Panopticlick: browser fingerprinting research

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/help-eff-research-web-browser-tracking

by datico • 16 years ago

21 5 16 years ago

samdk• 16 years ago

In public browsing (in Firefox) I'm unique. In private browsing I'm 1 in ~17000.

Interestingly, removing some of the non-standard fonts I have installed made me unique, even in private mode. This surprises me, because I have some pretty unusual fonts installed.

edit: And actually, now that I test again, it does find one other match even in non-private mode. I guess that it's counting each me as a new person each time I do it, even though I'm connecting from the same IP with the same exact browser configuration.

blahedo• 16 years ago

Not surprising given that fonts tend to come in groups---did you remove all your nonstandard fonts? If five people out of a million install the same unusual font pack, and one removes all but one font from the pack, that one will be a unique even though the configuration is "more like" a common one.

geuis• 16 years ago

Hmm, so I understand what they're tracking. But what's the end game for this experiment?

ntoshev• 16 years ago

I wonder if you can identify people using habitual patterns of mouse moving and pauses between keys when typing.

jodrellblank• 16 years ago

"Your browser fingerprint appears to be unique among the 45,667 tested so far."

I use FlashBlock and Ghostery as well.

Panopticlick: browser fingerprinting research

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