Privacy Tools

Let's start simple, with the user agent string. This is what your browser ("user agent") reports itself as, and reveals the following basic information about your system.

Device

Browser

Operating System

All browsers have a global property called "navigator", which reveals further information about your system.

Browser Platform

Language Preference

Processor Cores

Plugins

Browsers allow limited access to your browsing history, including the page you've just come from.

Previous Page

History Items

All requests that are made to the server contain headers, called request headers. These tell the server information about what your browser is prepared to accept.

Data Type

Language

Encoding

Character Set

Modern browsers allow pages to create a canvas, on which it can draw items, which can also leak data.

Renderer

Vendor

Version

Fingerprint

Modern browsers give access to your battery status, without requesting permission. As your battery level only changes slowly, it can be used to create a fingerprint which can track you between sites.

Status

Level

Time Remaining

Modern browsers give access to your display information, without requesting permission. This information can be used to create a fingerprint which uniquely identifies your device.

Screen Size

Device Pixel Ratio

Colour Depth

Touchscreen

Orientation

Modern browsers give access to your approximate location and device position, without requesting permission. This is done without using GPS, which is more accurate, but does require permission to be granted.

Timezone

Situation

Location

There are many free services that can be used to determine your IP address and details of your Internet Service Provider (ISP).

IP Address

ISP Name

Location

There are methods of determining various other accounts that you may be currently logged into.

Gmail

Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

GitHub

Reddit

Tumblr

It is possible to test to see which fonts are installed on your computer or aliased by your browser. This information can be used to create a fingerprint which uniquely identifies your device.

Font List

It is possible to test which types of storage your browser makes available. This information can be used to create a fingerprint which uniquely identifies your device.

Session Storage

Local Storage

Indexed Database

User Data

Cookies

You can ask websites not to track you, by sending the "do not track" header with your requests. Some companies have committed to respecting this, but many more have not yet.

Browser Support

Browser Setting

Request Sent

Using the values from above which are less likely to change, the following fingerprint has been created. This should be unique to your device/browser, and should be the same if you leave this page and return. This proves that it is possible to track you, using this fingerprint.

Fingerprint (v1)

Visual Representation