exposedbydefault
Security and privacy
browser fingerprinting
SHOW HN2025
275points
90comments
#204of 3,837 in 2025
Top 6%of 2025 by points
How HN took it
MixedNo clear lean
4 positive, 21 neutral or asking, 1 mixed, 17 critical, out of 43 comments about the project. Thread score -0.29.
Execution: 0 for, 14 againstIdea: 2 for, 3 againstPrivacy: 2 for, 0 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Audio nearby-voices estimate is interesting
From 1 comment
This is really cool, the audio thing estimating how many voices are nearby is sort of terrifying
taxking on HN
Objections
Unique fingerprint ID changes on every reload, so it is not useful for identification
From 4 comments
If you reload the page a few times, and you're using a modern browser, you'll almost certainly find it's a different fingerprint every time. Most modern browsers add in a…
jedberg on HNThe same applies to macOS. Safari produces a unique fingerprint ID every time, and Firefox also has a different fingerprint ID with every visit. If the fingerprint ID is unique…
reconnecting on HNIt's unique but changes on each reload. While the details are interesting, the fingerprint itself is not useful.
Sayrus on HNthis seems incredibly variable as to be almost useless as any type of "fingerprint" - running the latest version of Chrome on Android, the ID at the top of the page changes each…
bstsb on HN
Uniqueness numbers are exaggerated and not based on real population data
From 2 comments
There's a mis-understanding of at least the Graphics part. For example WebGPU features. It looks like lots of info https://webgpureport.org/ But, they are bucketed…
greggman65 on HNIt's highly unlikely they obtained 17 billion samples, so they're likely guesstimating it by assuming each attribute is independent, and summing the entropy of all attributes.…
gruez on HN
Some reported values are wrong, such as OS version and currency
From 4 comments
It reports that my OS is Windows 10 on two different browsers, even though my OS is Windows 7.
stevetron on HNOn my iPhone that has iOS 26 installed, the page says my device is on iOS 18.7 Am I missing something? That doesn’t math the way math should math.
not4uffin on HNThe currency and telephone number prefix info is highly misleading. Those are being assumed based on my IP, not being reported by the browser. Knowing some of this data is…
TazeTSchnitzel on HN"System Platform" : "MacIntel" Even though the Graphics Renderer is "Apple M1, or similar".
Tacite on HN
Requests
Show per-attribute uniqueness statistics
From 2 comments
Interesting! For me it says 1 in 17,179,869,184+, but scrolling through all the variables, the vast majority should be the same for any MacBook Chrome user. It would be great to…
oersted on HNI would love to be able to toggle an attribute off/on to see what affect each has on the uniqueness of my fingerprint. My guess is that there are a handful of _very_ unique…
jspash on HN
Show population-based comparison of uniqueness
From 2 comments
I'm really frustrated with these types of websites because they tell me nothing. What I'd love for these sites to do is help me understand where I am distributionally. How unique…
godelski on HNYou're 100% right. The raw fingerprint dumps alone are not actually useful unless you can compare them to a population. And creating that comparison is far harder than people…
coffeecoders on HN
Questions
How is the unique fingerprint ID and uniqueness calculated?
From 2 comments
Super interesting project! Out of curiosity, how do you calculate Unique Fingerprint ID and Canvas Deep Fingerprint Hash?
BinaryIgor on HNHow is uniqueness of devices even calculated?
potato-peeler on HN
Does it expose latitude and longitude?
From 1 comment
Does I expose my latitude and longitude after visiting a url?
informal007 on HN
Alternatives named
EFF Cover Your Tracks
From 2 comments
EFF has a similar tool: https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/ No idea how representative either tool is.
alentred on HN> What I'd love for these sites to do is help me understand where I am distributionally. How unique am I? On what? Help me understand what needs to be fixed and what my threat…
Phelinofist on HN
CreepJS
From 1 comment
Hi HN, I’ve been experimenting with ways to reduce my browser fingerprint and exploring techniques to anonymize fingerprint data. So I built this. This is kind of like a lighter,…
coffeecoders on HN
amiunique.org
From 2 comments
amiunique.org shows percentages of values
cocainemonster on HNHere's another one: https://amiunique.org/fingerprint It's important to point out fingerprinting, yet no ordinary user cares.
SeriousM on HN
scrapfly browser fingerprint tool
From 1 comment
Here's another one: https://scrapfly.io/web-scraping-tools/browser-fingerprint They actually delve much deeper, with a wealth of additional data and interesting details. For…
joahnn_s on HN