Browser Fingerprinting: The Tracking You Can't Block with an Ad-Blocker
What Is Browser Fingerprinting?
Browser fingerprinting is a technique for identifying users based on the unique combination of attributes exposed by their browser. Unlike cookies, fingerprints require no storage on your device and leave no trace you can clear. The browser voluntarily shares dozens of parameters with every site it visits: user-agent string, screen dimensions, colour depth, installed plugins, timezone, language settings, canvas rendering output, WebGL renderer, audio processing behaviour, and more.
Why It Works So Well
Each individual attribute is unremarkable. Millions of people share the same screen resolution. But the intersection of 20+ attributes produces a value that is statistically unique to a tiny fraction of users. Studies suggest that canvas fingerprinting alone correctly identifies around 5% of browsers; combined with other signals the accuracy approaches 99%. The technique works across private browsing sessions, cleared cookies, and even different browsers on the same device if the hardware is the same.
Canvas and WebGL Fingerprinting
When JavaScript asks the browser to render a hidden canvas element with a specific font and graphic operation, the result varies subtly based on the GPU, driver version, and OS rendering pipeline. This output is consistent across sessions for a given device but differs between devices. Hashing it produces a short identifier that trackers store server-side. WebGL does the same with 3D rendering — querying the renderer string and running benchmark draws.
What You Can Do
Ad-blockers block known tracker scripts but can't prevent the browser from answering API calls made by first-party code. The most effective countermeasures are: using a browser that adds deliberate noise to fingerprinting APIs (Firefox with resistFingerprinting, or Tor Browser), using a proxy that strips identifying headers before requests reach the destination, and avoiding rare configurations — the more common your setup, the less unique your fingerprint.
How Proxy24 Helps
When you browse through Proxy24, JavaScript on the destination page runs against our server-side renderer, not your local browser. The fingerprint that gets exposed belongs to our infrastructure, not your device. Your GPU model, installed fonts, screen DPI, and audio stack are never queried by the destination site. Combined with IP masking, this removes the two most common signals trackers rely on.