What is a browser fingerprint

How websites identify users

A browser fingerprint is a unique user identifier generated using device and browser parameters. Instead of personal data, websites analyze technical characteristics: information about the device, browser, and network connection.

For example, a screen resolution of 1920×1080 or the UTC+3 time zone is shared by millions of users. However, the combination of dozens of different parameters creates a far more unique dataset that may occur only once among hundreds of thousands or even millions of users. That is enough for accurate user identification.

When you visit a website, a script queries your browser, which voluntarily provides technical information because it is required for proper content rendering. The process is invisible to the user and does not require permission.

A fingerprint looks like a 32-bit hexadecimal value, for example: b2cf59b36581399ebf54d4ab425ac4a7. It is generated from a set of device and browser parameters. Some developers claim that browser fingerprinting can identify users in 99.5% of cases. Moreover, even using a VPN or proxy will not prevent websites from recognizing you, as your digital fingerprint remains unchanged because the core combination of parameters is still the same, even when your IP address changes.

Information included in a digital fingerprint

A digital fingerprint includes dozens of parameters. Here are the main ones:

Browser settings

• User-Agent: a string that tells the website the browser type, its version, and operating system.

• Client Hints: an HTTP extension that allows the browser to provide servers hints about itself only upon explicit request.

• Interface language and preferred content language.

• Time zone: determined by the system settings of the device.

Screen and graphics

• Screen resolution.

• Canvas API: the browser renders a hidden image and creates a hash from it. Different devices with different GPUs and drivers produce different hashes.

• WebGL: information about the graphics card (GPU), its manufacturer and driver.

Fonts

• A list of installed fonts: both system fonts and fonts loaded through CSS.

Device configuration

• CPU core count (hardwareConcurrency).

• RAM size (approximate, with rounding and certain limitations).

• OS and platform: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS.

• Audio context: sound processing characteristics.

Network parameters

• IP address and, based on it, geolocation and ISP.

• VPN or proxy usage, detected through additional checks.

You can check what your digital fingerprint looks like using services such as Pixelscan, BrowserLeaks, and Creepjs. They will also show which parameters may appear suspicious to website owners.

What are digital fingerprints for?

Digital fingerprints are used to identify devices and analyze user behavior. Here are the main areas where they are applied:

Security and fraud prevention

The primary use case for fingerprinting is security. Banks, payment systems, crypto exchanges, iGaming platforms, and marketplaces analyze device fingerprints to:

• detect bots and automated scripts;

• fight multi-accounting;

• block hacking attempts and password brute-forcing;

• identify suspicious transaction activity.

Advertising and marketing

Advertising networks such as Google Ads and Facebook Ads, along with website owners, use digital fingerprints to analyze user behavior. Thanks to the uniqueness of fingerprints, websites can identify each visitor and track which pages they view, how long they stay, what interests them, and what does not.

This data makes it possible to:

• build behavioral profiles for targeted advertising;

• distinguish real users from bots;

• improve websites based on analytics.

Regulatory compliance

Some industries are required to verify their customers under KYC (Know Your Customer) and AML (Anti-Money Laundering) regulations. A digital fingerprint adds device-level information to standard identity verification.

Personalization and user convenience

Websites should be displayed correctly across different devices. For example, if a website has a mobile version, it can use the digital fingerprint to determine that the visitor is using a smartphone and display the mobile layout. Websites also remember user preferences and simplify authorization.

Why it is difficult to avoid tracking

Fingerprinting does not require storing data on the user’s device, which makes this identification method difficult to detect and hard to bypass. Even if you change your IP address, the fingerprint remains almost unchanged.

Data is collected passively

Users do not see the data collection process: there are no banners, permission requests, or notifications. Scripts run in the background, and the only way to disable them is partial or complete JavaScript blocking at the browser-core level, which negatively affects website functionality and is easy to detect.

At the same time, the browser and system parameters sent to servers are an essential part of how browsers function when loading web pages.

Many parameters are difficult to change

You cannot quickly change your GPU model, RAM, or CPU. Modifying these parameters requires replacing hardware or deeply reconfiguring the system, which is inconvenient and often impossible.

Fingerprinting is resistant to bypassing attempts

Incognito mode in browsers only disables local storage of history and cookies. It does not hide your digital fingerprint. Websites still see all your browser parameters.

High identification accuracy

Modern browser fingerprinting libraries such as FingerprintJS collect up to 40–50 parameters. That is enough for reliable user identification. Developers also claim they can recognize users even after they change their browsers or devices.

