[privacy]2026-01-015 min read
How browser fingerprinting identifies you without cookies
The signals behind the footprint scanner on this site, and what you can do to reduce them.
The signals
Screen size, timezone, language, GPU model, installed fonts and the exact way your browser draws text on a canvas are each common on their own. Combined, they are often unique.
Turning signals into an ID
Sites concatenate the values and hash them. The same browser produces the same hash on every visit, even with cookies cleared.
javascript
const data = [canvas.toDataURL(), gpu, screen.width, tz].join('|');
const id = await crypto.subtle.digest('SHA-256', new TextEncoder().encode(data));Reducing your footprint
Browsers with built-in fingerprinting protection randomise or standardise some of these values. Fewer extensions and default settings also make you blend in. Try the scanner to see your own signals.
#privacy#fingerprinting