EFF released Panopticlick 2.0 for browser fingerprinting

As you know, a specific user on the Internet can be recognized not only by cookies, but also by the unique “fingerprint” of his browser. If you use a browser with a set of specific plugins, fonts, in a specific configuration and screen resolution, etc., then the combination of all these settings can be unique among millions of users (most likely, it will be unique, you can check here ).

There are ways to protect yourself from such fingerprinting. For example, the Firegloves extension for Firefox cloaks the browser fingerprint, changing many browser settings to common values, constantly changing the screen resolution, platform, language and other identifiers.

Almost six years ago, the Electronic Frontier Foundation released the first version of a tool to take a browser fingerprint and verify its uniqueness Panopticlick . Two days ago, EFF announced the upgrade of this tool to Panopticlick 2.0.



The new version implements additional tests for the uniqueness of the browser fingerprint, such as checking support canvasand touch-capability.

HTML5 canvas fingerprinting has been used by many websites for over a year now . Appropriate services for tracking visitors are offered, for example, by AddThis . HTML5 check canvas-fingerprinting: demo .



In addition, a set of additional tests has appeared on Panopticlick, which analyze the current browser settings and extensions, determining the presence / absence of protection from: 1) tracking advertising banners; 2) tracking " beacons ". In addition, it checks for settings to unlock sites that support the Do Not Track policy .

The Panopticlick backend has been completely rewritten in Python and published on Github.

By default, Panopticlick displays summary results in brief. The link opens detailed results for all tests performed:

• Super Cookies
• Canvas fingerprinting
• Screen Size and Color Depth
• Browser extensions
• Timezone
• Do Not Track Header
• HTTP Accept Headers
• Webgl fingerprinting
• Tongue
• System fonts
• Platform
• User agent
• Touch support
• Cookies

Unfortunately, even in the second version, Panopticlick does not check all the parameters by which you can track the user. For example, there is no check for IP address leakage through WebRTC .

The Electronic Frontier Foundation strongly encourages all users to install the online surveillance tools available on their platform, such as Privacy Badger , Disconnect, and AdBlock .