StopFingerprinting

Web browser fingerprinting can be used by the websites to track the website visitors and build their profiles. In order to understand how this fingerprinting mechanism works, and provide corresponding protection we have developed a web browser extension StopFingerpinting.

The ultimate goal of the extension is to provide the protection from fingerprinting techniques. As a first step, StopFingerprinting extension is gathering the browser fingerprints (similar to those collected by Panopticlick) in order to analyse the stability of browser fingerprints.

The browser extension you are about to install only accesses user’s browser and operating system properties enlisted below and consequently sends the collected data to a secure server at INRIA. This data will only be used for research purposes inside INRIA and will not be shared with anyone outside of INRIA.

Information collected:

+ UserAgent
+ IP address
+ HTTP headers sent to the server
+ UserAgent reported by navigator object
+ Browser plugin details
+ Date and time information
+ Navigator language
+ Screen resolution
+ Color and pixel depth
+ System fonts
+ Cookie enabled
+ Java enabled
+ DoNotTrack enabled
+ Mime types
+ Math constants
+ IP as reported by flash to the server (it ignores proxy settings).
+ If accessibility is enabled.
+ Vidio driver compatibily with Flash Player.
+ Locales avialable in the system.
+ Cameras information including their name, bandwidth.
+ Microphones information including their codecs, gain, silence level, noise suppression level, and more.
+ If DRM is supported.
+ If there is an accelerometer enabled.
+ If Flash’s security settings are working in stricter (aka “exact”) mode.
+ If there are virtual and physical keyboards.
+ The default mouse cursor mode.
+ If Flash context menu APIs are available.
+ The list of fonts as reported by Flash.
+ If Flash Local Shared Storage is available.
+ Information about GPU video acceleration capabilities.
+ If multitouch is enabled, how much touchpoints and which gestures does it support.
+ CPU architecture.
+ Flash player’s version, manufacturer and debugging options information.
+ The system language as reported by Flash.
+ The OS and its version as reported by Flash.
+ The screen size, resoluction, color depth and pixel density as reported by Flash.
+ Video and audio codecs information.