4 ms·
It's the bits of entropy. You're unique within 2^bits users on the web as a whole (according to their model). Said another way, according to how they're measu
by lallysingh 17y ago
It's the bits of entropy. You're unique within 2^bits users on the web as a whole (according to their model). Said another way, according to how they're measuring uniqueness, that you get N bits of entropy.
On a hypothetical website that had 2^N different users, you could be uniquely identified. Specifically, you'd be the only FC11/ffox user in the mix :-)
- ErrantX 17y agoYou misunderstand. Identical default installs still report as unique. I couldn't understand what they tested that could differetiate them (because by rights they all should report identically - or at the very least some of them should). This was tested with 25 identical machines I was commissioning for a task.
- travisp 17y agoWell, it reports how it determined it was unique (i.e. the browser characteristics), so perhaps you can look at that. When I visited the page 10 minutes ago, it said I was unique. I cleared everything and then went back to the page, and then it was "one in" 400k something visitors has the same as you. Did it again, and I was one in 200k something visitors. So, at least in my case, it at least seems to realize that the three visits had the same fingerprint.
- ZeroGravitas 17y agoThere may be some non-determinism in the order of initializing plugins, or fonts. This could result in a unique order when they are polled.
- ErrantX 17y agoAha. You've nailed it I think.. partly anyway. It looks like the plugins do come up in different orders...
- lallysingh 17y agoWithout GUIDs, no machine is absolutely unique. The bits of entropy are relative measures.