this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2025
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Browser Fingerprinting And Why VPNs Won’t Make You Anonymous (hackaday.com)
submitted 2 days ago by tonytins@pawb.social to c/technology@lemmy.world
103 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Amidst the glossy marketing for VPN services, it can be tempting to believe that the moment you flick on the VPN connection you can browse the internet with full privacy. Unfortunately this is quite far from the truth, as interacting with internet services like websites leaves a significant fingerprint. In a study by [RTINGS.com] this browser fingerprinting was investigated in detail, showing just how easy it is to uniquely identify a visitor across the 83 laptops used in the study.

As summarized in the related video (also embedded below), the start of the study involved the Am I Unique? website which provides you with an overview of your browser fingerprint. With over 4.5 million fingerprints in their database as of writing, even using Edge on Windows 10 marks you as unique, which is telling.

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[–] Blackfeathr@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (4 children)

Does that mean my ISP can still detect if I'm going to websites they don't approve of if I'm using Mullvad as my VPN but using Firefox as my browser?

[–] GreenShimada@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Not your ISP. Google likely is the one following that. If you have uBlock Origin installed, click on the badge on any site and you'll see which trackers there are. For Lemmy, it's just going to list other lemmy instances. When you're on that forbidden site, see if they have any Google analytics trackers - those are what will fingerprint you.

Then go to amiunique.org or hidemytracks.eff.org and see what information you're giving up. Vanilla FF gives up fonts, sound card info, and graphics info, which are enough to pin you to specific hardware. If your machine isn't extremely common, then Google knows it's you.

Why not download the Mullvad browser? It's free, and you're paying for its development if you're paying for the VPN.

[–] Blackfeathr@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

I'll give that a try, thank you!

[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 20 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

No, with a VPN the only thing your ISP sees is you connecting to a VPN server IP.

But browser finger printing, on the other hand, can identify you to every website you visit, due to info your browser hands over to every website... Such as OS version, Resolution, installed Plugins, browser settings, geolocation info, etc..which is often unique enough to identify you out of the whole of the internet.

Ironically, locking your browser down with more security features/settings/plugins often makes you more identifiable. Cause capitalism is god damned sure they are gonna track you and monetize the hell out of your information, whether its via your name, your user name, or just your digital fingerprint.

https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/

[–] LucidNightmare@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 days ago

I'm always a little shocked at what my browsing habits prevent from these types of things. Thanks for sharing! I feel a little better about my browsing usage!

[–] Blackfeathr@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

Jesus, this is scary stuff. Thanks for the link, gonna try my other browsers and devices when I get home.

[–] WolfLink@sh.itjust.works 16 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Your ISP can’t tell who you are contacting if you are using a VPN, but websites will track you by other means.

[–] Blackfeathr@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Ok, cool. It was mainly my ISP I was worried about.

Would be useful for me to find a browser that obfuscated fingerprinting efforts too though.

[–] limerod@reddthat.com 4 points 2 days ago

If you use addons like Ublock-origin. You can reduce the fingerprinting. You can also disable 3rd party iframes, disable Javascript which can further reduce the data being sent to websites.