or using an ad blocker or a VPN — can’t prevent browser fingerprinting. In fact, it’s such an insidious and pervasive tracking technique that even if you use all of the privacy tactics we just mentioned, your unique fingerprint is still identifiable.
But don’t despair — there are ways to fight back against online fingerprinting. While it’s impossible to shut off the website scripts that collect your personal data, because websites wouldn’t work without them, you can confuse the scripts by using two techniques: generalization and randomization.
Generalization refers to manipulating browser API results to make you seem generic. In other words, it masks your unique attributes and helps you blend in with the crowd.
Randomization changes your attributes periodically so that your fingerprint is constantly changing and you can’t be reliably identified.
But how can the average person use generalization and randomization to hide? You’ll need to rely on a tool or service to do it for you. Avast AntiTrack uses advanced anti-fingerprinting technology to insert fake data when scripts attempt to collect your digital attributes. That lets the scripts continue to run (to avoid breaking website functionality), while hiding your true personal information so that it can’t be collected.
Avast AntiTrack also warns you of tracking attempts so you can see exactly which sites are trying to track you. And it’ll periodically clear your browsing history and cookies to ensure maximum privacy. Download it today to keep advertisers, data brokers, and other privacy invaders off your back.
Another option is to use a browser that offers built-in anti-fingerprinting protection. As more advertisers use online fingerprinting, some browsers are starting to fight back with various anti-fingerprinting measures. Tor Browser generalizes users, while Brave Browser uses randomization and Firefox simply tries to block specific fingerprinting scripts.
Avast Secure Browser offers the most comprehensive protection by employing both generalization and randomization (depending on the site). Specifically designed to prevent all known forms of browser fingerprinting, Avast Secure Browser offers advanced privacy without breaking websites, to make sure you get an optimal browsing experience without sacrificing your privacy.
Stop browser fingerprinting the easy way
These days, it’s safe to assume that you’re being tracked every time you log on. But you don’t have to put up with it! Built by the same cybersecurity engineers who painstakingly protect hundreds of millions of users worldwide, Avast Secure Browser is one of the most sophisticated anti-fingerprinting solutions out there.
From canvas fingerprinting, to audio fingerprinting, and everything in between, Avast Secure Browser stops trackers from accessing your personal information. Our browser also offers Adblock, Anti-Phishing, Stealth Mode, a password manager, and loads of additional privacy features. And, because we believe that anyone who uses the internet should be able to do so without being tracked or mined, we’ve made it completely free. Download it today to get essential digital privacy.
What is browser fingerprinting? Here’s how to prevent it
What is browser fingerprinting? It’s creepy, that’s what! It tracks your online behavior, allowing others to know who you are as you browse the internet — all without any need for account logins or cookies.
Just like a human fingerprint, your browser has a set of unique traits that can be traced back to you — and everything you do on the internet.
When you browse through the internet, many web portals capture some of this information, such as screen size and browser type, to give you the best experience.
However, browser fingerprints can also be used for tracking and identification. Websites can record all kinds of information about you through this fingerprint, and then connect it to other similar fingerprints to get a precise picture of your browsing behaviors and website activities.
According to PanoptiClick, there is a chance that one in 286, 777 browsers has the same browser fingerprint for another user. So the chances of overlapping browser are pretty slim. That’s why a browser fingerprint is an invaluable piece of information for marketers that want to sell you stuff!
Curious to see how unique your browser fingerprint is? Use one of the top browser fingerprinting checkers to see just how unique your fingerprint is! Then, you may want to try some of the tactics below to reduce your fingerprint.
How to prevent browser fingerprinting
If you are concerned about your personal information and don’t want to share it over the internet through browser fingerprints, you might want to stop it.
Unfortunately, there is only one method if you want to stop browser fingerprinting completely, which is not using the internet at all. Yes, it’s nearly impossible to keep your browsers from collecting your data because browsers use HTTP headers to collect your fingerprint.
But…
There are certain security practices you can use to mitigate your browser fingerprint or make it unoriginal. The following practices will make your identity harder to track and prevent advertisers from learning extremely personal information about your web browsing history.
1. Disable Flash
If you are a Chrome user, then you should not worry about flash because Chrome will stop using it by the end of 2020. Moreover, many reputable sites have stopped using flash as well, so it’s a no-brainer because it’s becoming a relic of the past.
Most of the experts believe that flash serves no considerable purpose other than collecting fingerprint data. You can just disable it or uninstall it right away because you do not need it if you are not explicitly using it for a specific purpose.