Widespread adoption

According to research, Canvas fingerprinting is used on more than 12.7% of the top 20,000 websites. Major browsers do not provide built-in comprehensive protection against it. Google Chrome, for example, does not actively prevent fingerprinting, citing legitimate use cases, including bot protection.

How to change your browser fingerprint

Manually

You can change some fingerprint parameters yourself through your device or browser settings. For example, you can switch your time zone and languages, change your screen resolution, and install new fonts. However, some parameters—such as RAM size, GPU, or CPU—can only be changed by switching to different hardware. Because of this, manually changing parameters provides only a minimal level of protection.

What else you can do:

• disable JavaScript, although this will break the functionality of most modern websites;

• use the “Do Not Track” mode, although websites are not required to honor it;

• periodically use different browsers for different tasks.

Manual fingerprint changing methods do not provide real online anonymity. They reduce the amount of information in your fingerprint, but they do not fully spoof it.

Proxies

A proxy server acts as an intermediary between you and a website. It replaces your IP with its own address. All other fingerprint parameters remain unchanged.

What a proxy can do:

• hide your real IP address and, as a result, your geolocation;

• allow you to imitate a different location.

What a proxy cannot do:

• change your browser fingerprint: the website still sees your screen resolution, installed fonts, GPU data, and other parameters.

A proxy changes only one out of dozens of parameters. That alone is not enough to hide your identity.

VPN

A VPN (Virtual Private Network), like a proxy, changes your IP address. A VPN also encrypts incoming and outgoing traffic between your device and the VPN server.

What a VPN can do:

• hide your real IP address;

• encrypt traffic from your ISP;

• allow you to bypass geo-restrictions.

What a VPN cannot do:

• change your browser fingerprint.

A VPN protects the data transmission channel, but it does not affect other parameters websites can still see, besides your IP address.

Anti-detect browsers

An anti-detect browser, such as Octo Browser, allows you to create virtual profiles by spoofing more than 50 parameters of your real device fingerprint. This is the safest and most reliable way to change your browser fingerprint. Each virtual profile is isolated from the others and has its own fingerprint, just like a regular website visitor.

Octo Browser addresses the browser fingerprinting problem at the system level:

• Profile isolation: each account operates in a separate environment.

• Device emulation: you can precisely configure fingerprint parameters.

• You can add proxies and/or use a system-wide VPN to spoof your IP address.

Why use an anti-detect browser

An anti-detect browser is necessary if you work with multiple accounts or need to bypass bans.

To maintain online anonymity

If you need to protect your privacy online, an anti-detect browser gives you full control over your browser fingerprint. Octo spoofs all major fingerprint parameters at the browser kernel level. Your real device remains hidden.

Octo Browser does not block user identification mechanisms. Instead, it provides fingerprints of real devices capable of passing any checks. The spoofing quality and the absence of data leaks are confirmed by anonymity test results on popular checkers such as Pixelscan and CreepJS, proving the high reliability of Octo Browser.

For businesses and marketing

Marketers, affiliates, SEO specialists, SMM managers, and marketplace sellers manage dozens of accounts. Companies such as Meta and Amazon constantly update their user identification algorithms. They continue strengthening security controls on their platforms and increasingly rely on automated moderation systems. Platforms detect that all accounts are being accessed from the same device and ban them all for multi-accounting. As a result, users permanently lose accounts over minor violations.

Octo Browser efficiently solves this problem, helps protect online anonymity, and bypasses already existing restrictions. You can create an unlimited number of browser profiles with different fingerprints that websites will perceive as different users with different devices.

For secure work in sensitive niches

In cryptocurrency, fintech, and e-commerce, browser fingerprints are used to detect suspicious activity. Using an anti-detect browser helps avoid false positives and automatically triggered bans.

Cybersecurity specialists also use such browsers to test system security, safely research competitors, and perform other tasks where anonymity is critical.

Conclusions

A browser fingerprint is an identification technology based on collecting technical parameters of a browser and device. Unlike cookies, a device fingerprint cannot be deleted. It is difficult to change and almost impossible to bypass without using specialized software.

There are different approaches to maintaining online anonymity. Manually changing some parameters has only a limited effect: e.g., proxies and VPNs hide your IP address, but they do not prevent the collection of other elements included in your browser fingerprint.

Octo Browser is a professional fingerprint spoofing solution. It allows you to create an unlimited number of virtual profiles. This is vitally important for multi-accounting and for users who require real online anonymity.