Browser Fingerprinting
How Websites Track Your Browser Fingerprint
Follow fingerprinting from signal collection to visit correlation, including normalization, false matches and the limits of a browser test.
By BrowserCheakStep 1: collect observable signals
A visit can expose request headers, network egress and environment values read by page JavaScript. These come from different layers: a User Agent is a claim, Canvas is a rendering result and HTTP egress is a network observation. They differ in reliability and in what makes them change.
Step 2: normalize and compare
A system may normalize fields, exclude unstable values and compute a hash. It can then match an exact hash or compare only selected fields. These are design choices: the hash shown by one test site need not use the algorithm used by another system.
Step 3: combine other evidence
Account logins, cookies or network signals may be combined with a fingerprint to correlate sessions. Similar results do not prove the same user, and shared devices can create false matches. BrowserCheak shows signals but cannot determine whether another site stored or correlated your visits.
How to investigate a change
Compare browser version, Canvas, WebGL, screen and language individually rather than relying on one combined hash. If only the VPN changed, expect changes mainly at the network layer. After a graphics driver update, inspect graphics fields first.