Otherwise, it will keep tracking your data for a short time because the newer versions of all the major browsers already have decided to stop supporting it.
2. Revisit extensions and plugins
Browser extensions and plugins can be great assets for browsing. They can provide deeper integrations to the services you use every day. But these can also make it much easier for others to track you.
But think about it: the more extensions and plugins your browser has, the more unique your browser fingerprint. That configuration is much harder to replicate by someone else!
That’s why you should uninstall the plugins that you don’t use right away and try to use standalone desktop apps as alternatives to the ones you use.
Bear in mind that disabling the plugins doesn’t do any good. After all, it can still be used as your fingerprint because it stays in your browser. The most secure route is to use JavaScript disabling extensions. It disables JavaScript usage, unless you explicitly allow it. This will protect you from unwanted tracking!
3. Keep all of your software updated
In order to protect yourself from cybercriminals and hacking attacks, try to keep all of your software updated. It means you need to restart your browser and sometimes computer as well. It can be a little cumbersome, but it’s worth it if you want to reduce your browser fingerprinting.
The most important software that needs to be updated all the time is your anti-malware and anti-virus. Otherwise, such software won’t be able to detect the latest cyberattacks, exploits, and malware.
4. Use Incognito or private mode
Using an incognito mode of your browser is a wise idea to reduce fingerprinting. While it’s not perfect, it does reduce the amount of information shared with others. To see how it’s working, you can still visit any browser fingerprinting checker to see the results while you are in private or incognito mode that will most probably be unique.
For that matter, we recommend you use Tor for the most private browsing experience. If you have heard about Tor, you must’ve also heard that it’s for dark web browsing. Tor is most commonly used for that purpose, but it is also an excellent way to avoid all types of possible tracking.
5. Use Tor
The Tor browser is an extremely secure and private browser that includes anti-fingerprinting features, such as cloaking your operating system and blocking revealing information like your time zone and language preferences. Without these details it’s much harder for your browser to be fingerprinted.
A reminder though: the most anonymous way to use any Internet browser is to avoid installing extensions and plug-ins. Those are simply the easiest way to know who you are, since so few people have the same combination of installations. Stick with the default version to better anonymize your browser.
6. Use a VPN
A virtual private network boosts your online safety, security as well as privacy. It masks your address and physical location by routing your internet traffic through a third-party server. That way you appear like you’re browsing from someplace else.
VPNs can provide you protection against hackers, surveillance, ISPs (Internet Service Providers), and malicious, your data transmission is often encrypted so that no one can intercept it.
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Keep in mind that VPNs don’t prevent websites from using JavaScript and HTTP headers to collect browser fingerprints. It removes your IP address from the headers and equation, but your fingerprint still might be unique. But you can always use the mixture of all the tips mentioned earlier along with the VPN to keep websites from collecting your fingerprinting data.
6. Ditch the smartphone
You’re really gonna hate this one…but giving up your smart phone is the quickest way to preserve your anonymity. Phones are basically mini-surveillance tools that also use device fingerprinting that make it easy to attach your identity to your online behaviors.
Next steps to protect your privacy online
Web trackers use many sneaky and technical ways to collect your browsing fingerprint. But we hope that these ways will help you reduce it as much as possible and allow your fingerprint not to appear unique on the internet. Feel free to let us know about your thoughts and expressions regarding browser fingerprints.
A few other steps to protect your privacy while browsing online:
Use a password management appDelete yourself from data brokersRethink free apps on your phoneMonitor the latest data breachesFind out what is device fingerprintingDelete social mediaRemove yourself from the internet
Frequently Asked Questions about chrome browser fingerprint
Does Google use browser fingerprint?
Its browser now blocks a number of tracking technologies, including fingerprinting, without making any concessions to advertisers. The results of this for publishers is in line with Google’s cookie study.Aug 22, 2019
Can my browser be fingerprinted?
Browser fingerprinting happens when websites use special scripts to collect enough information about you — such as your browser, timezone, default language, and more — that they can uniquely identify you out of the sea of other internet users.Oct 22, 2020
How do I stop browser fingerprinting?
How to prevent browser fingerprintingDisable Flash. If you are a Chrome user, then you should not worry about flash because Chrome will stop using it by the end of 2020. … Revisit extensions and plugins. … Keep all of your software updated. … Use Incognito or private mode. … Use Tor. … Use a VPN. … Ditch the smartphone.Oct 14, 2020
