Browser Fingerprinting

[Mark Lee]

Operating system: Windows 11
Browser version: Pale Moon 33.8.2
Problem URL: 64-bit
Browser theme (if not default): Past Modern Revisited 2.10.2
Installed add-ons: HTTPS Always, Adblock Latitude
Installed plugins: (about:plugins):No additions have been made to "native" applications in Pale Moon other than those specified in Windows as default applications."

If possible, please include the output of help->troubleshooting information (as text): N/A


From what I have read, Browser Fingerprinting is the latest incarnation of electronic surveillance/snooping since tracking cookies. What does the “Poison canvas data” option (Tools > Preferences > Privacy > Tracking) actually do and can its capability be enhanced by selecting other options? Thanks.
Mark Lee

[Moonchild]

In a nutshell:

Pale Moon has pioneered and offers a poisoning option to poison data gathered from reading in rendered images from DOM Canvases, a common technique to fingerprint the specific combination of graphics hardware and operating system. What this does is it injects human-imperceptible noise into the canvas image when it is being read into data objects, effectively giving a unique fingerprint for each visit which is very effective at making tracking very hard or impossible based on this common technique. What's more, it makes it hard for the trackers to know which tracked fingerprints are legitimate and which are bogus, leading to a global reduction in useful data for all visitors, not just the ones who poison.

I've also updated the Help page for the privacy category in preferences (Help button) to reflect this. It was a bit outdated and didn't provide an explanation before now.

You should be able to find a considerably more detailed explanation here on the forum as I have made several posts about it.

[Gemmaugr]

In a nutshell:

Pale Moon has pioneered and offers a poisoning option to poison data gathered from reading in rendered images from DOM Canvases, a common technique to fingerprint the specific combination of graphics hardware and operating system. What this does is it injects human-imperceptible noise into the canvas image when it is being read into data objects, effectively giving a unique fingerprint for each visit which is very effective at making tracking very hard or impossible based on this common technique. What's more, it makes it hard for the trackers to know which tracked fingerprints are legitimate and which are bogus, leading to a global reduction in useful data for all visitors, not just the ones who poison.

I've also updated the Help page for the privacy category in preferences (Help button) to reflect this. It was a bit outdated and didn't provide an explanation before now.

You should be able to find a considerably more detailed explanation here on the forum as I have made several posts about it.

The Durstenfeld shuffle for the addon order is also still in effect, yes?

[Gemmaugr]

Operating system: Windows 11
Browser version: Pale Moon 33.8.2
Problem URL: 64-bit
Browser theme (if not default): Past Modern Revisited 2.10.2
Installed add-ons: HTTPS Always, Adblock Latitude
Installed plugins: (about:plugins):No additions have been made to "native" applications in Pale Moon other than those specified in Windows as default applications."

HTTP always isn't really needed. viewtopic.php?f=65&t=28765&p=231542#p231542 and a forum search here should give more info as to why.

Same with Adblock Latitude, except that it's basically been sun-setted for uCyborg's uBlock Origin (available from the addon page). viewtopic.php?f=46&t=32037

You might also want to consider Pure URL, DeCDN, and eMatrix.

Other About:config settings I've changed are;

dom.idle-observers-api.enabled false (disable idle (mous+keyboard) observation)

device.sensors.enabled false (disable device sensor API - fingerprinting vector - https://wiki.mozilla.org/Sensor_API)

dom.keyboardevent.code.enabled false (disable keyboard tracking)

You can test here:

https://www.deviceinfo.me/

https://noscriptfingerprint.com/

https://abrahamjuliot.github.io/creepjs/

https://browserleaks.com/

https://browseraudit.com/

https://amiunique.org/

https://fingerprint.pet-portal.eu/?menu=1#

https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/

https://privacy.net/analyzer/

https://www.browserscan.net/

https://webbrowsertools.com/canvas-fingerprint/

and your adblock here:

https://adblock-tester.com/

https://canyoublockit.com/

https://blockads.fivefilters.org/

http://raymondhill.net/ublock/tests.html

https://d3ward.github.io/toolz/adblock.html

[Moonchild]

The Durstenfeld shuffle for the addon order is also still in effect, yes?

Yes, but that's not really something that can be configured. it's always-on.

[Moonchild]

By the way:
https://webbrowsertools.com/canvas-fingerprint/
Is completely fooled by my method with poisoning on.
The fingerprint will change uniquely but the page can't detect it. And the fingerprint doesn't change when there's no useful information to be had from it anyway (the solid 100% red box) so it thinks it isn't spoofed, even if it tries explicitly to detect noise.

[Goodydino]

Why does deviceinfo tell me my CPU has 16 cores? It has 8 cores.

[Moonchild]

Why does deviceinfo tell me my CPU has 16 cores? It has 8 cores.

Does it have hyperthreading? if so, that will double the hardware concurrency.

[Pelican]

https://webbrowsertools.com/canvas-fingerprint/

Interesting... Pale Moon, Firefox and Chrome reported the same fingerprint. So its per device and not browser?

No its not... I got the same fingerprint on a my notepad.

[Mark Lee]

Thank you all! Now I understand a bit more of the "What". For me, the specifics of the "How" are more vague, but that does not matter. I am on the right track (as you have confirmed) and that is what does matter.
Mark Lee

[Moonchild]

Interesting... Pale Moon, Firefox and Chrome reported the same fingerprint. So its per device and not browser?

Did you enable poisoning in preferences -> privacy -> tab "tracking"? It's off by default because it has a pretty substantial performance impact.

[Pelican]

Did you enable poisoning in preferences -> privacy -> tab "tracking"?

No. I was more interested in seeing if their fingerprinting could actually identify individual users.

[Mark Lee]

Moonchild;
Yes, on a hunch, I had turned-on "poisoning" . I am using, however, a laptop with an i7-1260 core, so I have not felt any performance 'drag', even when using multiple applications. I say that only because it might be helpful in determining the option setting (on or off) for future releases of Pale Moon. Personally, I would champion setting the Preferences -> Privacy -> Tab "tracking" on, because of the dramatic up-swing of electronic tracking.
Mark Lee