this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2023
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Privacy
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can someone explain extension fingerprinting to me? i’ve always heard about it, but to my layman brain it doesn’t make sense that a locally executed modification of css (in the case of dark reader) gives any kind of data to the site host. i guess for ublock it makes more sense since i’m guessing that has to do with blocking specific requests from going out in the first place, or what?
"What is a digital fingerprint? A digital fingerprint is essentially a list of characteristics that are unique to a single user, their browser, and their particular hardware setup. This includes information the browser needs to send to access websites, like the location of the website the user is requesting. But it also includes a host of seemingly insignificant data (like screen resolution and installed fonts) gathered by tracking scripts. Tracking sites can stitch all the small pieces together to form a unique picture, or "fingerprint," of your device." - https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/learn
you can also test your browser there to see what information you are exposing
but where do extensions come into the picture? i apologize if i’m missing something obvious here, but the only thing that article says about extensions is that blocking specific trackers counts as fingerprint data. but the VAST majority of my extensions aren’t blocking anything, they just customize the pages
Having more extensions makes your browser fingerprint more unique, making it easier to tell you apart from other users.
i’m comprehending that much, but i don’t understand how extensions “announce” themselves to the websites (except for content blockers). does my browser send a number corresponding to the amount of extensions i have installed? or are they listed out individually by hash or name?
Not necessarily announce their existence. There's some way for websites to communicate with extension like explained here. IMO, a sufficiently motivated actor can use this to add additional data point for fingerprinting.
Although most of the methods are only applicable if you're using Chrome or Chromium based browsers and Firefox has disabled the methods commonly used to extract information from the browser.
that is a great relief to hear, thank you :)