Web fingerprinting is worse than I thought (2023)

#1

Post by xrayarx » Thu, Jul 24, 2025, 12:28 PM UTC

Web fingerprinting is worse than I thought (2023)
bitestring.com

Re: Web fingerprinting is worse than I thought (2023)

#2

Post by coffeecantcode » Thu, Jul 24, 2025, 1:13 PM UTC

Would be curious how Brave handles fingerprinting, I’ll have to look into that.

Re: Web fingerprinting is worse than I thought (2023)

#3

Post by t_mann » Thu, Jul 24, 2025, 1:14 PM UTC

Isn't fingerprinting covered by GDPR in a similar way to how cookies are? So in theory you should be able to opt out, at least as an EU user.

Re: Web fingerprinting is worse than I thought (2023)

#4

Post by voidUpdate » Thu, Jul 24, 2025, 1:14 PM UTC

How does web fingerprinting work with things like iPhones, where many people have the same screen, browser, os version, etc?

Re: Web fingerprinting is worse than I thought (2023)

#5

Post by 1a527dd5 » Thu, Jul 24, 2025, 1:15 PM UTC

Adding the other side; we use ja3/ja4 * for rate limiting and it works a treat, especially when we set our rate limits to much higher than normal traffic.

I've pushed back any attempts for any kind of tracking for business purposes (e.g. fancy charts).

* ja3 seems to be slightly better, ja4 sometimes groups too many "people".

Edit* Title also needs (2023).

Re: Web fingerprinting is worse than I thought (2023)

#6

Post by bryanrasmussen » Thu, Jul 24, 2025, 1:16 PM UTC

t_mann wrote: post #3

Isn't fingerprinting covered by GDPR in a similar way to how cookies are? So in theory you should be able to opt out, at least as an EU user.

sure, if they ask you can we track you and you say no they should not fingerprint.

Re: Web fingerprinting is worse than I thought (2023)

#7

Post by apples_oranges » Thu, Jul 24, 2025, 1:16 PM UTC

Using the same IP address, isn't he?

Re: Web fingerprinting is worse than I thought (2023)

#8

Post by apples_oranges » Thu, Jul 24, 2025, 1:17 PM UTC

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #6

t_mann wrote: post #3

Isn't fingerprinting covered by GDPR in a similar way to how cookies are? So in theory you should be able to opt out, at least as an EU user.

sure, if they ask you can we track you and you say no they should not fingerprint.

EU (or whoever) could mandate a switch in the browser, when turned on, all identifying apis are disabled. But the IP is still the same, so..

Re: Web fingerprinting is worse than I thought (2023)

#9

Post by Sanzig » Thu, Jul 24, 2025, 1:17 PM UTC

Browser fingerprinting is one of those things that should be outright illegal - it is far more of a threat than tracking cookies ever were. But it hasn't permeated the public consciousness like cookies have, so regulators seem to ignore it.

Re: Web fingerprinting is worse than I thought (2023)

#10

Post by anonymousDan » Thu, Jul 24, 2025, 1:18 PM UTC

It's a little unclear to me - does Brave prevent it or not? Edit: some interesting background on what they do here: https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/wiki/Fingerprinting-P...