browser fingerprinting privacy concern

I always kinda knew about browser fingerprinting but never really looked into it and its actually more scary than I thought.

Every time you visit a website your browser gives away alot of data about your device. Things like your browser type and version, the operating system you use, your screen resolution, time zone, the fonts you have installed, plugins, how your computer draws stuff (canvas/webgl), even small things like how your audio is processed or if you have a touchscreen.

Alone these things are not that special but when you put them all together they can become unique enough to spot you out of millions. So basically its like a real fingerprint but for your device.

Websites just run a small script in the background and collect all this without you seeing anything. Most of the time the data is sold to advertisers or data brokers who then sell it again to whoever wants it. That can be companies (probably palantir..) trying to target ads, build detailed profiles on you, or even shady buyers who just want as much info on people as they can get.

The worst part is once this fingerprint is made it can be stored forever and combined with other data like your purchases or location. You will never get a popup or anything, its just happening in the background all the time.

You cant really stop it completely but you can make it harder. Use browsers like Firefox with Enhanced Tracking Protection, Brave or Tor. Remove plugins you dont need, turn off weird extras like custom fonts. A VPN hides your IP but it doesnt stop fingerprinting. There are also extensions that can randomize your fingerprint.

And yeah the scary part is this works across different websites and doesnt care if you reject cookies or go incognito. In many cases the data ends up somewhere and you have no idea that it is being viewed, sold, saved and used to identify or advertise to you.

And if you want to check your own fingerprint you can try it on my website prismprivacy.com. It shows your browser fingerprint, your ip location and you can even find trackers in your emails. Everything runs in the browser and no data is sent anywhere. I built it as a small side project to learn more about privacy and show how much info you leak without even noticing.