arXiv:1703.05066cs.CR
Not All Browsers Are Created Equal: Comparing Web Browser Fingerprintability
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Abstract
Browsers and their users can be tracked even in the absence of a persistent IP address or cookie. Unique and hence identifying pieces of information, making up what is known as a fingerprint, can be collected from browsers by a visited website, e.g. using JavaScript. However, browsers vary in precisely what information they make available, and hence their fingerprintability may also vary. In this paper, we report on the results of experiments examining the fingerprintable attributes made available by a range of modern browsers. We tested the most widely used browsers for both desktop and mobile platforms. The results reveal significant differences between browsers in terms of their fingerprinting potential, meaning that the choice of browser has significant privacy implications.
There are a variety of uses that a website operator might make of a User-Agent header. Today, many of those uses are associated with identifying computer users, usually for tracking and/or advertising purposes, sometimes for access control, e.g., limiting access to only…
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