3 ms·
TIL about a combination of supposedly innocuous, non-unique information my browser is sending out which, _in combination_, may identify me uniquely, or close-to
by einpoklum 3y ago
TIL about a combination of supposedly innocuous, non-unique information my browser is sending out which, _in combination_, may identify me uniquely, or close-to-uniquely.
My test results say:
> Your browser fingerprint appears to be unique among the 187,426 tested in the past 45 days.
>
> Currently, we estimate that your browser has a fingerprint that conveys at least 17.52 bits of identifying information.
... and that's _at least_. It might be double that or more if all the information I'm sending out is orthogonal.
- dylan604 3y ago"Bits of identifying information: 4.37" "Our tests indicate that you have strong protection against Web tracking." Thank jeebus. If all of my effort of setting the preferences to block everything and running uBO showed as anything else, I'd be depressed more than pissed.
- contravariant 3y agoI've long since given up trying to remove the fingerprint completely, best I can do is limit it and just add noise where they (hopefully) don't expect it.
- anonymouse008 3y agoI’m not sure I agree with the calculation. Basically they use each variable as independent when they are by nature not - as in if you have iPhone in the headers, you’ll probably have certain ram and gpu hashes. So those aren’t necessarily fully independent bits of info.
- einpoklum 3y agoOh, no, they treat the variables as fully dependent. That's why they take the maximum over the fields, not the sum nor some kind of \Prod_i(1-p_i) - type thing.
- upon_drumhead 3y agoIt doesn’t take the maximum. It says I have 14.53 bits of identifying information, however the max listed is my time zone offset providing 8.24 Bits of identifying information.