# Browser fingerprinting/tracking overview **URL:** https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/browser-fingerprinting-tracking-overview/12250 **Category:** Guide Suggestions **Tags:** approved **Created:** 2023-04-05T18:11:31Z **Posts:** 12 ## Post 1 by @jonah — 2023-04-05T18:11:31Z We talk about browser fingerprinting a lot without providing a lot of background information on what it actually is outside of brief overviews on our Firefox Privacy series of blog posts… --- ## Post 2 by @llnngg — 2023-04-05T21:42:04Z I know is imperative to not modify preferences on TB and MB, but what about these:` network.http.referer.XOriginPolicy privacy.antitracking.enableWebcompat browser.download.always\_ask\_before\_handling\_new\_types media.videocontrols.picture-in-picture.video-toggle.enabled browser.startup.homepage browser.newtabpage.enabled signon.rememberSignons browser.urlbar.suggest.openpage browser.urlbar.suggest.topsites browser.urlbar.suggest.engines I checked with creepjs and it shows the same results for trash, lies and crowd-blending score compared to vanilla MB. --- ## Post 3 by @dngray — 2023-04-06T07:29:01Z This page won’t be for manipulating knobs on Firefox. We are **not** reintroducing that to Privacy Guides. It will be about explaining: - What fingerprinting is - Types of fingerprinting, naive, vs complex (crowd) - Various things that cannot be hidden etc I have had some thoughts on this in [Fingerprinting FAQ · Issue #1834 · privacyguides/privacyguides.org · GitHub](https://github.com/privacyguides/privacyguides.org/issues/1834) We want to also spend some time answers in this discussion: - [Firefox RFP and Brave's Fingerprint randomization. · privacyguides · Discussion #7 · GitHub](https://github.com/orgs/privacyguides/discussions/7#discussioncomment-3721789) - [3.3 Overrides [To RFP or Not] · arkenfox/user.js Wiki · GitHub](https://github.com/arkenfox/user.js/wiki/3.3-Overrides-%5BTo-RFP-or-Not%5D#-fingerprinting) --- ## Post 4 by @jerm — 2023-04-06T09:35:10Z > **[How Websites Know You're Lying About Your User-Agent](https://chris124567.github.io/2021-06-15-websites-lying-user-agent/)** > > Spoofing a browser’s user agent is often hailed as a privacy enhancing technique. On the Chrome Store, there are dozens of extensions allowing you to switch your user agent. Unfortunately, due to the abundance of other methods to detect browser and... > **[How anti-fingerprinting extensions tend to make fingerprinting easier](https://palant.info/2020/12/10/how-anti-fingerprinting-extensions-tend-to-make-fingerprinting-easier/)** > > Browser extensions claiming to protect against fingerprinting will typically result in more data available for fingerprinting. > **[Anatomy of a basic extension](https://palant.info/2022/08/10/anatomy-of-a-basic-extension/)** > > Starting an article series. Here we’ll take apart a very simple browser extension and look at various contexts in which its code executes. > **[Demo: Disabling JavaScript Won’t Save You from Fingerprinting](https://fingerprint.com/blog/disabling-javascript-wont-stop-fingerprinting/)** > > Turning off JavaScript blocks ads but not device tracking. Discover how no-JavaScript fingerprinting works. better metrics: > **[CreepJS](https://abrahamjuliot.github.io/creepjs/)** > **[Fingerprint - Identify Every Visitor](https://fingerprint.com/)** > > The Fingerprint device intelligence platform works across web and mobile applications to identify all visitors with industry-leading accuracy — even if they’re anonymous. incase someone is really into fingerprinting techniques here are some [research papers](https://github.com/abrahamjuliot/web-fingerprinting#papers) --- ## Post 5 by @jonah — 2023-04-08T19:04:14Z > > > Changes proposed in this PR: > > - Add fingerprinting overview page > > **Please d…o not add any suggestions or reviews correcting grammar or wording until this PR is undrafted, it will only waste time.** This draft PR is only open to accept suggestions about what _information_ needs to be incorporated on this page. > > > > > - [x] I have disclosed any relevant conflicts of interest in my post. > - [x] I agree to grant Privacy Guides a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, transferable, royalty-free, irrevocable license with the right to sublicense such rights through multiple tiers of sublicensees, to reproduce, modify, display, perform, relicense, and distribute my contribution as part of this project. > - [x] I am the sole author of this work. > - [x] I agree to the [Community Code of Conduct](https://www.privacyguides.org/en/code_of_conduct/). --- ## Post 6 by @sbeve — 2023-04-16T03:04:07Z I would love to see this expand to cover more information about cross-site tracking, stateful tracking, navigational tracking, and other unintended identification techniques, such as supercookies. --- ## Post 7 by @root — 2023-07-08T02:01:29Z Have Thorin of Arkenfox fame at least weigh in on this topic. --- ## Post 8 by @dngray — 2023-09-25T19:30:48Z he has provided much input especially in the discussion thread linked above [Firefox RFP and Brave's Fingerprint randomization. · privacyguides · Discussion #7 · GitHub](https://github.com/orgs/privacyguides/discussions/7#discussioncomment-3721789) Only thing it’s waiting on is someone to have the time to put it all together nicely. --- ## Post 10 by @Astatine — 2024-12-04T17:36:11Z Progress on this has seemed to have abruptly [stopped](https://github.com/privacyguides/privacyguides.org/pull/2119#event-14066066586). Is there a reason behind this, or did it simply fizzle out? --- ## Post 11 by @Astatine — 2024-12-04T17:39:27Z I believe this would be very helpful for everyone. One reason is there would be no need, for instance, to tell someone that CoverYourTracks is a “fairly unreliable website for testing fingerprinting,” and simply redirect them to the Fingerprinting Overview. Moreover, it would _save time_ for users . Previously, I wasted time testing my fingerprint on certain websites, thinking Librewolf was the “best browser” because it ticked all the boxes on CoverYourTracks’ test. (Consequently, I was ignorant that those such as CoverYourTracks were [utterly unreliable](https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/is-brave-on-android-actually-much-worse-than-cromite-at-fingerprinting-resistance/20154/2).) Not simply just regarding Fingerprinting websites, but also so people are informed about it. An example can be knowing how Brave and Firefox’s fingerprinting protections work. Since an overview didn’t exist, it led to posts like [this](https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/is-it-possible-that-brave-has-stronger-fingerprinting-protection-than-firefox/17075). (One of my favorite posts due to how informative it was.) --- ## Post 12 by @anonymous403 — 2025-08-19T01:52:46Z I wonder if we could get Thorin from [arkenfox’s user.js](https://github.com/arkenfox/user.js) to write it up. They seemed to have been the one to push the naive/advanced fingerprinting scripts distinction (though do correct me if I am wrong) and is very knowledgeable on the technical side of things. I remember we used to link a GitHub reply he wrote about this sort of stuff, but I can’t find it as of right now.