Everyone talks about how evil browser fingerprinting is, and it is, but I don't get why people are only blaming the companies doing it and not putting equal blame on browsers for letting it happen.
Go to Am I Unique and look at the kind of data browsers let JavaScript access unconditionally with no user prompting. Here's a selection of ridiculous ones that pretty much no website needs:
- Your operating system (Isn't the whole damn point of the internet that it's platform independent?)
- Your CPU architecture (JS runs on the most virtual of virtual environments why the hell does it need to know what processor you have?)
- Your JS interpreter's version and build ID
- List of plugins you have installed
- List of extensions you have installed
- Your accelerometer and gyroscope (so any website can figure out what you're doing by analyzing how you move your phone, i.e. running vs walking vs driving vs standing still)
- Your magnetic field sensor AKA the phone's compass (so websites can figure out which direction you're facing)
- Your proximity sensor
- Your keyboard layout
- How your mouse moves every moment it's in the webpage window, including how far you scroll, what bit of text you hovered on or selected, both left and right clicks, etc.
- Everything you type on your keyboard when the window is active. You don't need to be typing into a text box or anything, you can set a general event listener for keystrokes like you can for the mouse.
If you're wondering how sensors are used to fingerprint you, I think it has to do with manufacturing imperfections that skew their readings in unique ways for each device, but websites could just as easily straight up record those sensors without you knowing. It's not a lot of data all things considered so you likely wouldn't notice.
Also, canvas and webGL rendering differences are each more than enough to 100% identify your browser instance. Not a bit of effort put into making their results more consistent I guess.
All of these are accessible to any website by default. Actually, there's not even a way to turn most of these off. WHY?! All of these are niche features that only a tiny fraction of websites need. Browser companies know that fingerprinting is a problem and have done nothing about it. Not even Firefox.
Why is the web, where you're by far the most likely to execute malicious code, not built on zero trust policies? Let me allow the functionality I need on a per site basis.
Fuck everything about modern websites.
That a page knows technical details of my system and in which I live country (if I do not use a VPN), I give a fuck, why this only serves to correctly show the content, eventually in my language and allow the download of possible compatible apps.
Fingerprints are a very broad issue and are not necessarily related to privacy, blocking or counterfeiting all is possible, but in many cases counterproductive, it must be done specifically only in those that involve private and personal data, everything else is to put a tin foil hat.
To protect the privacy there are needed way more measures, avoiding trackers, Pixel tracking (Meta), keyloggers (Towerdata, Imgur, M$ US and some others), avoiding search engines which logs the activity (Google, Bing...), recognize dark pattern, using encrypted mailservices, best with disposable alias, harden the SO with Portmaster, Pi-ole or similar.......apart of Common sense-
Browsers, which are not directly from Big Corporations which itself log user actividad (Chrome, EDGE, Opera...), are relative irrelevant in this game of user profiling, they are only depends on personal preferences and needs.
Privacy is a huge issue, but too often misunderstood with wrong measures, PEBCAK