What is Browser Fingerprinting?
Most people think deleting cookies stops tracking. It doesn’t.
Browser Fingerprinting is a highly advanced tracking technique that collects information about your device’s configuration. Websites read data points like:
- Screen resolution & Color depth
- Installed fonts
- Operating System version
- Battery status & Hardware concurrency
- Timezone
When combined, these data points create a unique “fingerprint” (hash) that identifies you with 99% accuracy across the web—even if you use “Incognito Mode” or delete your cookies.
Why “Incognito Mode” isn’t enough
Private browsing only stops your computer from saving history locally. It does not hide your IP address or your device fingerprint from the websites you visit. To a tracker, your fingerprint looks identical in both normal and private modes.
What does this Privacy Test check?
Our tool runs a series of client-side scripts to reveal what information your browser is leaking to the outside world.
1. WebRTC Leak Detection
WebRTC is a technology used for video chats in the browser. However, it can often bypass VPNs and reveal your real IP address to websites. Our test checks if your LAN or WAN IP is exposed via STUN servers.
2. Canvas Fingerprinting
Scripts can force your browser to render a hidden 3D image. Because every graphics card (GPU) renders images slightly differently, the resulting image data acts like a serial number for your device.
3. Battery Status API
Believe it or not, the HTML5 Battery API can be used to track you. The combination of your battery level (e.g., 54%) and charging time remaining creates a temporary unique identifier.
How to protect your Browser Privacy
- Use a Privacy Browser: Firefox (with
privacy.resistFingerprintingenabled) or Brave Browser offer strong default protection. - Install uBlock Origin: The best ad-blocker that also blocks many fingerprinting scripts.
- Use a VPN: A Proton VPN connection hides your IP address, preventing location-based tracking.