System fingerprint: a passive, cross-browser user tracking that works even in private mode

Web browsing software needs to share system information with the visited web services. However, shared information can characterize the user’s system, and therefore allow individual identification, even in private browsing mode or after deleting HTTP and Flash cookies. In our tests, even a Firefox-based anonymous web browser could be tracked with the same identifier that was assigned to other browsers of the same system.

If you would like to test this tracking feature of your browser, just click on the link below! (Please note that the test is in an experimental phase and you may get different IDs in some rare cases.) After the analysis, the test computes an identifier for your system, which we call the system fingerprint. If you like, you can compare these IDs in different browsers, and even in private browsing mode.

Please read our principles on the management of collected data. If you do not agree, do not test your system! Thank you.

 

Start the test: I want my fingerprint!

 

During the test we analyze and collect the following data:

  • the IP address in an encrypted form
  • name of the operating system
  • screen resolution
  • time zone setting
  • detected font list of the system
  • user agent string
  • time of the test
  • the system fingerprint

We treat the collected data confidentially, and we do not share it with any third parties. The sole objective of the data collection is to test the uniqueness of the generated identifiers, and to determine whether this user tracking method is viable or not. After finishing our tests we are going to delete all collected data.

Thank you for your support! If you are interested in the results, please check back later.

(Our idea was inspired by the Panopticlick project. However, instead of browser fingerprints we intend to test the viability of system fingerprints without using any plugins of the browser.)

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