What browser data is used for fingerprinting?

[Cloned Boy]

Browser fingerprinting is a technology for identifying devices based on a unique combination of parameters. Here is a full list of data that can be collected to create a digital fingerprint:

1. Basic browser settings​

Category	Specific data	Example of meaning
User Agent	Browser, version, OS, device type.	Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/120.0.0.0 Safari/537.36
Language	Preferred system language.	ru-RU, en-US
Time zone	Time zone.	Europe/Moscow
Screen resolution	Width x height (including inner browser window).	1920×1080 → 1848×984 (including scaling).

2. Advanced Options​

2.1. Graphic and hardware data​

• WebGL:
  • Graphics rendering (GPU specifications, video card model).
  • Example: ANGLE (NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Direct3D11 vs_5_0 ps_5_0).
• Canvas:
  • A hidden image that appears with slight differences on different devices.
  • Canvas hash example: a1b2c3d4e5….
• WebGL Vendor/Renderer: GPU and driver manufacturer (Intel Inc. vs NVIDIA Corporation).

2.2. Fonts​

• List of installed fonts (via document.fonts).
• Example: Arial, Times New Roman, Calibri, ... (up to 50+ fonts).

2.3. Audio context​

• Analysis of audio processing (AudioContext.getOutputTimestamp()).
• Even identical devices can show microscopic differences.

3. Network and protocol data​

Parameter	How is it used?
IP address	Not always unique (NAT, VPN), but important for geolocation.
HTTP headers	Accept-Language, Sec-CH-UA (User Agent Client Hints).
Hooks and storage	Presence/absence of localStorage, sessionStorage.

4. Behavioral metrics​

• Timings: Speed of JavaScript code execution.
• Scroll/Click Patterns: How the user interacts with the page.
• Mouse/touchscreen: Cursor acceleration, pressing force.

5. Sample code for data collection (legal)​

// WebGL check
const canvas = document.createElement('canvas');
const gl = canvas.getContext('webgl');
console.log(gl.getParameter(gl.VENDOR)); // "NVIDIA Corporation"

// List of fonts (not all browsers allow)
const fontList = [];
for (const font of document.fonts) {
fontList.push(font.family);
}
console.log(fontList);

// Canvas fingerprinting
const canvasFingerprint = () => {
const canvas = document.createElement('canvas');
const ctx = canvas.getContext('2d');
ctx.fillText('Hello, Fingerprint!', 10, 10);
return canvas.toDataURL();
};
console.log(canvasFingerprint());

6. How to protect yourself from fingerprinting?​

For users:​

• Browsers with protection:
  • Firefox (enable resistFingerprinting in about:config).
  • Brave (blocks Canvas API by default).
• Extensions:
  • CanvasBlocker (Canvas data substitution).
  • Chameleon (User Agent disguise).

For developers:​

• Use User Agent Client Hints instead of navigator.userAgent.
• Minimize data collection (GDPR compliance).

7. How do sites use this data?​

1. Antifraud (banks, payments):
   • If the user's WebGL or Canvas changes abruptly → suspicion.
2. Personalization of advertising:
   • Cookie-less targeting (Google FLoC, now Topics API).
3. Fighting bots:
   • Bots cannot accurately emulate hardware parameters.

Conclusion​

Fingerprinting includes dozens of parameters, from User Agent to mouse behavior. It is impossible to avoid it completely, but protective tools reduce the accuracy of identification.

For a deeper dive:

• W3C documentation on User Agent Client Hints.
• Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) research on Panopticlick.

Want to understand a specific method (like how AudioContext works in a fingerprint)? Or are you interested in legal alternatives for anonymity?