Read the paper here: https://panopticlick.eff.org/browser-uniqueness.pdf
Criminy, I thought I was being smart running a boatload of privacy plugins, setting my browser up not to run scripts, accept cookies, nor generally, to give out much information at all about me or my computer.
But now, it turns out, that can be used against me; i.e., my computer is totally unique amongst 1.5 million browsers tested, and therefore, can be tracked across the web based upon this unique fingerprint! Or, as one wag has said, "What a cruel twist of fate, all my plugins designed to give me privacy are being used to identify me!"
They can also track you by IP and location.
That's a problem.
Same with me, except I had to allow their program to send data back.
Mine to seems to be completely unique among the 1.56 million in their database.
So what are the odds that we BOTH have such unique settings?
One thing making mine unique was that I have Java plugins- but who does not?
I think these guys are BUILDING a database of browser characteristics, to use to track people.
In theory that makes sense.... Could indeed be a tell tale.
I do such to avoid the average bs malware etc...
Now you need another plugin to protect all this info ...
Buy a used computer trade-in from a repair shop. It usually has the original buyer`s administrator`s login defaults locked in and defaults to the original buyer`s email address and windows license info. All the upgrades are registered with the administrator.
Here's an easier way of tracking someone - the only way to defeat it is through an anonymizer portal:
Here's what I got:
Within our dataset of several million visitors, only one in 5,628 browsers have the same fingerprint as yours.
Currently, we estimate that your browser has a fingerprint that conveys 12.46 bits of identifying information.
I got the same result as everyone else.
Also, an icon which I’ve never seen before on my computer showed up down in the lower right hand corner of the screen, next to the antivirus icon. Something to do with Java.
Interesting; it seems that the two attributes - at least for the three browsers that I regularly use (FF4, Opera 11, IE9) - that are the most unique are (1) the browser plugin details that are sent in the HTTP headers, and (2) the number of system fonts sent in the HTTP headers.
Other than that, the user-agent string is the next most unique attribute, but it differs among the three; for FF4 it’s not that rare (guess that means a lot of folks switched to FF4 pretty quickly), for Opera it’s a more unique attribute - probably because a lot fewer people use Opera, and for IE9 it’s a very unique attribute, most likely because IE9 is so new and because IE users tend to be slower at upgrading - particularly enterprise users - than FF users or Opera users.
I think I might explore how to stop the browsers from sending out so much info on things that are relatively irrelevant, like system fonts.
I have no idea what the heck this means.
One in 320,000 with scrips off, one in 1.598 Million (unique) with scrips enabled for the Panopticlick site only. Panopticlick kept feeding me suspicious scripts, the latest Java release was going wild with detections.
Interesting, and from the look of it, pretty accurate.
One thing, though...
Using Google Chrome, I get the 1 in 1.5+ million
Using Microsoft IE 9, I get the 1 in 1.5+ million.
Using Firefox with noscript and AdBlock Plus, I get 1 in 17000.
Looks like I’m going back to my locked-down Firefox install.
Within our dataset of several million visitors, only one in 533,751 browsers have the same fingerprint as yours.After taking the test several times, my score gets lower with each test.Currently, we estimate that your browser has a fingerprint that conveys 19.03 bits of identifying information.
This is the latest result:
Within our dataset of several million visitors, only one in 43,285 browsers have the same fingerprint as yours.Either their test is hinky or my browser (Opera) is shutting down identifying characteristics.Currently, we estimate that your browser has a fingerprint that conveys 15.4 bits of identifying information.
Your browser fingerprint appears to be unique among the 1,607,432 tested so far.
Currently, we estimate that your browser has a fingerprint that conveys at least 20.62 bits of identifying information.
WOW! Uniquely identifiable as the only one out of 1.6 million tested!
I have plugins for my Wacom tablet, for Silverlight, Flash, and a bunch of nice fonts I’ve got installed.
Quite an eye-opener!
Ed
Sorry for the delay on this one--I was busy this weekend :)
I originally ran the test with my NoScript turned on, and it returned a 1 in ~600,000. When I turned it off, I was 1 in 1.6M.